Michael Segre's elegant survey of Galileo takes a close look at the myths that have grown up around this figure of genius. Segre assesses Galileo's place in the scientific, cultural, and political communities of post-Renaissance Italy: What role did scientific experiments really play in Galileo's science? What scientific and philosophical questions did he leave unresolved for his followers to grapple with? How did his followers--scientists like Borelli and Torricelli--deal with Galileo's overshadowing presence after his ...
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Michael Segre's elegant survey of Galileo takes a close look at the myths that have grown up around this figure of genius. Segre assesses Galileo's place in the scientific, cultural, and political communities of post-Renaissance Italy: What role did scientific experiments really play in Galileo's science? What scientific and philosophical questions did he leave unresolved for his followers to grapple with? How did his followers--scientists like Borelli and Torricelli--deal with Galileo's overshadowing presence after his death? How did Galileo's political and religious confrontations affect the course of science?Segre's portrait of Galileo and science in the generation that followed him is accessible and stimulating to the general reader, the student, and the professional historian of science alike.
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Like New in Like New jacket. Segre has set himself three tasks not yet addressed in full: to examine the social matrix of Galileo's life and thought; to explore the work of the group of disciples of Galileo; and to study the influence of Galileo in Italy and the state of science during the quarter century or so after his death.
