TY - GEN
T1 - Isaac Newton, Richard Bentley and Galileo's Platonic Myth
AU - Giudice, Franco Salvatore
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - In both the “Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi” (1632) and the “Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze” (1638), Galileo describes the origins of the planetary system using a cosmogonical myth that he explicitly ascribes to Plato. In this essay I will focus on how Galileo presented his Platonic cosmogony to make it conform with the world system proposed by Copernicus in “De revolutionibus” (1543), and how such a cosmogony was essential in order to give a universal value to Galileo’s theory of motion, and to justify in physical terms his commitment to a heliocentric cosmology. In particular, I will try to show how Galileo’s rejection of the Keplerian theory that the planets move in elliptical orbits could be a consequence of his cosmogonical hypothesis. This brief analysis will allow me to examine how Newton interpreted the Platonic myth as used by Galileo and how he demonstrated that the Italian scientist’s philosophical speculations fell short of explaining Kepler’s laws of planetary motion.
AB - In both the “Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi” (1632) and the “Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze” (1638), Galileo describes the origins of the planetary system using a cosmogonical myth that he explicitly ascribes to Plato. In this essay I will focus on how Galileo presented his Platonic cosmogony to make it conform with the world system proposed by Copernicus in “De revolutionibus” (1543), and how such a cosmogony was essential in order to give a universal value to Galileo’s theory of motion, and to justify in physical terms his commitment to a heliocentric cosmology. In particular, I will try to show how Galileo’s rejection of the Keplerian theory that the planets move in elliptical orbits could be a consequence of his cosmogonical hypothesis. This brief analysis will allow me to examine how Newton interpreted the Platonic myth as used by Galileo and how he demonstrated that the Italian scientist’s philosophical speculations fell short of explaining Kepler’s laws of planetary motion.
KW - Platonic cosmogony, Galileo’s theory of motion, Kepler's theory of planets, Bentley-Newton correspondence, François Blondel
KW - Platonic cosmogony, Galileo’s theory of motion, Kepler's theory of planets, Bentley-Newton correspondence, François Blondel
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10807/227319
M3 - Conference contribution
SN - 9788822267405
T3 - BIBLIOTECA DI GALILAEANA
SP - 41
EP - 51
BT - The Science and Myth of Galileo between the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Centuries in Europe
T2 - The Science and Myth of Galileo between the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Centuries in Europe
Y2 - 29 January 2020 through 31 January 2020
ER -