Galileo Essays (Examples)

Galileo

Place of Birth and Brief overview of family life and upbringing

Galileo Galilei's father was Vincenzo Galilei while his mother was called Guilia Ammannati. Vincenzo was born in 1520 in Florence. He was a teacher of music and fine art enthusiast. He was a refined flute player (O'Connor & obertson, 2002). While he was studying music in Venice, Vincenzo carried out a string of experiments to support his musical theories. Galileo's mother Guilia was a native of Pescia. She married Vincenzo in 1563 and moved to the countryside near Pisa. Galileo was the first born in this family. He spent early part of his life in Pisa. When Galileo was hardly nine years old, his family returned to Florence which was his father's hometown (O'Connor & obertson, 2002). Galileo on the contrary decided to remain in Pisa for two years. At Pisa, he stayed with Muzio Tedaldi who was…

Galileo and Religion

From a theological perspective, it matters not at all whether the earth moves around the sun or vice versa, since the ible hardly deals with any of these scientific questions at all. Galileo was correct that the purpose of the ible was to teach certain religious and spiritual truths, not to provide scientific information on chemistry, physics or biology. Even if its authors had been aware of these subjects, they were basically irrelevant to the stories they intended to tell. In Genesis, for example, the ible asserts that God created the universe out of nothing in the very distant past, but never mentions whether the earth or other planets are moving. Among those few people in the ancient world who gave any thought to these matters, the views of Aristotle and Ptolemy had been officially accepted by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, and therefore it…

Indeed, we can see here his own initial wonderment and the very simple excitement that he felt upon making a series of discoveries that, aside from being exciting, were clearly of exceptional and lasting scientific significance and would certainly earn Galileo a reputation as one of the most important astronomical observers of his time if not in all of history. However, we can also see how this initial awe quickly turned into logical questioning after Galileo underwent the observation of a great deal of further data culminating in the observed retrograde motion of the moons, which lead him to a state of extreme and earnest puzzlement about the state of the solar system.

Indeed, this state of puzzlement was understandably not long-lived, however, and Galileo again quite understandably brought to bear the not inconsiderable powers of his mind to the task of parsing the confusing string of data that his…

In this way, scientific investigations that attempt to explain such things as the movement of the planets and the stars are truly a service to religions; they attempt to provide a clearer understanding of God's wonder through his Creation. ith the study of the heavens, in particular, Galileo asserts that he is attempting to learn more about what Bible refers to as the place of man's salvation, and what is assumed in the popular conception of the cosmos to be the place of God's residence at the far reaches of the spheres. Understanding, according to Galileo, is automatically holy, just as real truth is divine.

A Response Letter to the Same Duchess

To the Most Exalted Grand Duchess

I hope this finds you well and most unmoved on the point of Galileo Galilei's new conception of the motions of the heavenly bodies. Though his supposed observations, if indeed they have…

There were, on the other hand, opponents who reason could not reach, and those were the men Galileo believed to be "hostile not so much toward the things in question as toward their discoverer" (pg 1). The motive of these particular men was unclear, other than that their motives were personal and passionate, and "quite different from the sacred intention of the holy Church," (pg 3) which is to speak truth for the salvation of souls. For whatever reason, these men who condemned Galileo, condemned his book, and pronounced him a heretic, did so without having read his book or listened to the statements or arguments he made, and these same men used to their advantage "passages taken from places in the Bible which they had failed to understand properly" (pg 1).

Concerned by the threat of opponents such as these, Galileo was hesitant to make his discoveries public, but…

Galileo

Product Idea Description

Most technical innovations in any field have been combinations or amalgams of software and hardware applications that were never meant to be used together. However, they have nevertheless come into existence because someone decided to marry up these unimagined elements in combination with each other.

To midwife these projects to full fruition, startup money is needed. As usual, the military is the usual maternity ward for such applications and often requires mission specific applications for certain situations. Telematics is certainly no exception to this and such applications have increasingly found usage in the war on terror to pierce the classical "fog of war." Like the American GPS system, this has certainly been the case for telematics operations in the NATO European environment that would operate with the Galileo GNSS system. The handmaiden of our ed Force Tracking Telematics application in this proposal will be the Google…

Galileo: On easoning

"In question of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual" (GALILEO).

Galileo was a noted mathematician, astronomer, physicist, and philosopher (Drake 1995), who many regard as the "father of modern science" (edondi 1987). In his lifetime, Galileo was a somewhat controversial figure; falling out of favor with pope Urban VIII and the Jesuits for his work, "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" (Hawking 2009). He was one of the first to establish that mathematics and nature were interrelated; ignoring authorities and traditional thought regarding the separation of philosophy and science and religion.

With regard to the aforementioned quote, Galileo reaffirmed his oppositional and frequently controversial positioning with respect to those in authority. He was not a man prone to following conventional tides, untested and unregulated. The implications of his statement indicate that just because an authority determines…

However, five months after the book was published, Galileo was ordered to ome to appear before the Inquisition. In reviewing Galileo's old file, the Inquisition had uncovered the memorandum of 1616, that ordered Galileo to never teach the Copernican system ever again.

This discovery made it appear that Galileo had concealed the information from the Pope, when he obtained permission to write his book, and in the process, his old friend became his foe. and, the Pope ordered him to stand trial. Despite producing an affidavit from Cardinal Bellarmine, attesting that Galileo had only been admonished, Galileo was sentenced to life in prison and his book, Dialogue, was ordered to be burned.

