Galileo: Watcher of the Skies
A History, Biography, Science book. he thought that human beings are, by and large, rather nasty. They can rarely be bothered to...
Galileo (1564–1642) is one of the most important and controversial figures in the history of science. A hero of modern science and key to its birth, he was also a deeply divided man: a scholar committed to the establishment of scientific truth yet forced to concede the importance of faith, and a brilliant analyst of the elegantly mathematical workings of nature yet bungling and insensitive with his own family.Tackling Galileo as astronomer, engineer, and author, David Wootton places him at the center of Renaissance culture. He traces Galileo through his early rebellious years; the beginnings of his scientific career constructing a “new physics”; his move to Florence seeking money, status, and greater freedom to attack intellectual orthodoxies; his trial for heresy and narrow escape from torture; and his house arrest and physical (though not intellectual) decline. Wootton reveals much that is new—from Galileo’s premature Copernicanism to a previously unrecognized illegitimate daughter—and, controversially, rejects the long-established orthodoxy which holds that Galileo was a good Catholic.Absolutely central to Galileo’s significance—and to science more broadly—is the telescope, the...
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- Filetype: PDF
- Pages: 354 pages
- ISBN: 9780300125368 / 0
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More About Galileo: Watcher of the Skies
he thought that human beings are, by and large, rather nasty. They can rarely be bothered to help one another, he noted, but are quick to seize any opportunity to do each other down.9 Moreover there was a bias in the world of which he had become acutely aware: most people were ignorant, and nothing provoked the hostility of the ignorant as much as people who knew more than they did.10 Although David Wootton, Galileo: Watcher of the Skies //
Excellent detail in the earlier chapters, but some of the author's conjectures in last two or three chapters concerning Galileo as a Catholic seem off the mark. The first part of this book is a straight forward history of Galileo's life and work which is the best biography that I have read of the man who invented modern science. I give this part of the book 4 stars.Then the last portion of the book gets into the author's assertion that Galileo did not believe in God,without any real evidence.... publishers Weekly Review
