History

The Complexity of Newton

Jun 19 2007 09:00 PM | Godot in History

By Steve Nakoneshny (2007) In the most simplistic of terms, religion is an attempt to discuss the nature of the universe with thoughts of a Deity being central. Science is an attempt to describe the nature of the universe simply as the physical, expre...

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Galileo and the Bible

Jul 01 2005 09:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in History

By Paul Newall (2005) The so-called Galileo Affair occurred within a variety of contexts, some – like the invention of the telescope – recent and some with an ancient pedigree. This paper looks at examples of the latter, centring on the i...

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The Galileo Affair, Part 5: The aftermath

Jun 30 2005 08:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in History

By Paul Newall (2005) Consequences So it was that the trial and its inevitable result established what had already been determined in 1616 by Bellarmine's blinkered approach, wherein he claimed that no Scriptural passage could be challenged by p...

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The Galileo Affair, Part 4: The trial and its d...

Jun 29 2005 07:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in History

By Paul Newall (2005) The Trial and its Development Urban VIII and Politics The reception of the Dialogue among Galileo's friends was enthusiastic (XIV, 357), as could have been expected. Riccardi received a copy and made no complaint (Paschin...

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The Galileo Affair, Part 3: Intellectual contexts

Jun 28 2005 08:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in History

By Paul Newall (2005) As we shall see, the Assayer was not just a polemic, in spite of the declarations to that effect on the part of several writers on Galileo (cf. de Santillana, 1958; Geymonat, op cit). Commenting on the fact that the myriad areas...

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The Galileo Affair, Part 2: Non-intellectual co...

Jun 27 2005 08:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in History

By Paul Newall (2005) Non-Intellectual Contexts From his time as a student (Drake, 2001: 17), Galileo had been known as someone who willingly opposed orthodoxy. Even so, the social environment in which he found himself presented him with other obsta...

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The Galileo Affair, Part 1: Introduction

Jun 26 2005 07:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in History

By Paul Newall (2005) The trial and resulting abjuration of Galileo before the Holy Congregation of the Catholic Church, which occurred at the convent of Minerva on the 22nd of June, 1633, has been studied by scholars and laymen alike for several hund...

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Galilean Myths

Jun 25 2005 09:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in History

By Paul Newall (2005) As explained in the extended essay, the Galileo Affair is well known for giving rise to mythical interpretations. Although the reading that portrays Galileo as a martyr to science or rationality persists in many circles, there ar...

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Philosophy and the New Archaeology

Jun 12 2005 09:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in History

By Paul Newall (2005) Philosophy has always been involved in archaeology. This is an argument we will develop by considering the so-called New Archaeology and the debates surrounding it that have taken place over the past thirty years or so. Archaeo...

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Minimalism and the rhetoric of misrepresentation

Mar 03 2004 09:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in History

By Paul Newall (2004) Keith Whitelam's paper Representing Minimalism: The Rhetoric and Reality of Revisionism is found in a festschrift for Robert Carroll, Sense and Sensitivity. In the early parts of his essay, Whitelam attempts to show that the...

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Hermeticism

Mar 03 2004 09:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in History

By Paul Newall (2004) The Hermetica—or the collection of mystical teachings that form the basis of Hermeticism—was traditionally attributed to Hermes Trismegistus: "thrice-greatest Hermes", the Egyptian god Thoth, who was known as Mercury by t...

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