Conclusion:

In the end, Galileo forever changed the sciences of astronomy, physics and mathematics. Despite the attempts by the Church to silence his revolutionary work, Galileo continued.

His work, was evaluated and validated by observers across Europe, in…

Galileo Galilei was an Italian mathematician, who would apply his mathematics to work in astronomy, physics of kinematics, and strength of material. Today he is known as the founder of modern mechanics and physics. orn in February of 1564, he spent his childhood in Pisa. His father was a rather famous musician who encouraged him to become a medical doctor, and supported Galileo's education at the University of Pisa, which began in 1581. Galileo found, however, that his talent was in mathematics, not in medicine, and he opted to leave the university, but did pursue a career in math education on his own, studying the work of Euclid and Archimedes. He would vastly improve the concepts and results in hydrostatics, and then be appointed professor of mathematics first at the University of Pisa, and then at the University of Padua. While teaching there, he would do mathematical work relating to…

82) because he had to find a bridge from the old paradigm to the new one. He argued that science could restore man to the dominion he enjoyed before the "Fall" (caused by ignorance). Some scholars argue that Bacon never saw any environmental change as undesirable and viewed all science as good.

Rene Descartes also profoundly influenced the modern idea of nature. He argued that mind and matter are distinct and separate from each other, "and that the natural world is a machine" (p. 86). Like Bacon he believed that science would create a new world and triumph over nature. All reality would be explained through the use of scientific method, and social benefits would be a result because superstition and irrationality would be gone. The scientific method would make humans "the masters and possessors of nature" (p. 87). Knowledge was not in what others thought, or "what we ourselves…

Much unlike more complex conceptions of physics, this theory can be proven by students and amateurs even in modern day classrooms.

One of the ways Galileo confirmed his conception of naturally accelerated movement was through experimentation using a ramp with a large degree slope. Galileo measured the speed which the ball would travel based on the measurement of how many meters that ball had traveled. This experiment can be repeated even today using the same basic tools and levels of measurement. If a ball has been dropping for two seconds, it will be traveling at a rate of four meters per second. As it reaches three meters, it will be traveling at a rate of six meters per second, and so on. Current findings should still portray Galileo's original findings. These findings can also be portrayed using a linear graph with the slope steadily increasing by double the amount of…

Louis Althusser (1918-90) was one of the foremost Marxist theorists in the Western world, and advocated an especially orthodox version of Marxism that was always close to the Communist Party line. He regarded ertolt recht as one of the great Marxist-revolutionary playwrights of the 20th Century, who used the theater to oppose the capitalist system and bourgeois ideology. In the 2ns section, the paper will examine how Althusser insisted on a 'straight' version of Marxism, uncontaminated by middle class idealism, pragmatism or humanism and centered on class struggle. Like recht, he imagined that the education system, cultural life, the theater and the arts would always be one major arena of revolutionary struggle against the dominant ideology of capitalism. The 3rd section will consider Althusser's views on recht as a revolutionary playwright, and how classical and dramatic types of theater merely uphold the dominant ideologies of society or resolved social conflicts…

He looks at thee methods: histoy (melding infomation about the divese geogaphical oigins of algeba with the poblems themselves), multiple epesentations (using notation, naative, geometic, gaphical, and othe epesentations togethe to build undestanding), and the object concept of function (teaching functions without genealizing about how taits of an individual elate to taits of a goup). The aticle seves to offe some inventive solutions to a common poblem in math education: How to make mateial elevant and compelling to a beadth of students.

Matinez, a.A. (2010). Tiangle sacifice to the gods. 1-11.

The aticle looks at Pythagoas, paticulaly the mythology suounding his life and his most famous discovey, the Pythagoean theoem. It calls into question the histoical evidence on which mathematics teaches base thei teaching of this theoy. The autho points out how vey little is known about Pythagoas and how he has been canonized by the math discipline because his…

As indicated on the Universalteacher.org Web site: "Epic theatre is historical: the audience is continually reminded that epic theatre gives a report of events." Encouraging the audience to remain detached and separate from the narrative, strange things must be put in place to establish and preserve distancing. V-effekt as defined previously was Brecht's way of doing this. He provides an example of V-effekt through the situation of a child whose mother remarries, thus seeing her as a wife not just a mother. An example from "Life of Galileo is the long and profound speech by the unheroic protagonist which is then followed by the bathetic observation: "Now I must eat." (Brecht 2008, 64)

Galileo as shown through Brecht, is an anti-hero through his cowardice behavior. He fears the instruments of torture that come with bravery. He fails the role of hero through his refusal and lack of courage to prove…

They must occupy themselves with inventing new ways to legally persecute people as they cannot be involved in any real pursuit of knowledge.

