Galileo’s defense of the application of geometry to physics in the Dialogue.
Abstract: Alessandro Piccolomini and several other prominent 16th-century Aristotelians claimed that while a sphere touches a plane at a point in geometry, a material sphere touches a plane not at a point but over a small surface. These thinkers thereby called into question the reliability of geomet...
| Publicado en: | Studies in History & Philosophy of Science Part A Vol. 44; no. 2; pp. 178 - 188 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Elsevier B.V.
Jun2013
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=89088463&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 89088463 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00393681 HPS jtl: Studies in History & Philosophy of Science Part A issn: 00393681 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2013 vid: 44 iid: 2 pid: 2410 pub: Elsevier B.V. artinfo: ui: 89088463 10.1016/j.shpsa.2013.02.001 ppf: 178 ppct: 10 formats: tig: atl: Galileo’s defense of the application of geometry to physics in the Dialogue. aug: au: Marshall, Douglas Bertrand affil: Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Minnesota, 831 Heller Hall, 271 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States su: Dialogue Piccolomini, Alessandro Sixteenth century Aristotelianism (Philosophy) Surfaces (Philosophy) Reliability (Personality trait) Physics Geometry Application software sug: subj: Dialogue Piccolomini, Alessandro Sixteenth century Aristotelianism (Philosophy) Surfaces (Philosophy) Reliability (Personality trait) Physics Geometry Application software keyword: Application Approximation Galileo Idealization Mathematics ab: Abstract: Alessandro Piccolomini and several other prominent 16th-century Aristotelians claimed that while a sphere touches a plane at a point in geometry, a material sphere touches a plane not at a point but over a small surface. These thinkers thereby called into question the reliability of geometric reasoning in physics. In this article I provide a detailed analysis of Galileo’s reply to such worries about geometry in the Second Day of his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Because his infamous extrusion argument relies on the premise that a sphere touches a plane at a point, Galileo takes the opportunity to defend the argument and to attack geometry’s critics. According to the account I propose, Galileo argues for the applicability of geometry to physics by defending the legitimacy of geometric approximations and by advocating an expansive notion of geometric curve. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2013 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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