Galileo's Mistake : A New Look at the Epic Confrontation Between Galileo and the Church

The modern understanding of the notorious 1633 trial of Galileo is that of Science and Reason persecuted by Ignorance and Superstition--of Galileo as a lonely, courageous freethinker oppressed by a reactionary and anti-intellectual institution fearful of losing its power and influence. But is this an accurate picture? In his provocative reexamination of one of the turning points in the history of science and thought, Wade Rowland contends that the dispute concerned an infinitely more profound question: What is truth and how can we know it? Rowland demonstrates that Galileo's mistake was to insist that science--and only science--provides the truth about reality. The Church rejected this idea, declaring that while science is valid, truth is a metaphysical issue--beyond physics--and it involves such matters as meaning and purpose, which are unquantifiable and therefore not amenable to scientific analysis. In asserting the primacy of science on the territory of truth, Galileo strayed into the theological realm, an act that put him squarely on a warpath with the Church. The outcome would change the world. Wade Rowland's thoughtful exploration promises to disarm the most stubborn of skeptics and make for scintillating debate Illustration And Photo Credits -- Acknowledgments -- Overture -- Pope Paul V -- Time Of Crisis -- Doctrinal Revolutions -- Dialogue -- Science's Motives -- Curiosity -- Negotiation -- Galileo The Aquarian -- Ptolemy's World -- Comets And Supernova -- Kepler's Genius -- Uses Of Hypotheses -- Young Galileo -- Studies In Motion -- Experimental Method -- Number And Beauty -- Pythagoreans And The Reduction Of Quality To Quantity -- Ferrara And Copernicus -- Reluctant Revolutionary -- Challenging Aristotle -- Stimulating Meeting -- Stagirite -- Primacy Of Mind -- Good -- Deductive Science -- Aristotle's Influence -- Question Of Infinity -- Copernican Caution -- Saving The Appearances -- Padua Years -- Telescopic Discoveries -- Lure Of The Medici-- Jesuits -- Rumors Of Reaction -- Medician Court -- Phases Of Venus -- Sunspot Disputes -- Triumph In Rome -- Cardinal Bellarmine -- Bruno's Heresy -- Infinite Universe -- Aristotle Revisited -- Struggles Of Aquinas -- Return Of Pythagoras --^ Storm Warnings -- Cardinal Barberini -- Conflict Is Joined: Letter To Christina -- Bellarmine's Response -- Under Attack -- Dangerous Mission -- Barberini's Argument -- Defeat In Rome -- Warning -- Dialogue In Venice -- Science's Successes -- Nature Of Knowledge -- Further Dialogue In Venice -- Science And Faith -- Faith And Reality -- Nature Of Progress -- On The Lido -- Problem Of Objectivity -- Reasoning's Recursiveness -- Map And The Territory -- Unfortunate Outburst -- At Santa Maria Maggiore -- Galileo's Conservatism -- Kepler's Heterodoxy -- Remarkable Fresco -- Scientific Testament -- Models Of The World -- Paradox Of Empiricism -- Pope Urban Viii -- Intimations Of Change -- Galileo's Dialogue -- Suppression -- Summons From The Inquisition -- Enigmatic Pope -- Mass In St. Peter's -- Chance Encounter -- Remarkable City -- History's Parochialism -- Uncomplicated Man -- Motives Of Pontiffs -- Dialogue In Vatican City -- Galileo's Rehabilitation -- Learned Ignorance --^ Puzzle Of The Abjuration -- Final Journey To Rome -- Inquisition -- Denial -- Confession -- Sentence -- Judgment And Abjuration -- Unspoken Issues -- Aftermath -- Return To Arcetri -- Discourses On Two New Sciences -- Visit From Hobbes -- Milton's Tribute -- On The Road To Florence -- Galileo's Tomb -- Human Happiness -- Science And Number -- Limits To Scientific Knowledge -- Unfinished Journey -- Appendix: Question Of Galileo's Perjury -- Notes -- Index. Wade Rowland. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. In a revisionist look at the seventeenth-century battle between ecclesiastical authorities and Galileo Galilei, Rowland provocatively challenges the prevailing view of the episode. The central issue for the inquisitors investigating Galileo's orthodoxy, insists Rowland, was never the sun-centered astronomy of Copernicus. No, much broader philosophical issues were at stake. And on these issues, Rowland argues, the church stood closer to the truth than did Galileo. The astronomer erred--in Rowland's judgment--not in his advocacy of Copernican theory but rather in his endorsement of a thoroughgoing mathematical empiricism. And while everyone now agrees with Galileo in accepting Copernicus, the doctrinaire empiricism Galileo deployed to advance Copernicanism looks as shallow and misleading to today's quantum physicists as it once did to the Renaissance theologians who forced Galileo to recant