Things changed drastically with the Renaissance, though not with the speed that many men would have appreciated. Galileo Galilei butted heads with the Catholic Church many times in his life, eventually recanting much of what he had provocatively (and rightly) claimed to be true and ending his life under house arrest. He at times tried to couch his more controversial discoveries in language more pleasing to the Church, but apparently he was not proficient enough at disguising it. His "Letter to Castelli" is a prime example of the shift that Western thought was taking during the Renaissance: "the Holy Scriptures in many places not only admit but actually require a different explanation for what seems to be the literal one, it seems to me that they ought…

The Ptolemaic model was accepted by most philosophers of note until it was radically challenged by the Polish astronomer Copernicus in 1530. The Catholic church condemned the Copernican System in 1616 and forbade holding, defending, or even teaching alternatives to the Ptolemaic conception of the universe endorsed by the Church (Fowler 2008:10). But both theories were mere conjecture until the development of the Galilean telescope. Galileo's telescope was a modification of the currently existing lenses used for reading by the long -- and short-sighted. Galileo did not invent corrective lenses or even the telescope, but he did substantially improve them. By making use of both convex and concave lenses, Galileo was able to expand the magnification power and distance vision of ordinary gazers, enabling to look wide into the heavens (Fowler 2008:10).

"Galileo's belief that his discoveries with the telescope strongly favored the Copernican world view meant he was headed…

A favorite target for conspiracists today as well as in the past, a group of European intellectuals created the Order of the Illuminati in May 1776, in Bavaria, Germany, under the leadership of Adam Weishaupt (Atkins, 2002). In this regard, Stewart (2002) reports that, "The 'great' conspiracy organized in the last half of the eighteenth century through the efforts of a number of secret societies that were striving for a 'new order' of civilization to be governed by a small group of 'all-powerful rulers.' The most important of these societies, and the one to which all subsequent conspiracies could be traced, is the Illuminati founded in Bavaria on May 1, 1776 by Adam Weishaupt" (p. 424). According to Atkins, it was Weishaupt's fundamental and overriding goal to form a secret organization of elite members of Europe's leading citizens who could then strive to achieve the Enlightenment version of revolutionary social…

The release of fossil fuels has been driving industrial and civic expansion for the past century and a half, and there is therefore a compelling reason to deny such causes: "some corporations whose revenues might be adversely affected by controls on carbon dioxide emissions have also alleged major uncertainties in the science (Oreskes). Just as in the debate over the heliocentric solar system, issues of political and/or economic motive are raised to cloud the science at issue.

hat truly separates the global warming debate from the issues that Galileo dealt with, however, is that there really is hard science at the base of both camps with vastly different interpretations. This has made the contention all the more fierce, and personal accusations only seem more rampant now than during Galileo's trial due to the increased difficulty of a scientific attack. One example of this is Gore's insistence on using Revelle's name…

Science and religion have historically possessed a tumultuous relationship based upon the fact that the latter claims to hold the ultimate answers to the most fundamental questions of existence, while the former claims to hold the means to discovering many of these answers. Consequently, for much of human history they have been viewed as being analogous avenues to gaining knowledge of the world, merely attacked from different directions; science must eventually prove with reason what is already accepted upon faith. However, a number of scientific observations and interpretations have come into direct conflict with established doctrines of the western, Christian Church. These scientific theories have caused many to question the validity of their faith, and many others to question the validity of science. Usually, the conflicts originate from formalized interpretations of Christianity rather than upon the fundamental basis of faith. In other words, science can neither prove nor disprove the…

Therefore, it can be said that the patronage of Federico Cesi was important for Galileo because it placed him in contact with well-known scientists, it offered him the possibility to conduct research by consulting materials from a variety of fields, thus broadening the spectrum of his analysis, and, at the same time, it enabled him to conduct research that would probably bring him prestige and fortune due to the respectability of the group he is part of.

The oyal Academy of Science of Paris is yet another remarkable example of patronage. However, this example points out a new level of motivation for patronage. During the reign of Louis 16th, the oyal Academy of Science came under royal patronage to point out the fact that "the king was the source of everything that happened in his kingdom" (Dear, 115). However, the king at the time had little interest in the actual…

morning Here information seventh unit term. Once complete, left final paper. Unit 7: Scientific Revolution e've reached end journey. The Scientific Revolution represents development thinking world.

Attitudes during the Scientific Revolution

The scientific revolution and the age of classical science have had a severe impact on society and made it possible for it to experience great progress as a consequence of the fact that technology had advanced significantly. Humanity was especially ignorant up to this point and technology actually made it possible for the masses to look at the world from a different perspective. People learnt that a lot of things they previously believed to be impossible were actually possible and joined the rest of the world in a struggle to achieve progress. The Scientific Revolution basically represents the moment when the social order started to experience massive reform as a result of technological advancements.

One of the first steps…

In addition, I've heard a great deal of expressed frustration by the citizens of this country in regards to their rights, and the impact on their rights by the Patriot Act and regulations put in place by the Department of Homeland Security. Do these people not understand that their rights are nonexistent because of the authority of the state? Like a child and her parents, the state will do what it thinks is necessary for its people, and the people must obey."

