“Deliberate purpose of hindering scientific progress” is taking it too far. But:
The Church’s primary consideration in its dealings with Galileo was the preservation of its power over the masses. Not by ensuring they knew less than it did (as you say, that was an irrelevance), but by ensuring that the pope’s authority was respected.
The Church’s actions were inimical to scientific progress. Not because they were wrong at the object level—as you say, the geocentric viewpoint had a reasonable amount of evidence in its favour. But they were wrong at the meta level; free and open debate between rival theories (and not just polite, well-researched debate, but also partisan screeds) is vital to scientific progress.
But they were wrong at the meta level; free and open debate between rival theories (and not just polite, well-researched debate, but also partisan screeds) is vital to scientific progress.
That’s what I felt the OP missed. Galileo is more a symbol for freedom of speech and freedom from theocracy than a personal champion of rationality. And I was surprised to see this point get little play in the responses so far.
In what way do you think your first point would contradict anything I wrote?
Your second point can be disproved by the book of Riccioli, which was exactly what you asked for: a free and open debate.
And as the Church funded most of the research, without it, none of this (not even the pro-heliocentric research) would have happened.
The “Deliberate purpose of hindering scientific progress” is believed by a lot of people, so I think it is a valid bias to fight against.
No, it isn’t. People believe the Catholic hierarchy opposed heliocentrism on biblical grounds, which they did. I’ll grant you this paints an incomplete picture. But phrasing it as a “deliberate purpose of hindering scientific progress” is a clear strawman.
Copernicus didn’t have any affairs with the Inquisition.
Perhaps because he published and died at roughly the same time. His followers apparently did not make much of a fuss before Galileo.
They used Aristotle and, for the time being, good scientific reasoning.
Until this proved impossible, in a difference you conceal under the phrase “a lot of very complicated formulas”. Actually, geocentrism required a departure from the regular circular motions that Aristotle’s physics predicted. They called it the “equant”. As a physical process it would be a non-circular motion, though we could find other ways to interpret it. And even Tycho Brahe required this (see the third use of the term, if it doesn’t take you there). Note that Kepler discovered this before your Riccioli wrote the book you speak of, and indeed Kepler published his more correct heliocentric account—to explain the observations—long before. (I’ll grant you Kepler included a lot of other ideas, probably all wrong.) Newton founded modern science by building on Kepler, hence the lack of interest in the later work of Riccioli.
“Deliberate purpose of hindering scientific progress” is taking it too far. But:
The Church’s primary consideration in its dealings with Galileo was the preservation of its power over the masses. Not by ensuring they knew less than it did (as you say, that was an irrelevance), but by ensuring that the pope’s authority was respected.
The Church’s actions were inimical to scientific progress. Not because they were wrong at the object level—as you say, the geocentric viewpoint had a reasonable amount of evidence in its favour. But they were wrong at the meta level; free and open debate between rival theories (and not just polite, well-researched debate, but also partisan screeds) is vital to scientific progress.
Yes on both points.
That’s what I felt the OP missed. Galileo is more a symbol for freedom of speech and freedom from theocracy than a personal champion of rationality. And I was surprised to see this point get little play in the responses so far.
In what way do you think your first point would contradict anything I wrote?
Your second point can be disproved by the book of Riccioli, which was exactly what you asked for: a free and open debate. And as the Church funded most of the research, without it, none of this (not even the pro-heliocentric research) would have happened.
The “Deliberate purpose of hindering scientific progress” is believed by a lot of people, so I think it is a valid bias to fight against.
No, it isn’t. People believe the Catholic hierarchy opposed heliocentrism on biblical grounds, which they did. I’ll grant you this paints an incomplete picture. But phrasing it as a “deliberate purpose of hindering scientific progress” is a clear strawman.
Perhaps because he published and died at roughly the same time. His followers apparently did not make much of a fuss before Galileo.
Until this proved impossible, in a difference you conceal under the phrase “a lot of very complicated formulas”. Actually, geocentrism required a departure from the regular circular motions that Aristotle’s physics predicted. They called it the “equant”. As a physical process it would be a non-circular motion, though we could find other ways to interpret it. And even Tycho Brahe required this (see the third use of the term, if it doesn’t take you there). Note that Kepler discovered this before your Riccioli wrote the book you speak of, and indeed Kepler published his more correct heliocentric account—to explain the observations—long before. (I’ll grant you Kepler included a lot of other ideas, probably all wrong.) Newton founded modern science by building on Kepler, hence the lack of interest in the later work of Riccioli.