Chapter 1: "Laying Claim to an Audience: The First Prophets of the New Science"

Dr. Ess

[See especially her comments on:

Galileo's turn to the vernacular in search of support
Galileo's miscalculation regarding the Inquisition - in its local version, vs. the general Medieval spirit of free inquiry in support of, not in opposition to, religious belief.

Objections to Galileo's new mechanical science as elitist - an further implicating the major conflict between Protestants and Catholics.

The forced reinterpretation of Scripture as "literal" in the face of the larger conflict between Catholic and Protestant.

The utility of the new science - as part of its cultural/propogandistic appeal to elites.

The millenarian dimension of the Protestant Reformation, as contributing to a new interest in "science" as a means of "progress."
The attack on Galileo as partly a reaction of academics who read his work as an attack on their competence.
The effect of Galileo's condemnation - namely, a linkage between Protestantism and the new science.
The concern, on the other hand, that Galileo's work would fuel the new religious "enthusiasm" - a fear shared by both Protestant and Catholic.
Jacob analyzes the intentions and appeal of Francis Bacon in similar terms.
Finally, the new science is an overtly masculine endeavor - for both Galileo and Bacon.

Articulates the "propoganda" dimension: as Copernicans (such as Galileo) shifted from Latin into vernacular speech,

...they appealed not only to the clergy but, more dramatically, to the educated laity in the urban commercial centers as well as to the new monarchs and the salons of the princes and aristocrats. At every turn these vernacular appeals sought to integrate science into the values and interests of the elites to whom they primarily spoke. (12)

On the tradition about to be displaced:

What is clear from recent scholarship is the emphasis placed by the followers of Aristotle on an empirical tradition. Simple observation was highly valued, more so, in some cases, than mathematics. So, too, was logic. (13)

"First major assault" -- 17th ct. Florence: "There the humanistic culture of the Renaissance had already sought to render knowledge meaningful to civic life, to the political and economic interests of aristocrats and merchants alike." (14)

Given what historians now know about the formation of a distinctive elite culture in the early modern period, we would have to conclude that Galileo was among the first scientists to appeal to what was in fact a newly empowered literate culture, and, more important, that he had a reasonably accurate grasp on its values and assumptions. What he did not reckon on was the immense power of the Roman Inquisition. He may also have failed to realize how out of touch and unsympathetic the local bureaucracy of the Inquisition had become to an intellectual tradition of free scientific inquiry that had once flourished in the late medieval universities and that had never intended, nor in fact constituted, a threat to the doctrinal foundations of Christianity. (15; emphasis added, CE)

The educational situation in late 15th century:

Even by the late fifteenth century, before the time of Copernicus, students at the traditional universities of Europe, whether in Florence, Cracow, Oxford, or Paris, would have found themselves being taught a traditonal Aristotelianism, to be sure; but they would also have found a growing emphasis on a more practical, less abstract, science: on astronomy, for navigation, on the principles of simple mechanics, on mtallurgy, on mathematics, and even on practical anatomy as taught at Bologna, for example. Where they attended universities influenced by the civic humanism of the Renaissance they would have learned of the necessity for the educated laity to use their learning in the service of the polity. (16)

The Galilean confrontation pits "the followers and teachers of Aristotle, for the most part clergymen, against the largely lay, but occasionaly clerical and often Protestant, followers of a mechanical philosophy of nature." In addition, the new mechanical philosophy is elitist:

...the new mechanical philosophy forms the basis of a privileged learning suitable only for the educated few. To express this appeal to elite culture in the language of Galileo, science is fit only for "the minds of the wise" and not for "the shallow minds of the common people." (17)

"Melange of fundamental and new assumptions" -- see pp. 17f. including the forced reinterpretation of Scripture:

...if there are scriptural texts that state or imply otherwise [than the mechanical, heliocentric views], these must be understood as simply the use of commonplace metaphorical language intended for the benefit of "the vulgar," not as inherent contradictions between Scripture and natural philosophy. Galileo maintained that Gods' word could not ultimately contradict God's work. But Aristotle could be contradicted because, in Galileo's words, "reasons persuade me -- and Aristotle himself taught me to find peace of mind in that which I am persuaded by reason and not solely by the authority of the master...Philosophizing must be free." (18f.)

In addition, this new science is useful.

In choosing to argue for the utility of the new science Galileo sought an alliance between science and the material interests of the educated laity. In effect he endeavored to render science into an inherent part of a new and elite culture that had developed in the course of the sixteenth century, a culture increasingly distinct from popular culture and even hostile to it. (19)

This occurred in the context of a growing gap between rich and poor:

All social and economic evidence we have from the period immediately prior to Galileo's confrontation with the church points to an increase in poverty for the majority in most parts of Europe, combined with an increasing prosperity for many aristocratic and mercantile elites, particularly for those who could use their land or capital to take advantage fo the new inflationary or market pressures. (19f.)

The Protestant Reformation as millenarian ["offering a vision of a better future here on earth] -- and as an important background idea:

We will find that millenarian vision an important rationale for the acceptance of the new science in Protestant countries; indeed the English philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626), a precise contemporary of Galileo, offered the new science as one of the avenues by which that millenarian reformation might be achieved (see pp. 33-35). But he did so in language that specifically repudiated any association between millenarianism and the culture of the people, or between science and the contemporary opponents of church and state. (20)

--> "dramatic change" in the relationship between the culture of the few and the many: quoting James R. Jacob, "The elite, once having patronized popular culture, become increasingly suspicious and hostile to it....The people and their culture had become dangerous."