Pretend for a moment," Augustine posed, "that the question at hand is not the sovereignty of the state, but the moral justice of the war. Do you agree that the decision to go to war was moral?" do not concern myself so much with morality," Hobbes countered, "as I do with the reason why these wars must continue to occur. Obviously, none is in favor of the death…

Mind, Freedom and Knowledge

Descartes argued that that all humans had both a body and mind, and that the mind was eternal while the body was subject to physical and material laws. The universe was divided between the mind and matter, and the physical world could be explained by mathematical and scientific laws. Hobbes, Locke and other political and philosophical theorists of the 17th Century were also influenced by the new scientific thought of Descartes, Galileo and William Harvey to one degree or another, and had to incorporate them into philosophy (Ryle, p. 251). Ryle denied that any "ghost in the machine" existed, of that the immortal soul somehow operated the physical body. He admitted that explaining the link between bodies and minds was very difficult, although behaviorists had come to understand that expressions indicate moods and emotions, while vision, hearing and motion are all based on sensory inputs being…

ethinking the Universe

Conflicts between religion and science are neither new nor novel. In the 1600s, Galileo was hauled before a court and convicted of heresy for saying (and publishing) that the earth revolved around the sun instead of the opposite. There have been trials on the teaching of evolution, controversies about physics and even states that battle schools and parents for including certain scientific concepts in the public school curriculum. Yet, the more science discovers the details of biology and physics, the more it seems that within each tiny creation there are similarities -- almost a microcosm of the entire universe within one molecule. To some, like Gerald Schroeder, this indicates that existence is about universality - and universality is about a way to describe the existence of everything. This in turn, is more of a cosmic journey, both macro and microcosmic as the merging between science and religion…

This new calculation proved bodies of mass could orbit the sun in an elliptic pattern. Newton also put a name and a definition to gravity. Like Galileo, Newton's discoveries forced man to think beyond what he already knew. His theories opened doors to understanding motion, matter, and space. Many of these theories are still taught today because they "still adequately account for most problems of motion" (Noble 724). People had to once again let go of familiar thought and embrace new ideas.

Newton transformed astronomy because he set "modern physics on its feet by deriving laws showing how objects move on the Earth and in space" (Pasachoff 41). These laws are the groundwork for what eventually led to the law of gravity. Newton was open-minded enough to understand that gravity was not something confined to this earth. It was universal and it applied to all objects in space. The same…

Philosophy natural science. Given natural science theories: 1. hat makes objects fall 2. The missed 2012 apocalypse First, describe theories world / forces operate . These theories, pass Karl Popper's theory demarcation

Natural Science Theories

The idea of the force that makes objects fall has haunted mankind for thousands of years before people actually came to understand how the force of gravity functions. Italian scientist Galileo Galilei is responsible for opening people's eyes regarding this theory, as he studied it intensively and discovered that an object falling to the ground has a rate of 9.8 meters per second, squared. This made it possible for society to gain a more complex understanding of how the force of gravitation works and diverse variables that can influence this process.

Considering that many individuals in the contemporary society have trouble determining whether some objects are likely to fall faster than others, it would seem…

Because of the politicization of science, however, Revelle's questions were not made public before he died. The article that he authored reached only a small audience, and that after a fight with politics (Sheppard). Revelle's remarks at a conference about global warming that contradicted the politically correct view were similarly stricken from public record, and many scientists who did not agree with the politically correct consensus have been harassed during trials (Coleman, Sheppard). Thus, even today, the politicization of science has made asking scientific questions difficult for the members of the scientific community, as they fear being either ignored or even called out on their dissent. This issue hinders progress, as the ability to ask real questions about the issue may lead to new and different answers.

hen scientists cannot ask the right questions for fear of political retaliation, an entire body of work, discovery, and change can be lost.…

The universe viewed through a telescope looked different, and this difference in itself played into the Protestant argument that received truths may be fallible. In fact, the notion of truth outside empirical evidence became unsteady:

For most thinkers in the decades following Galileo's observations with the telescope, the concern was not so much for the need of a new system of physics as it was for a new system of the world. Gone forever was the concept that the earth has a fixed spot in the center of the universe, for it was now conceived to be in motion…gone also was the comforting thought that the earth is unique (Cohen 79)

However, while the telescope was transforming ideas about the shape of the cosmos and the relationship between science and faith, the microscope essentially remained a toy through much of the early modern era. If anything, the revelation of the…

Francis Bacon's Advancement Of Learning

An Analysis of Bacon's Rationale for riting the Advancement of Learning

hen one analyzes Francis Bacon's Advancement of Learning, he does so by first entering into an era that was primarily dedicated to overthrowing the Learning of the past -- that is to say, it was breaking with the old world and advancing the new. That old world was one of scholasticism, with men like Thomas Aquinas incorporating Aristotelian philosophy into the medieval world and using the pagan to prove the Christian. It was a world where religious truths were accepted on the authority of the Church, and a world where that authority was still in place and still in power. In the 14th century that authority would begin to corrupt (with the papacy's abduction and removal to Avignon) and the natural catastrophe that was the Black Plague. These events (though soon over) left their…

Greeks commonly thought to be the inventors of scientific theory?

Long before atomic bombs were developed within the context of the Second orld ar, the Greek philosopher Aristotle conceived of atoms, or minute particles that made up in their essence every human body and all of creation. ithout the benefit of a microscope to see beyond the experiential surface of the natural world around him, Aristotle used the power of his mind to rigorously deduce the elements of atomic theory, a theory later proven to be correct with the aid of modern technology. The Greek Aristotle also postulated the now accepted theory of physics that all matter is merely converted into a different substance and is never destroyed. (Stoll, 2005)

Thus early on, Greeks such as Aristotle, "without theocratic traditions to hold them back ... rejected monarchies at an early stage, opting for republican" systems of government, and allowed within…

Newton explained that apples fell from trees by virtue of the same universal attractive natural force that caused the planets to orbit the skies.

