Description
Springer Galileo Galilei At the Threshold of the Scientific Age 2018 Edition by Wolfgang W. Osterhage
This new scientific biography explores the influences on, and of, Galileo's exceptional work, thereby revealing novel connections with the worldviews of his age and beyond.Galileo Galilei's contribution to science is unquestionable. And his conflict with the church establishment of his time is no less famous. In this book, authored by a physicist and history scholar, Galileo's life and work are described against a backdrop of the prior scientific state of the art in his various fields of achievement. Particular emphasis is placed on Galileo's vision of the world in relation to historic and also future cosmological models. The impact of his discoveries and theories for the later development of physics and astronomy is a further focus of the narrative. Table of contents : Introduction - general outline and scopeTime and Space - Italy just before and during Galileo's lifetime (economy, politics, culture, historical developments), landscapes and peopleEarly Years (1564-1588) - the weight of solid bodies, la bilancettaPisa - gravitational experiments (de motu) in this chapter as in all others following the structure is as follows: state of the art ante, Galileis results, (corresponce), impactPadova - telescope, astronomical discoveriesFlorence - further astronomical discoveries, first positioning to Copernicus, Saggiatore: further conflict potentialCosmological Excursion - world models, Anaximander, Ptolemy, Aristarch, Erastosthenes, Copernicus, KeplerFlorence revisited - Dialogo and ist consequences, correspondence with KeplerFinal Years - DiscorsiConclusions - importance of his contributions (discoveries, methodologies, scientific development, philosophy)