Free Response Practice #1

Why are the trials and tribulations of Galileo often considered both predicative of the future of Western Civilization as well as a perfect encapsulation of the context of his own time?


Galileo Galilee was the most revolutionary scientist of his time. His results changed the way people thought about the world they live in. Galileo's writings helped lead to the future of Western civilization. But he also faced many hardships along the way, which were predictable given his times. Galileo's findings in the areas of astronomy and motion helped modern science develop, but his relatively primitive instruments, his need to evade persecution, and the necessity to make his results easy to understand were setbacks to Galileo's genius. 


Galileo can be seen as the father of many branches of science, but most importantly in astronomy and motion. All of his findings were new to the people, and sparked the Scientific Revolution which, in turn, led to the future of Western science. Galileo one night noticed that the stars around Jupiter were not the same as they had been on other nights. He had discovered that Jupiter has many moons. Galileo accepted Copernicus's view of a heliocentric universe and rejected the geocentric theory. These results were both revolutionary, the latter much more than the former. His findings changed how people thought of themselves in relation to the universe and that led to many other scientists working together to try and discover why this was. Once people understood where they were, they could question why they were and these observations acted as the foundation for the future of western science.


It was not all easy going for the budding sciences, especially for Galileo. Galileo was, after all, living in the dawn of the Scientific Revolution and practically everything would be met with hardships. The major tribulation that hindered Galileo throughout his entire career was the lack of specialized instruments. Galileo's work with the stars was made difficult by the fact that he did not have a very powerful telescope. His results were made up of mostly assumed conjecture with extremely limited scientific proof. Galileo's scientific achievements had to be understandable to the common man, or all would be lost. The society and time in which he was living were major setbacks in Galileo's quest for the truth. It would not have been enough for Galileo to understand his findings, he needed to make it so that everyone could understand at least the basics of what he was trying to say. Galileo encountered many problems, but none were as great as attempting to start a revolution but make it known to the people  what science really meant. 


Trying to move ahead to the future while having to keep in mind the limits of one's own time proved to be near impossible for Galileo. Galileo found persecution awaiting him after almost every experiment that he conducted. His main source of trouble was found when he denounced the heliocentric view of the system and replaced it with geocentricism. The Church felt that the Earth had to be the center of the universe, lest all of their teachings be proven incorrect. Galileo had to keep this in mind searching for the correct truth, but discovered that the Church was wrong. He faced the Roman Inquisition because he had not paid heed to the context of his time. Similarly, Galileo disturbed many citizens when he rejected Aristotle's view on the elements; one which had stayed firm for centuries. Galileo presented many ideas that were considered blasphemy in his time, but which he knew would lead to the revolution in science.