In his 1687 book, Philosopiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Newton presented complex mathematical formulae that described the observed orbits of the known planets fairly accurately. Newton also provided an explanation for why the attractive force of gravity did not cause the planets to fall in on themselves the way the apple falls to the ground. Since all the planets and stars in the universe exerted mutually attractive force and because there were an infinite number of planets distributed uniformly throughout the universe, there was no "center" of the universe and the planets and stars are all pulled in many directions, all of which, in effect, cancel out their tendency to fall together (Hawking, 1991).

Galileo Galilei:

Almost eighty years earlier, in 1609, Galileo Galilei invented the world's…

Charles Van Doren has concluded that the Copernican Revolution is actually the Galilean Revolution because of the scale of change introduced by Galileo's work.

The technological innovation of the Renaissance era started with the invention of the printing press (the Renaissance). Even though the printing press, a mechanical device for printing multiple copies of a text on sheets of paper, was first invented in China, it was reinvented in the West by a German goldsmith and eventual printer, Johann Gutenberg, in the 1450s. Before Gutenberg's invention, each part of metal type for printing presses had to be individually engraved by hand. Gutenberg developed molds that permitted for the mass production of individual pieces of metal type. This permitted a widespread use of movable type, where each character is a separate block, in mirror image, and these blocks are assembled into a frame to form text. Because of his molds, a…

This allowed the Catholic Church to present the idea that Earth was special because it was God's greatest creation. Thus, the sun, stars, and planets worked for the Earth and not the other way around. The Earth stayed completely still at the center of the universe and was surrounded by less important celestial bodies that did not receive as much of God's grace. Since Aristotelian philosophy fit so nicely within Christian doctrine, it was adopted and held as truth for hundreds of years, until late into the Middle Ages.

However, there was a drastic and radical change in the concept of the formation of the Universe at the dawn of the enaissance. As more and more of the Church's truths were challenged during the Scientific evolution of the 14th and 15th centuries in Europe, it was only a matter of time before Aristotelian philosophy was placed under question. The first…

Copernican revolution has a pivotal role in the establishment of the modern sciences. We are very much familiar with the fact that the human mind had always been fascinated greatly by the changes taking place around him almost constantly. Human observation and sense of argument and ability to be logical has made him the most intelligent and consequently most powerful species on the planet.

It is very comfortable to believe that Earth is located at the centre of the universe and other planets rotate around it because Earth itself does not seem or feel to be moving and there are only sun, moon and other planets appearing and disappearing at their exact timings. It is quite logical and unless and until something really revolutionary come forward to refute this believe, it looks quite reasonable to carry on believing the same idea (Kuhn, pp 187).

Nicholas Copernicus

The most significant change…

It is noted that the corporeal world is the context to which this discussion specifically applies, with particles at the subatomic level not abiding the same principles. That said, a diagram included in the Nave explanation of Newton's laws helps to clarify that which is meant by the above equation. A man is shown swinging a golf club into a golf ball in one image and in the next image, he is shown swinging the club into moving truck. e take as a primary understanding from these images that the mass of the object struck will have a direct bearing on the force required to accelerate it. At an identical force, the man's swing might drive the golf ball several hundred yards while perhaps only denting the moving truck.

It was supplemented even further by the Third Law of Motion that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This…

This would become the basis of a profound shift in European knowledge: classical mechanics (Hooker).

Francis acon (1561-1626), added a key element to the genesis of the mechanical universe in his attacks on traditional knowledge. He proposed the Aristotelean model of induction and empiricism as the best model of human knowledge. This model of systematic empirical induction was the piece that completed the puzzle in the European world view and made the scientific revolution possible (Hooker).

The mechanical universe would emerge from Sir Isaac Newton's work (1642-1727). He based his entire view of the universe on the concept of inertia: every object remains at rest until moved by another object; every object in motion stays in motion until redirected or stopped by another object. He argued that all the planets and other objects in the universe moved according to a physical attraction between them, which is called gravity; this mutual…

In terms of Renaissance philosophy, Galileo Galilei is an example of a humanist who strongly defended the gradual flourishing and subsistence to the scientific revolution happening in his society during the Renaissance period. Galileo was a strong advocate for the usage of science in discovering truth and new knowledge, using the principles of mathematics and philosophy in strengthening the study of astronomy and physics in the society. Through Galileo, the nature of free scientific inquiry prevailed, challenging, though not condemning, philosophical and theological issues that cannot empirically answer truth and reality in life. Dante Alighieri's "Inferno," meanwhile, is a literary piece that represented his inquiry into the spiritual and humanistic foundations of human existence during his time. In a period wherein theological foundations and philosophies are being questioned, Dante's "Inferno" confronted the moral and spiritual issues being questioned by Dante and his society during this challenging period of Renaissance.

Following…

Hobbes believes that the cruel nature of human beings causes the state of nature to be a war of all against all. To do this, we will explain the difference between collective and individual rationality and how it applies to human beings in the Hobbesian state of nature. Also, we will identify the assumptions that cause Hobbes to believe the state of nature is a war of all against all and explain why he needs them. By delving into this assumptions, we can abandon our philosophical heritage from Locke and understand the opposite position of Hobbes.

