Galileo Galilei 
Galileo on the World Systems 
A New Abridged Translation and Guide

Galileo’s 1632 book,
Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican, comes alive for twentieth-century readers thanks to Maurice Finocchiaro’s brilliant new translation and presentation. Condemned by the Inquisition for its heretical proposition that the earth revolves around the sun, Galileo’s masterpiece takes the form of a debate, divided into four ’days, ’ among three highly articulate gentlemen.


Finocchiaro sets the stage with his introduction, which not only provides the human and historical framework for the
Dialogue but also admits the reader gracefully into the basic non-Copernican understanding of the universe that would have been shared by Galileo’s original audience. The translation of the
Dialogue is abridged in order to highlight its essential content, and Finocchiaro gives titles to the various parts of the debate as a guide to the principal topics. By explicating his own critical reading of this text that is itself an exercise in critical reasoning on a gripping real-life controversy, he illuminates those universal, perennial activities of the human mind that make Galileo’s book a living document. This is a concrete, hands-on introduction to critical thinking. The translation has been made from the Italian text provided in volume 7 of the Critical National Edition of Galileo’s complete works edited by Antonio Favaro. The translator has also consulted the 1632 edition, as well as the other previous English translations, including California’s 1967 version.


Galileo on the World Systems is a remarkably nuanced interpretation of a classic work and will give readers the tools to understand and evaluate for themselves one of the most influential scientific books in Western civilization.

Innehållsförteckning

Editorial Preface and Acknowledgments


Introduction

1. Significance of Galileo’s Dialogue

2. The Geostatic Worldview

3· The Copernican Controversy

4. The Galileo Affair

5· Historical Aftermath and Philosophical Prelude


SEl ECTIONS FROM GALILEO’S DIALOGUE

Outline of Selections


To the Discerning Reader

1. Preface


First Day

2. Natural Motion and Aristotle’s Logic

3. Heavenly Changes and Aristotle’s Empiricism

4. Life on the Moon, and Human versus Divine Understanding


Second Day

5· Independent-Mindedness and the Role of Aristotle’s Authority

6. Diurnal Rotation, Simplicity, and Probability

7. The Case against Terrestrial Rotation and the Value of Critical Reasoning

8. Vertical Fall, Superposition of Motions, and the Role of Experiments

9. Extruding Power and the Role of Mathematics

10. The Deception of the Senses and the Relativity of Motion


Third Day

11. Heliocentrism and the Role of the Telescope

12. The Role of the Bible

13. Stellar Dimensions and the Concept of Size

14. Stellar Parallax and the Fruitfulness of a Research Program


Fourth Day

15. The Cause of the Tides and the Inescapability of Error

16. Ending


Appendix

1. Critical Reasoning

2. Methodological Reflection

3. Varieties of Rhetoric

Glossary

Bibliography

Om författaren

Maurice A. Finocchiaro is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.