Essay 6: Argument in

Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

Spring 2013

Introduction

In his lectures on Galileo, Professor Bencivenga identifies an important distinction between two tactics that Galileo employs in the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems: 1) those arguments constituting what we have come to call the empirical or “scientific” method and 2) those points where no such method is sufficient or possible, where Galileo is forced to resort to “ordinary intuitions” or rhetorical invention. As Professor Bencivenga argues, Galileo does this in at least three distinct ways, justifying his counterarguments to Ptolemaic accounts of the universe because they are: simpler than Ptolemaic ones; more elegant or aesthetically pleasing in their apparent symmetry and orderliness; and because they exhibit greater proportionality between the causes and effects described in accounting for natural phenomena. The distinction between arguments on the one hand and intuitions or rhetorical invention on the other hand is critical to understanding one of the major points of the lectures on Galileo, namely that, despite contemporary claims of science to the contrary, there is no completely objective method for the discovery of truth.

Assignment

While Professor Bencivenga has directed your attention to several moments in the Dialogue that illustrate this division, there are many other parts of the text that find Galileo in a similar position. Such moments in Galileo’s arguments indicate interpretive choices, where intuition and rhetorical invention form the foundation for empirical observation. Your task in this essay will be to use one section from the text to evaluate Galileo’s argumentation and the intuitive principle or principles that underlie them. Your instructor will determine which section from Galileo will serve as the basis for your analysis. The essay should be roughly 4 pages and will count for 30% of your writing grade.

Steps in the Process

1. Trace the specific steps in the argument being made by Galileo and his characters. What are the main claims and evidence?
2. Examine the structure of these arguments in order to discover the particular intuitive principles that underlie them. To do this you will need to look closely at the claims and evidence you identified as well as any direct statements about the intuitive framework.
3. Evaluate Galileo’s arguments and intuitive principles based on what you have learned about their structure. In your spring research projects, you will be developing a process of research for yourself that will likewise require you to pursue a subject, develop claims, and offer evidence. In what specific ways can Galileo’s text serve as a model for this form of intellectual discovery? Which parts of the argument are convincing, and why? Which parts are not? Could the argument be improved? If so, how?