Of the social contract theorists, Thomas Hobbes is the most extreme in terms of his view of human nature. Hobbes wrote a number of philosophical works, but the English Civil War with its horrible violence left an indelible impression upon him. In his magnum opus Leviathan that he published in 1651 he presents his…

eligion or Science?

Since the enaissance, there has been a vocal debate between religion and science. Galileo was imprisoned and sanctioned because of his views of the universe, the sun, and the way planets moved. As science progressed, this debate became even more heated. However, in the late 20th century, there has also been a mitigating discussion about the way that religion and science can actual coexist as explanations of the universe. In fact, as physicists look into the wondrous world of smaller and smaller particles, they find that the laws we through governed the universe do not really fit in with the abstract dimensions of time, space, quarks, and the study of the basic attributes of matter and the universe (Schroeder, 2010, p.xi ). On some level, the debate between science and religion is based on the notion of reason (the scientific method) versus faith. eason implies what can…

The second argument used by my uncle was a kind of blend of fuzzy logic and inductive reasoning. The argument essentially looks like this: there is a water problem; keeping a green lawn is not part of the problem; let's find out where the problem lies.

The assumption made here is that the water used to keep lawns green is not part of the water problem. Countering this assumption would require some form of statistical analysis or syllogism. Since my uncle is arguing from a generalization that he apparently discerned at some point, it becomes necessary to correct that generalization. If my uncle is swayed by facts, facts then are what are necessary. One could look to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power -- an authority on the subject -- to find out the statistical analyses.

By doing so, one could also see the benefit of cutting water…

William of Occam formulated the principle of Occam's Razor, which held that the simplest theory that matched all the known facts was the correct one. At the University of Paris, Jean Buridan questioned the physics of Aristotle and presaged the modern scientific ideas of Isaac Newton and Galileo concerning gravity, inertia and momentum when he wrote:

...after leaving the arm of the thrower, the projectile would be moved by an impetus given to it by the thrower and would continue to be moved as long as the impetus remained stronger than the resistance, and would be of infinite duration were it not diminished and corrupted by a contrary force resisting it or by something inclining it to a contrary motion (Glick, Livesay and Wallis 107)

Thomas Bradwardine and his colleagues at Oxford University also anticipated Newton and Galileo when they found that a body moving with constant velocity travels distance…

Sensory experiences are nor reliable for making any statements, since people often mistake one thing for another. (Descartes talks about mirages). Knowledge based on reasoning is not always trustworthy, because people often make mistakes. (adding numbers is a classical example). Finally, knowledge is deemed by Descartes to be illusory, since it may come from dreams or insanity or from demons able to deceive men by making them believe that they are experiencing the real world, when are they are in fact not doing so. (the metaphysical approach in Descartes work is can be easily recognized here).

Following this analysis of existent forms of knowledge, Descartes concludes that certainty can be found in his intuition that, even if deceived, if he thinks he must exist: "Cogito ergo sum." The thought ("cogito") is a self-evident truth that gives certain knowledge of a particular thing's existence, i.e. one's self, but only the existence…

history of human civilization, the Scientific evolution emerged during the 17th century, which happened right after the enaissance Period. The Scientific evolution is the period in history wherein scientific methods and results where arrived at using experimentation and the use of scientific instruments such as the telescope, microscope, and thermometer (Microsoft Encarta 2002). The Scientific evolution is attributed to Galileo Galilei, who proposed that the universe and its elements can be explained mathematically, while subsisting to the fact the Sun is the center of the solar system. During the enaissance Period, Nicolaus Copernicus had declared that the Sun is the center of the solar system, but his declaration is only descriptive, while Galileo's declaration is verified through experimentation and the scientific method. This important distinction is the main reason why Galileo's time was considered the Scientific evolution, primarily because it uses the scientific method of research and experimentation.

Studies and…

Enlightenment on the French evolution

evolutionary changes in the leadership of 18th Century France did not occur overnight or with some sudden spark of defiance by citizens. The events and ideals which led to the French evolution were part of a gradual yet dramatic trend toward individualism, freedom, liberty, self-determination and self-reliance which had been evolving over years in Europe, and which would be called The Enlightenment. This paper examines and analyses the dynamics of The Enlightenment - and also, those individuals who contributed to the growth of The Enlightenment and to the ultimate demise of the Monarchy - in terms of what affect it had on the French evolution.

Introduction to the French evolution

When the legitimate question is raised as to what role, if any, The Enlightenment played in the French evolution, the best evidence from credible historic sources is that The Enlightenment did indeed play an important…

Norton I Intro on the Restoration

Norton I Introduction on the Restoration and 18th Century

The Period of the 18th Century in England was a time of great expansion and change.

People began moving from the country to the city/town during this time.

New likes were established that varied from the traditional arts scene.

The people living in town began to more openly express their likes/dislikes and the monarch became less an influence in deciding what was appropriate and what was not.

The country of England became divided politically as new parties emerged to represent its citizens.

The Tories supported the Crown, while the Whigs formed with a more progressive outlook and included nobles and clergymen.

The Toleration act provided freedom of worship.

Such acts and provisions would eventually become more commonplace as people began to realize differing viewpoints of the world.

