Abstract
The transformation of European natural philosophy in Galileo’s lifetime has been closely analyzed by numerous historians of science, none more assiduously than Stillman Drake. During the maturing of our discipline, while some historians have jumped from internal to external studies and back again, Drake has devoted his career to the study of the life and works of Galileo. I’ll not say “single-mindedly” as some might wish, for Drake’s studies encompass a variety of related topics, ranging from Bradwardine’s function to Newton’s apple.
… turning over the great book of nature (which is the proper object of philosophy) is the way to elevate one’s gaze.1
… it is not proper that those who never philosophize should usurp the honorable title of philosopher.2
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Notes & References
Alexandre Koyré, Études Galiléennes, Paris: Hermann, 1939; II: p. 57.
Stillman Drake, Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, Garden City: Doubleday, 1957; p. 64.
Stillman Drake, Galileo against the Philosophers, Los Angeles: Zeitlin & VerBrugge, 1976; p. 144.
Stillman Drake, Galileo Studies: Personality, Tradition and Revolution, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1970; p. 111.
Herbert Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of History, New York: Norton, 1965 (orig. 1931); pp. 5–6.
Maurice A. Finocchiaro, Galileo and the Art of Reasoning, Dordrecht: Reidel, 1980; p. 159.
Alexandre Koyré, Newtonian Studies, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965; pp. 67–68.
Anthony M. Alioto, A History of Western Science, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1987; p. 198.
Isaac Newton, The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Third edition (1727) trans. Andrew Motte, New York: Citadel, 1964; p. 23.
Thomas Settle, “An experiment in the history of science”, Science, 133 (1961) 19– 23.
J. MacLachlan, “A test of an ‘imaginary’ experiment of Galileo’s”, Isis, 64 (1973) 375–379.
Alexandre Koyré, Metaphysics and Measurement, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968; p. 84.
Stillman Drake, “The role of music in Galileo’s experiments”, Scientific American, 232 (no. 6) (June 1975) 98–104.
A. Rupert Hall, The Revolution in Science 1500–1750, London: Longman, 1983; p. 115.
I. Bernard Cohen, The Birth of a New Physics (revised), New York: Norton, 1985; p. 196.
Stillman Drake, “The title page and preface of Galileo’s Dialogue”, Quaderni d’italianistica, 1 (1980) 139–156; Stillman Drake, “Reexamining Galileo’s Dialogue”, in Reinterpreting Galileo, ed. by William A. Wallace, Washington: Catholic University of America, 1986; pp. 155–175.
Horatio Grassi, The Astronomical and Philosophical Balance (1619), translated by C. D. O’Malley in Drake and O’Malley, The Controversy on the Comets of 1618, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1960; p. 71.
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© 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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MacLachlan, J. (1990). Drake Against the Philosophers. In: Levere, T.H., Shea, W.R. (eds) Nature, Experiment, and the Sciences. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 120. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1878-8_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1878-8_5
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