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Introduction

  • Jochen Büttner
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Part of the Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science book series (BSPS, volume 335)

Abstract

This book sets out to demonstrate how around 1602, the exploration of a challenging similarity that Galileo perceived to hold on a phenomenological level between the swinging of pendulums and the rolling of heavy bodies down along inclined planes, led him to new insights, which he successively transformed into the foundations of his new science of motion as it would eventually be published in the Discorsi. The introduction presents the Notes on Motion as the primary source used in reconstructing the intellectual pathways which brought Galileo to the second of his new sciences. The most relevant literature is briefly surveyed, and the methods applied and principles adhered to in analyzing the manuscript and setting up the interpretation are introduced.

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© Springer Nature B.V. 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jochen Büttner
    • 1
  1. 1.Max Planck Institute for the History of ScienceBerlinGermany

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