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To: dr_lew
Aristotle's errors were codified into doctrine. In particular, it was taught that constant motion required constant force. Galileo went to great lengths to explode this doctrine, and I don't think it can be supported that the scholastics knew it was false all along.

Science is a discipline of knowledge that takes generation's to build up. Newtonian physics is based upon Galilean relativity that says space and time are constant but the speed of light is relative. But we know that to be false. In Einsteinian relativity space and time are relative but the speed of light is constant. Since Galileo got it wrong, should be dismiss him as a superstitious crank? Or should be instead honor him as one of the great historical figures of science even though he was quite mistaken about some things?

23 posted on 08/23/2008 1:06:15 AM PDT by stripes1776 ("That if gold rust, what shall iron do?" --Chaucer)
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To: stripes1776

It’s hard to compare Galileo to the Scholastics. I will grant that it would be a mistake to brand the Scholastics as bogeyman, an evil to be overcome, but I don’t think you can equate Galileo to the Scholastics by citing his errors. Galileo was revolutionary because of his experimental method, and because of his application of mathematics to the results of his experiments. However faulty many of his ideas might have been, he is recognizably modern in his approach, and we can easily identify with him. Just the opposite is true of the Scholastics. Whatever sort of merit or virtuosity we might identify in their thinking, their entire perspective and approach is alien to our modern minds.

Terminat hora diem. Terminat auctor opus :-)


25 posted on 08/23/2008 1:24:19 AM PDT by dr_lew
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To: stripes1776
“Newtonian physics is based upon Galilean relativity that says space and time are constant but the speed of light is relative.”

“In Einsteinian relativity space and time are relative but the speed of light is constant.”

- The speed of light is constant only in complete vacuum according to Einstein.

Anyhow, Einstein was very much of brilliant mathematician and theorist and didn't bother much about the concrete aspects of the physical world as long as they didn't interfere with his theories - like they do in the case of the behavior of subatomic particles.

Irritatingly enough, they continue to elude our attempts at trapping them into a given mathematical definition of the freedom behind their choices of actions.

28 posted on 08/23/2008 1:47:16 AM PDT by WesternCulture
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