Theories of old such as those of Aristotle…

Mechanics and Dynamics

Life without motion is better explained as death. A living being is said to be having life only when the walls of the heart engage in pumping the blood, when the blood circulates through the entire body, when nerves impulse electrically from brain to toe, lungs move to bring oxygen, food transports through the stomach and intestines, when the iris expands and contract, when the eyeball rotates, etc. Not only in the living beings, the riddles of the non-living items like recoiling of a fired gun, acceleration of an automobile, action of a spinning top, the motion of a space rocket can also be broken down in terms of the analysis of motion.

Dynamics" is a branch of study of motions and "Mechanics" contrary to the general idea of referring to people in uniforms with name over his pocket and having a tool box in his hand,…

In its most basic sense, this treaty abolished the age-old practice of electing a king of the Romans, a reference to the Holy Roman Empire; it gave France the geographical areas of Verdun, Alsace, Metz and a portion of Strasburg; Sweden was given West Pomerania, Stettin, Wismar and Bremen, known as bishoprics but now part of northern Germany; Bavaria retained the Upper Palatinate and all electoral titles, and Saxony retained Lusatia. Also, Spain was forced to fully recognize the United Provinces as a sovereign nation-state. Overall, the Treaty of Westphalia turned Europe into a conglomerate of separate political and economic nation-states that were only partially dependent on each other; the treaty also made it possible for mercantilism to spread throughout Europe, thus creating the foundation for many more years of conflict and war. In addition, this treaty also brought an end to the Eighty Years War between Spain and the…

Conclusion

In principle, it would be entirely possible to replace religious-inspired morality with logically derived concepts of morality in human life. Generally little else would be required besides suspending religious teachings and substituting the rules of organized religion with very basic ideas such as "do no harm." In that regard, the commandment "do unto others" is a perfectly useful and easily understandable ethical principle that could be taught with much better results without the cloak of its religious context.

Instead of teaching that human beings are incapable of ascertaining what is right and what is wrong without divine help and that we are morally tarnished by our involuntary thoughts, we would learn that one ought not to treat other unfairly or cause them harm and that the worse our involuntary desires and thoughts, the more moral credit we deserve for resisting the impulse to act on them. Ultimately, one of…

Europeans invented a more complex sewer system and sewers spread across Europe's most important cities in a short time.

Mechanical clocks had been invented before the half of the second millennium, but, in the 16th century, they have been perfected by Galileo with the help of the pendulum. Clocks have become more advanced in time as people discovered ways of making the mechanism more precise and also of smaller proportions.

Europeans also became acquainted with the gunpowder in the Renaissance period and warfare had been taken to a whole new level. It is not clear whether Europeans have invented gunpowder alone or if they've been inspired for the concept from the Asians. As a result of this invention, knights had become out-dated as the new armed foot-soldiers became more numerous, replacing them.

The invention of eye-glasses earlier in the millennium led to the invention of the telescope somewhere between the…

Moreover, his theories regarding the gravitation were supposed not to have been made possible without the attempts of his predecessors, as Galileo, to understand the world. Thus, Newton's luck may be put on the fact that he has lived in a period of discoveries, and, as he himself stated, he had seen further than other men, it is because he stood on the shoulders of giants.

All in all, Newton has been considered for almost 300 years to be the founding father of modern physical science, his discoveries being unprecedented, just as those in mathematical research. eing a polyvalent personality, he also studied chemistry, history and theology; his main method in all domains being the investigation of all forms and dimensions.

ibliography

Cohen, I. ernard, The Newtonian Revolution, Cambridge, 1980, 546 pages;

Koyre, Alexandre, Newtonian Studies, Harvard U. Press, 1965, 673 pages;

Westfall, Richard S., Never at Rest: A iography…

In Hamlet's case, the dark Ages conquer the light and the last scene displays before Fortinbras'(the Prince of Norway, whose father was killed by Hamlet's father) eyes. Fortinbras seems to be the symbol for the rebirth of Denmark, in the light of a young king that lacks the putrid inheritance of an alienated royal family, like Hamlet's. The Renaissance man, Prince Hamlet, seems aware of the inutility of trying to restore the reign of his royal family in Denmark, since its members are proved to be corrupt and not suitable any more to lead a country in the spirit a new born world. His acts could also be in the spirit of sacrifice, suitable for a Renaissance man, in the name of restoring the dignity of his subjects and the glory of his country. People like Galileo and Savonarola were ready to give up their most precious possession, life, for…

Thomas Aquinas led the move away from the Platonic and Augustinian and toward Aristotelianism and "developed a philosophy of mind by writing that the mind was at birth a tabula rasa ('blank slate') that was given the ability to think and recognize forms or ideas through a divine spark" (Haskins viii). y 1200 there were reasonably accurate Latin translations of the main works of Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Archimedes, and Galen, that is, of all the intellectually crucial ancient authors except Plato. Also, many of the medieval Arabic and Jewish key texts, such as the main works of Avicenna, Averroes and Maimonides now became available in Latin. During the 13th Century, scholastics expanded the natural philosophy of these texts by commentaries and independent treatises. Notable among these were the works of Robert Grosseteste, Roger acon, John of Sacrobosco, Albertus Magnus, and Duns Scotus. Precursors of the modern scientific method can be…

The notable exception to this layout of the various departments of the casino at The Venetian is again its Sports-ook, which is entirely rounded into a half-circle and therefore gives an air of having consumed far more resources than a rectangular shaped Sports-ook would. It is easy to craft a desk that is straight, to cut the wood in a way that makes it have strong borders and edges; for that reason most desks that you see are straight. To cut the wood so as to make it rounded is far more difficult, and someone looking at such a curved piece of wood would have to assume high expense involved in procuring and designing wood in such a fashion.

