Galileo
08-29-2009, 05:20 PM
Sharp and cutting mind
Robert Matthews
August 29. 2009
Today it would hardly pass muster as a child’s toy: a wooden telescope whose crude lenses struggle to give an 8x magnification. But exactly 400 years ago this month, it created a sensation, sparked a scientific revolution and turned its maker into a hero.
The story of how Galileo Galilei turned his telescope to the night sky and incurred the wrath of the authorities is well known. For centuries he has been seen as the quintessential champion of rational science over outdated dogma. Yet the real story of Galileo’s struggles with authority is altogether less Apollonian. At its core is the all too familiar issue of what people will do to keep their jobs.
For his academic contemporaries, Galileo’s principal crime was not heresy but something far more mundane. He debunked the age-old assertions of Aristotle – and thus threatened the livelihoods of those who taught the ancient Greek philosopher’s works as unimpeachable fact. Galileo became the target of a plot which compelled the Vatican to take action and silence their irksome opponent.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090830/OPINION/708299905/1036
Robert Matthews
August 29. 2009
Today it would hardly pass muster as a child’s toy: a wooden telescope whose crude lenses struggle to give an 8x magnification. But exactly 400 years ago this month, it created a sensation, sparked a scientific revolution and turned its maker into a hero.
The story of how Galileo Galilei turned his telescope to the night sky and incurred the wrath of the authorities is well known. For centuries he has been seen as the quintessential champion of rational science over outdated dogma. Yet the real story of Galileo’s struggles with authority is altogether less Apollonian. At its core is the all too familiar issue of what people will do to keep their jobs.
For his academic contemporaries, Galileo’s principal crime was not heresy but something far more mundane. He debunked the age-old assertions of Aristotle – and thus threatened the livelihoods of those who taught the ancient Greek philosopher’s works as unimpeachable fact. Galileo became the target of a plot which compelled the Vatican to take action and silence their irksome opponent.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090830/OPINION/708299905/1036