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A review by david_rhee
Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences by Galileo Galilei
3.0
Two New Sciences is definitely a unique physical treatise in that it is written as a Platonic style dialogue. As the title suggests, the dialogue serves to highlight a shift in thought and the format does prove suitable to allow ideas and opinions to clash freely. Simplicio is the clear-cut Aristotelian of the group. Sagredo and Salviati seem like mouthpieces for conflicting ideas with which Galileo himself had to reckon to arrive at his conclusions which are given in the text written by the "Academician." Another good thing about the dialogue style is that the reader can elect to follow closely or to remain a little aloof and just listen in. I chose the latter for the majority part and this reading experience reminded me of my high school and college years where I mostly found myself merely present at conversations without being really involved in them. -pause- *brief but painful flashbacks which abruptly dissipate* ...Whoa, sorry...anyways... While this fate isn't exactly enviable in real-life social settings, the approach works well for this book.
Those who do choose to follow along, I admire you. The Euclidean style of working with ratios and line segments rather than quantifying values with numbers dominates the many proofs. Again, I think it's more helpful as a work which displays the "history of ideas" at play and in transition. Time-honored opinions are bolstered or dismantled by experimental reasoning. While it may be thought a criticism to be labeled an "intermediate" work for the science of Newton, there is truly no shame in that at all. One can't have ends without process.
Those who do choose to follow along, I admire you. The Euclidean style of working with ratios and line segments rather than quantifying values with numbers dominates the many proofs. Again, I think it's more helpful as a work which displays the "history of ideas" at play and in transition. Time-honored opinions are bolstered or dismantled by experimental reasoning. While it may be thought a criticism to be labeled an "intermediate" work for the science of Newton, there is truly no shame in that at all. One can't have ends without process.