Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Galileo Journal
When this class first began, I did not have any significant views on the trial of Galileo. I had a general knowledge of who Galileo was and what his contributions were to the scientific world, but I knew virtually nothing about his trial and his conflict with the Catholic Church. For this reason, I was very interested in this section of the course because I gained a great deal of knowledge about a subject that I had never studied before.
After learning much more about not only Galileo’s scientific research and discoveries, but about him as a person than I knew before, I have to say that I do not think that I would like to have known him. There is no denying that Galileo was a very intelligent man who played an extremely important role in scientific history. However, he could also be very self-centered, conceited, and hungry for the spotlight, characteristics that are not always admirable. Galileo has established this reputation long before his trial occurred. For example, he shows many of these characteristics in his relationship with Kepler. He cut off all correspondence with Kepler and after Kepler volunteered much-needed support for Galileo’s discoveries, Galileo never thanked or acknowledged Kepler for it. Also, whenever Galileo or his work were criticized, he responded violently with sarcasm and insults, a quality which Koestler describes as “a rare gift of provoking enmity; not the affection alternating with rage that Tycho aroused, but the cold, unrelenting hostility which genius plus arrogance minus humility creates among mediocrities” (373). When he felt that he had not been properly credited for his work when it was mentioned in Balthasar Capra’s brochure on the proportional compass, he lashed out in fury with an almost irrational reaction. He accused Capra of plagiarism and then published his own pamphlet in which he used harsh language to deride Capra and his work. When scholars doubted his observations of Jupiter’s moons, he simply responded with sarcasm and refused to see the areas of possible error in his own work.
This evidence led me to believe that Galileo was not a very nice or agreeable person, and this view most definitely caused me to be biased against Galileo when his trial was discussed. I agree with what Koestler says in the beginning of the chapter on the trial: “It is my conviction that the conflict between Church and Galileo (or Copernicus) was not inevitable; that it was not in the nature of a fatal collision between opposite philosophies of existence, which was bound to occur sooner or later, but rather a clash or individual temperaments aggravated by unlucky coincidences” (432). I think that if Galileo had not been so headstrong in many cases and offended so many people, this issue would not have ended in a trial. If he had been more considerate and careful he could have used his connections to his advantage and not faced punishment for supporting Copernican ideas. He was friends with Pope Urban VIII, and this could have been a very valuable relationship had he not abused it. His friend was not out to destroy his career and prevent him from doing his work, and was prepared to overlook his ideology even though it conflicted with the Church. Galileo was able to discuss and write about Copernican theories as long as he did not assert them as fact and spoke strictly hypothetically. Had Galileo not gone on to offend the Pope in his Dialogue, I think that he could have carried on very peacefully with the Church in this way for a long time. He would have been able to continue his work “under the table” and once he had gathered enough solid irrefutable evidence, he could have successfully presented it and had it accepted as fact.
However, Galileo chose to continue in his stubborn headstrong ways and this ended up getting him in trouble. His jabs at the Pope’s beliefs in his Dialogue combined with the many instances in which he had offended the Jesuits caused the Church to become very angry with Galileo and they set out to put him on trial, humiliate him and ruin his reputation.
I think that Galileo was indeed guilty as charged in the trial. He had blatantly disobeyed the decree that had banned him from teaching the Copernican theory as fact. Although I believe that Galileo was a great scientist and that he should be respected for the great discoveries and work that he accomplished during his lifetime, I cannot help but think that he deserved what he got. He acted very recklessly and carelessly in his dealings with people, discredited other scientists’ discoveries, and wanted to take all the credit for all the work that was done in his field. This attitude ended up coming back to haunt him when he had to go up against the people he had made into enemies during his lifetime in order to defend what he believed in.
