Methodological Aspects of Galileo's Thought

Abstract

The scientific thought of a past classic like Galileo can be examined from many points of view. Here I would like to discuss the interpretation of Galileo’s Dialogue from the scientific and from the methodological points of view, as an illustration of a general problem that one encounters in the reading of past scientific works. The problem is one that involves a tension between scientific relevance and historical accuracy. I shall argue that in order to overcome it one must learn to identify the content of a past classic work from the point of view of scientific method, as distinct from the point of view of substantive scientific theory. In other words, classic scientific texts can be useful to scientists by providing models of how to proceed in appropriately similar circumstances, though they can be misleading when read merely as anticipations of present-day knowledge.