Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

Introduction

Galileo wrote the Dialogue in Italian rather than Latin so that it could reach educated readers outside the universities; it was printed in Florence in 1632 with the permission of the Church censors. Over four days three characters talk: Salviati, who speaks for Galileo, the open-minded Sagredo and Simplicio, a follower of Aristotle whose name recalls the commentator Simplicius but also suggests a simpleton. The fourth day presents an argument from the tides, which turned out to be mistaken. Pope Urban VIII is said to have felt mocked, because one of his own arguments is put in Simplicio’s mouth. In 1633 the Inquisition condemned Galileo, and the book stayed on the Index until 1835.

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Connections

Builds on

• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres1543 · Nicolaus Copernicus

Criticizes

• Physicsc. 350 BCE · Aristotle

Taken up in

• Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Principia)1687 · Isaac Newton

Criticized in

• The Crisis of European Sciences1936 · Edmund Husserl