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Galileo on the world systems : a new abridged translation and guide / Maurice A. Finocchiaro.
LIBRA QB41 .G136 1997
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Galilei, Galileo, 1564-1642.
- Standardized Title:
- Dialogo dei massimi sistemi. English
- Language:
- English
- Italian
- Subjects (All):
- Galilei, Galileo, 1564-1642. Dialogo dei massimi sistemi.
- Galilei, Galileo.
- Astronomy--Early works to 1800.
- Astronomy.
- Solar system--Early works to 1800.
- Solar system.
- Physical Description:
- xi, 425 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Berleley : University of California Press, [1997]
- Summary:
- Galileo's 1632 book, Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican, comes alive for twentieth-century readers thanks to Maurice Finocchiaro's brilliant new translation and presentation. Condemned by the Inquisition for its heretical proposition that the earth revolves around the sun, Galileo's masterpiece takes the form of a debate, divided into four "days", among three highly articulate gentlemen.
- Finocchiaro sets the stage with his introduction, which not only provides the human and historical framework for the Dialogue but also admits the reader gracefully into the basic non-Copernican understanding of the universe that would have been shared by Galileo's original audience. The translation of the Dialogue is abridged in order to highlight its essential content, and Finocchiaro gives titles to the various parts of the debate as a guide to the principal topics. By explicating his own critical reading of this text that is itself an exercise in critical reasoning on a gripping real-life controversy, he illuminates those universal, perennial activities of the human mind that make Galileo's book a living document. This is a concrete, hands-on introduction to critical thinking.
- Galileo on the World Systems is a remarkably nuanced interpretation of a classic work and will give readers the tools to understand and evaluate for themselves one of the most influential scientific books in Western civilization.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 399-407) and index.
- ISBN:
- 0520205480
- 0520206460
- OCLC:
- 34114342
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