Galileo Galilei
Pisa, Italy
Italian Scientist and
Scholar
Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy but then transferred
to Florence once he began his formal education at the Camaldolese monastery in
Vallombros. He later studied at the
University of Pisa where he became passionate about physics and astronomy. Later
on in his life he began teaching and the University of Padua, where his
entertaining lectures began to attract large crowds and increased his fame. He
had been taught Aristotelian theories and a lot of his teaching and experiments
were founded upon that. However, as he continued his studies and professorship,
Galileo “began mounting a body of evidence that supported Copernican theory and
contradicted Aristotle and Church doctrine.” (3)In a letter to one of his students
Galileo defended his research and explained how “Copernican theory did not
contradict Biblical passages, stating that scripture was written from an
earthly perspective and implied that science provided a different, more
accurate perspective.” (3)The Church didn’t like that at all and began to impose
limitations on Galileo and dictating what he was and wasn’t aloud to teach and
defend. Galileo ended up really being persecuted for his discoveries and his
theories. The Church ended up putting him on house arrest and he eventually
grew ill and later died after going blind and suffering other illnesses. The
reason that I really wanted to bring Galileo along, is not just because of the
fact that he was a fantastic teacher and scientist, but because of his example
of perseverance in hard things. Galileo life reflects that of one who had
observed conflict of theory and sought honestly to correct it. He was in no way
ignorant, and observed and meditated on everything that Aristotle had theorized
and then tried to expound upon those theories and creatively improve them. He was
able to back his theories with explanations using math and became a master at
linking math and physics. He sought to understand the relationship between
religion and science and I appreciated his attempts to do so. He was fascinated
by astronomy and I love his curiosity about the unknown world. Many attribute
the development and avid implementation of the telescope to Galileo and his
astronomic observations prove to be rather “astronomically” significant even
still today. He was willing to stretch beyond the common belief and explore
unfamiliar territory and I think that every culture needs a learner like
Galileo to guide them. (S,D,H pg. 306)