Re: Islamic science and the long siesta

On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:13:29 UTC, "Michael Kuettner" <miksbg@xxxxxxxx>
wrote:


"John Briggs" schrieb :
...

To cut it short and to the point :
Dialogo.
When Galileo was asked

commanded

to write a conclusio favouring the Ptolaemaic system,

No, not one favoring the Ptolemaic system, but a presentation of the
Pope's pet idea of reconciling the theories in that after all, God could
make things look any way He pleased, which didn't have to be the same as
the underlying sacred truth. If you've ever heard of Sir Philip Gosse,
you'll recognize his argument, foreshadowed 250 years ahead.

he reacted by letting "Simplicio" (the idiot)

NB: This is editorial comment, _not_ a translation of the name, which was
taken from the eminent Roman philosopher Simplicius, whom you can look up
in Wikipedia if you have any problems.

state that .

I.e., the orthodox view was stated by the person who had been stating the
orthodox view throughout. A tactical error, to be sure, which got him in
trouble despite the stated opinion of Salviati (Galileo's avatar) that it
was "[an] admirable and angelic doctrine".

By also poking fun
at other well-known dear-held believes of the pope in this conclusio, he had
dabbled in politics.

Would you like to name a couple? I have failed to find them in any of the
several times I've read that passage. Perhaps you've read the original
Italian and found something that was left out of the translation? That
would be most interesting. Feel free to quote the Italian here. We'll be
glad to see it and check it against the published translation.

HTH.

Not very much, frankly.

...
Don't make the pope look like an ass, that's the point ;-)

It is, of course, ridiculous to claim that it was all Papal politics,
considering that Galileo tried to persuade the theologians to *permit*
heliocentric teachings in 1616, 17 years before his big trial, without
success; and that he did this in response to specifically theological
attacks, including the famous sermon on Why do you keep staring at the
stars, you Galileans. (Clever joke, huh?)

--
Dan Drake
dd@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.dandrake.com/
porlockjr.blogspot.com
.

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