Jacob further points out the obvious: the "monopoly on scientific education enjoyed by the clerical teachers of the local universities," -- who are largely Aristotelian by training rightly perceive Galileo's new science as an attack on their competence and hence their status within the academic community.

Not surprisingly, they spearheaded the attack on Galileo and used Scripture as their immediate weapon. (21)

This reaction to Galileo -- as we will see in the 19th century in the reaction to Darwin, et. al. -- pushes the defenders of the old system to emphasize a literal reading of Scripture. (21)

The conflict here, then, is in part between the "popular" approach to Scripture, one which emphasizes it as literal -- an emphasis bound up with the political motives of the Aristotelians who come under attack -- and the "elitist" approach of Galileo and others who insist that Scripture speaks "naively" about physical matters, "in accordance with the language of ordinary people," -- such that Copernican and Galilean ideas are, in Galileo's words, "'far beyond the comprehension of the common people.'" (21; see supporting quotes, pp. 22f.)

Notice that this elitism is also directed against women. Jacob quotes Galileo's friend, Giovanni Ciampoli:

I have spoke to no one yet who did not judge it a great irrelevance for preachers to want to enter their pulpits and discuss such lofty and professional subjects among women and ordinary folk, where there exists such a small number of well-informed people.

"The Effect of Galileo's Condemnation"

--> ideological linkage between Protestantism and the new science, as Copernicanism could be used in the attack against Catholicism (24-25)

Points out that this is a political linkage -- that in fact, the powers of the Roman church and its clergy "...were frequently justified philosophically by the use of Aristotelian arguments." (25)

--> because science depends upon communication, books on the new science

...had to be published where the Inquisition had no authority. In practice that meant in Protestant Europe: in the German cities, in England, and most especially in the Dutch Republic, which had only jsut won its independence from Spain. (25)

--> further tied to the technological accomplishment, the printing press. The history of both the printing press and the Scientific Revolution from Galileo to Newton "became increasingly Protestant in the course of the seventeenth century." (25)

"The Danger of Naturalism and Enthusiasm"

Bruno.

"Suddenly the new science has been brought into alliance with forms of religious belief and magical practice long regarded by the church, and sixteenth century Protestants, as extremely dangerous." (27)

Nice account of naturalism, enthusiasm - p. 27. Note that in particular, enthusiasm means a popular religion:

Enthusiastic religion had long been associated with the undisciplined religiosity of "the people." It relied on a mystical belief in the power of ordinary men and women to communicate with the Deity; it presumed that their wisdom equaled that of the learned. The religious upheavals of the sixteenth century had renewed the fear of popular enthusiasm; and by the middle of that century there were small sects throughout Europe, such as the Anabaptists, who were indeed, from the perspective of both Protestant and Catholic clergy and magistrates, enthusiasts. (27)

It has been argued that some of Galileo's accusers feared his doctrines would give support to Bruno, and hence to such enthusiasm.

Campanella, by contrast, argues that

the study of nature should be encouraged among the people in order to promote obedience to authority. Campanella was convinced that natural philosophy, rather than causing people to question authority, would absorb their interest and hence turn their attentions away from politics and religious dissent. Science would also channel human energies into productive enterprise, entergies that might otherwise go to fuel popular disturbances. (J. Jacob, 29)

This social utility of the new science -- i.e., its service as a way of encouraging social order and obedience, will become thematic in the late 18th century by "promoters of industrialization and scientific education in England and the Continent." (29)

This social utility further includes the promise of increasing wealth and power -- of existing elites (30)

Francis Bacon as providing a still grander vision of social utility -- one that places the new science at the service of "monarchs and entire national states." (31ff.)

Gender-specific: "...Bacon was very precise in giving a gender identity to scientific activities as he sought to assure the aristocracy and gentry that science is truly 'masculine'...." (32)

Bacon also allies his new science with the Protestant Reformation -- see quote, pp. 33f.

Millenarian:

the great instauration of learning "would precede the end of the world and liberate human beings from the effects of their original fall from grace." (34)

--> "profoundly mystical elements in his thought" as he resembles Bruno and Paracelsus (34f.)

The profoundly humanistic quality of the Baconian vision made it attractive to scientifically minded social reformers as well as to promoters of the new science throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, if not well beyond. The belief that science made useful could bring "the relief of man's estate" has never been surpassed as a rationale for natural philosophical inquiry and general scientific education....his vision that science promised to lighten the human burden, to provide domination over nature, appealed to reforming German Protestants of the same period [1620's] who wished, like Bacon, to include natural knowledge in the millenarian reforms promised in the coming age. (35)

"By the eighteenth century reformers, no longer convinced that human progress required any disruption of historical time, easily ignored Bacon's millenarian side and concentrated on his call for a scientific empiricism intended for the relief of the human condition." -- such as the French encyclopedists (36)

These linkages, on Jacob's view -- especially to the political utility of reinforcing social order and religious orthodoxy, along with the promises of power over nature --"ensured its [the new science's] integration into the larger culture and made its ideological formulations immediately and directly relevant to those who held, or sought to hold, power in society and government." (38)