Cult /
The myth of "Kepler v. Galileo"< The myth of "French v. American Revolutions" : the "Phrygian cap" | OOPS! | The myth of "FDR v. Schacht" > ![]()
Note: Larouche misses the point (and contradicts himself): Galileo shocked the beliefs of his time after he used TECHNOLOGY (a telescope) to see what eyes couldn't! He is rightly considered as the founding father of modern science and scientific method. ![]() "I esteem myself happy to have as great an ally as you in my search for truth. I will read your work ... all the more willingly because I have for many years been a partisan of the Copernican view because it reveals to me the causes of many natural phenomena that are entirely incomprehensible in the light of the generally accepted hypothesis. To refute the latter I have collected many proofs, but I do not publish them, because I am deterred by the fate of our teacher Copernicus who, although he had won immortal fame with a few, was ridiculed and condemned by countless people (for very great is the number of the stupid)."
Letter to Johannes Kepler (1596), as quoted in The Story of Civilization : The Age of Reason Begins, 1558-1648 (1935) by Will Durant, p. 603" After Galileo published his Starry Messenger, Kepler wrote a glowing open letter of admiration to Galileo, and this helped Galileo obtain a post as court mathematician to Cosimo II Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, despite the hostility and skepticism of Italian astronomers about Galileo's findings. In the 1633 trial of Galileo Galilei, two worlds come into cosmic conflict. Galileo's world of science and humanism collides with the world of Scholasticism and absolutism that held power in the Catholic Church. The result is a tragedy that marks both the end of Galileo's liberty and the end of the Italian Renaissance.... (from http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/galileo/galileo.html) Correspondence between Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler [Galileo to Kepler, 1597] ....Like you, I accepted the Copernicun position several years ago and discovered from thence the causes of many natural effects which are doubtless inexplicable by the current theories. I have written up many of my reasons and refutations on the subject, but I have not dared until now to bring them into the open, being warned by the fortunes of Copernicus himself, our master, who procured immortal fame among a few but stepped down among the great crowd (for the foolish are numerous), only to be derided and dishonored. I would dare publish my thoughts if there were many like you; but, since there are not, I shall forebear.... [Kepler to Galileo, 1597] ....I could only have wished that you, who have so profound an insight, would choose another way. You advise
us, by your personal example, and in discreetly veiled fashion, to retreat before the general ignorance and not to
expose ourselves or heedlessly to oppose the violent attacks of the mob of scholars (and in this you follow Plato
and Pythagoras, our true perceptors). But after a tremendous task has been begun in our time, first by
Copernicus and then by many very learned mathematicians, and when the assertion that the Earth moves can no
longer be considered something new, would it not be much better to pull the wagon to its goal by our joint
efforts, now that we have got it under way, and gradually, with powerful voices, to shout down the common
herd, which really does not weigh the arguments very carefully? Thus perhaps by cleverness we may bring it to
a knowledge of the truth. With your arguments you would at the same time help your comrades who endure so
many unjust judgments, for they would obtain either comfort from your agreement or protection from your
influential position. It is not only your Italians who cannot believe that they move if they do not feel it, but we
in Germany also do not by any means endear ourselves with this idea. Yet there are ways by which we protect
ourselves against these difficulties.... The Trial of Galileo http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/galileo/letterkepler.html Papal Condemnation (Sentence) of Galileo (June 22, 1633) Whereas you, Galileo, son of the late Vaincenzo Galilei, Florentine, aged seventy years, were in the year 1615 denounced
to this Holy Office for holding as true the false doctrine taught by some that the Sun is the center of the world and
immovable and that the Earth moves, and also with a diurnal motion; for having disciples to whom you taught the same
doctrine; for holding correspondence with certain mathematicians of Germany concerning the same; for having printed
certain letters, entitled "On the Sunspots," wherein you developed the same doctrine as true; and for replying to the
objections from the Holy Scriptures, which from time to time were urged against it, by glossing the said Scriptures
according to your own meaning: and whereas there was thereupon produced the copy of a document in the form of a
letter, purporting to be written by you to one formerly your disciple, and in this divers propositions are set forth, following
the position of Copernicus, which are contrary to the true sense and authority of Holy Scripture: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/galileo/condemnation.html More at http://www.schillerinstitute.org/fid_91-96/952_venice.html |