In the center of the floor of the Venetian (and not all casinos are like this) are the slot machines, conspicuous examples of mass expenditure, ringing and glittering and flashing lights.…

ince neither of those explanations is likely (let alone knowable), philosophical naturalists would have to doubt that the universe exists at all; yet, very clearly, it does. The most likely explanation for the existence of the universe is simply that some force or consciousness (i.e. God) caused whatever the so-called "first cause" of existence was.

The second major philosophical assumption of philosophical naturalism presupposes that all philosophical postulates must, necessarily, fit the scientific model. However, that supposition clearly closes off many possible explanations simply because they may lie outside of human understanding. Again, that position is an a priori assumption that also violates the first major philosophical assumption of philosophical naturalism. In essence, it suggests that scientific concepts provide the only possible set of tools for understanding phenomena, including phenomena that obviously defy scientific explanation such as miracles and faith. Most importantly, it automatically (and in a manner that is…

Nature Closer to the Ancient than the Renaissance View?

In his book, The Idea of Nature, Collingwood analyzes the principle characteristics of three periods of cosmological thinking in the history of European thought: Greek, Renaissance, and the Modern. By taking such an approach, Collingwood makes it possible for his readers to distinguish the similarities as well as fundamental differences between the modern view of Nature and that of Greek and Renaissance cosmology. But, perhaps Collingwood's work is more valuable because it demonstrates how both Greek and Renaissance schools of thought have made the modern view of nature possible. In other words, the modern view of nature has evolved from both Greek and Renaissance cosmology, with each period laying the foundation for the next to build on. To that extent, an assertion that the modern view of Nature more closely resemblances one period rather than another cannot, strictly speaking, be made…

he second law, which states that rate of change of object's momentum is proportional to the force exerted upon it is the most practical law. his law is the logical continuation of the inertia law and explanation of Galileo's principle and transformations. Second law gives a prediction to what will happen with the object when a force acts on it: object's velocity will change and object will accelerate (with negative or positive acceleration). In order to understand the meaning of this law, mass is introduced. he mass of the object is a quantitative measure of inertia, which defines amount of matter contained in object. hat's why in modern interpretation the second law says that objects acceleration is directly proportional to the magnitude of the total force and inversely proportional to the mass of the object. hat's why mass of the object also defines object's resistance to acceleration.

In terms of…

In her eyes, supporting religion was tantamount to supporting oppression.

Cut to another scene with the same girl, in my high school cafeteria. Now we are sitting side-by-side, talking like friends. She talks about how pressured she feels by her family to enter the field of law, but she would prefer to study something more meaningful than political science when she goes to college. She criticizes members of our generation for not caring about what is going on in the world, and our lack of social responsibility.

Ironically, it is the members of my faith community that seem to have used their belief as a touchstone of social activism to reach out and to help others. A concerned interest in the point-of-view of other people, and a desire to help them is the essence of the selflessness of faith, and it is also the essence of the dispassionate yet personally…

It was founded on the knowledge that spurred during the Renaissance and has placed significance on rational thought and cultural emphasis, which was not present before.

Furthermore, with regards to the popularity of Baroque during this period, it is important to note that this style was able to combine the principles of science and the philosophies and doctrines of early Christianity, which has been very prominent in architectures built on such style. During the earlier period, the Renaissance, art was simpler and characterized by simple rhythms. With Baroque, however, a dynamic change has occurred, as art and architecture became more ostentatious and it has shown how art can move from the previous period (Saisselin).

The Scientific Revolution has presented a new perspective and shows a shift from the orthodox. It has also allowed the use of the past in order to create the future. In the field of arts, the…

Scientific Knowledge

There lies question on whether scientific knowledge is able to answer all the questions that relate to physical reality. For many years, people have wondered what the earth is composed of, leaving them wondering if the nature's secrets will one day be revealed (Grant 64). However, it is notable that since Galileo discovered the moon in 1608, there has been a remarkable move by his fellow scientists.

A lot of studies in science including the origin of the solar system, sonata of the stars, how matter changes to energy, and detailed works of an atom, among others has not fully exposed the science knowledge. However, the human culture seems to change with science. orldview patterns prove that complex systems studies by working from their smallest constituents meaning from bottom up. These paradigms also confirm that the laws of nature pounce from deep symmetry writs in to the basics…

lives of Archimedes and Carl Friedrich Gauss, two of the greatest mathematicians of all time, through a point by point comparison of their childhood and education, mathematical contributions and the influence their work has on the science of mathematics.

Childhood and Education

Archimedes (287 BC to 212 BC) lived most of his life in Syracuse, Greece. This son of an astronomer and mathematician was born into a distinguished family and was able to comfortably devote his life to mathematical research.

Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) was born into a humble German family. His early mathematical promise marked him as a prodigy and eventually earned him admission to university.

Major Mathematical Ideas

The mathematical work of Archimedes centered on the theoretical, particularly geometry. His greatest mathematical contribution involved measuring areas and segments of plane and conic sections.

Gauss's work centered on number theory. Unlike Archimedes, Gauss also used ventured into applied mathematics…