Defending Copernicus and Galileo by Maurice A. Finocchiaro

Author:Maurice A. Finocchiaro
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht

8.3 Emblematic Reactions (1633-1642)

If we distinguish the phenomenon of the initial diffusion of news about Galileo’s condemnation from the phenomenon of its initial reception, and if we now focus on the latter, then it is useful to begin with a period (1633-1642) that corresponds to the rest of Galileo’s life after the trial and with four individual reactions of emblematic significance.

1. One of the most immediate and sensational reactions was that of Descartes. He had been on the verge of publishing a cosmological treatise entitled Le Monde, but decided to abort it when he heard of the condemnation in the autumn of 1633. His reason was that the geokinetic thesis was so central to his world view and so interwoven with its other parts that he could not detach that problematic thesis from the rest. And indeed this treatise was never published during his lifetime, but only posthumously in 1665.

However, he soon devised a way of detaching the earth’s motion from the rest of his world view, and he published the latter without the former in his Discourse on Method of 1637. Later, in the Principles of Philosophy of 1644 he even found ways of discussing the topic. One way was to regard the earth’s motion as a hypothesis rather than an assertion, which was a subterfuge that was increasingly being adopted by Catholic scholars in order to ensure that the ecclesiastic prohibitions did not bring research to a complete halt. The other way was for Descartes to adopt a version of the relativity of motion according to which the earth both moved and did not move (from different points of view), which was a way to obfuscate rather than solve the problem.

Finally, at a deeper if more controversial level, it may be argued that the most substantial Cartesian response was a creative reorientation of his thought that forced him to attempt to provide a metaphysical justification of the new heliocentric, geokinetic world system. Until the condemnation of Galileo, he had focused on mathematics and natural philosophy and had arrived at almost all of his major scientific discoveries; afterwards, he focused on first philosophy in order to justify them by embedding them in a metaphysics that provided a viable alternative to the traditional scholastic approach. This intriguing interpretation is due to Stephen Gaukroger, who has defended it with meticulous documentation and cogent arguments. But this account may also be viewed as a refinement and updating of a similar account advanced earlier by Guido Morpurgo-Tagliabue.32 Its implication in this context would be that modern philosophy (if and to the extent that it has been a series of footnotes to Descartes) originates in the condemnation of Galileo.

2. From the point of general human interest, one of the most significant reactions to Galileo’s condemnation was that of his elder daughter Maria Celeste, a nun in the monastery of San Matteo in Arcetri, within walking distance of Galileo’s post-trial residence under house arrest. Anyone who reads her letters to her father cannot help being impressed by her warmth, love, intelligence, sensitivity, and unassuming eloquence.

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