Introduction
Both Isaac Newton and Galileo contributed much towards modern science in one way or the other Galileo was an Italian physicist, mathematician, philosopher and astronomer.
Main body
He is said to have contributed much in scientific revolution and was known by he names such as; father of modern astronomical observation, father of mathematics and father of modern science.1
He was behind improvement of telescope and astronomical observation and through his astronomical observations and use of telescope, discovered the phases of Venus, satellites and sunspots.
The Catholic Church disagreed with his advocacy that, the sun was at the center of solar system, because it was no empirically proven and contradicted the meaning of scripture. This resulted to conflict between him and the Catholic Church making the church to denounce his opinions judging them dangerous and was restricted from teaching Copernicans astronomy.
He initiated the use of experiments whose results could be analyzed precisely using mathematical formulas. He stated that laws of nature were actually mathematical and his mathematical analyses were developments of traditions employed by natural philosopher Galileo wanted to separate science from philosophy and religion and was ready to change his views to commensurate with his experimental results. He showed that there was a close relationship between mathematics, theoretical and experimental physics.
Galileo used experiments to explain the causes of things rather that the natural scientists who applied philosophy to investigate the causes. Galileo believed that two bodies of same material but different mass falling from certain height, the time of their decent was independent of their mass. His ideal was different from the natural scientists who believed that the time of decent is depended of mass.
Isaac Newton was a Briton mathematician, physicist astronomer, natural philosopher and theologian. He relied on calculus and he advanced the law of universal gravitation and discovered the three laws of motion. He builds his contributions from ideals of Galileo and showed that, the motion of earthly bodies is governed by laws of nature. By combining the law of gravity and Kepler’s law of planetary bodies he proved that sun was at the center of solar system.
In mathematics he developed integral calculus while in optics he discovered the reflecting telescope and observed that white light could be decomposed in visible spectrum. Isaac was more of Christian than a natural scientist and his work result was more biblical than natural science.
He believed that, Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done2.
Conclusion
The two believed that earth was at center of universe as opposed to Aristotelians who stood for sun being at center. Their stand about nature was based on experimental result unlike the Aristotelian who believed in observation to search for natural circumstances.
The Aristotelian scientific tradition’s primary mode of interacting with the world was through observation and searching for “natural” circumstances3
Bibliography
Biagioli, Mario, Galileo, Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Galileo, Shapere Dudley, a Philosophical Study. University of Chicago Press, 1974. Harper & Row, (1959).
William, Dampier C. and Dampier, M Readings in the Literature of Science. New York: Zev, Bechler. Newton’s Physics and the Conceptual Structure of the Scientific Revolution. (1991). Pp, 588.
Footnotes
- Bechler, Zev. Newton’s Physics and the Conceptual Structure of the Scientific Revolution. (1991). Pp, 588.
- Dampier, William C.Dampier, M. Readings in the Literature of Science. ( New York: 1959)
- Galileo, Biagioli, Mario Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.