Article ID: CBB406064217

Galileo 'philosopher geometer' and his influence on Charleton, Barrow and Keill (2020)

unapi

This article analyses how Walter Charleton, Isaac Barrow and John Keill reacted to Galileo's views concerning the composition of continuous magnitudes and the relation between physical and mathematical truths. For Galileo these two issues were closely related. He argued that mathematics is applicable to the study of nature precisely because geometrical and physical magnitudes have the same structure, being equally composed of an infinite number of unextended indivisibles ("indivisibili non quanti"). The article shows that Charleton, Barrow and Keill were unanimous in rejecting Galileo's "indivisibili non quanti," but endorsed other aspects of his project of the mathematization of nature. Charleton and Keill defended the validity of Galileo's law of free fall, but were at pains to reconcile it with their own views concerning the composition of space and time. As for the relation between physical and mathematical truths, while Charleton considered it inconvenient to transfer geometrical demonstrations to physical or sensible quantity, Barrow and Keill agreed with Galileo that all physical phenomena can, in principle, be described in the language of mathematics.

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Authors & Contributors
Palmerino, Carla Rita
Giannetto, Enrico
Baldin, Gregorio
Appetecchi, Elisabetta
Lofano, Francesco
Ricciardo, Salvatore
Concepts
Physics
Natural philosophy
Atomism
Mathematics
Motion (physical)
Matter theory
Time Periods
17th century
Early modern
Medieval
16th century
Places
Italy
England
Rome (Italy)
Naples (Italy)
Europe
Institutions
Royal Society of London
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