Should Galileo Galilei be considered as the ‘First’ Modern Scientist?

1. Introduction

Galileo Galilei， the famous Italian mathematician， physicist， philosopher and astronomer in middle age， was born in 1564 in Pisa. Galileo has made a great contribution on modern science improvement in astronomy， physics and mathematics. He was often considered as the “first modern scientist”or by many experts. However， some people still have different opinions about it. The purpose of this research paper is to analyse the impact that Galileo had given to modern science and discuss whether this title is suitable for him. After finishing all my research， I argue that Galileo should definitely be considered as the “first modern scientist”. Galileo combined the mathematics， theory and experiment and created the new research method， this is a revolutionary approach in the history of modern science.

2. Literature Review

2.1 About “modern science”

A journal article titled “The Development of Scientific Method in the School of PADUA” written by Randall was published in 1940. The article explained the process of how Aristotelian science developed into Modern science in the school of PUADA. A new idea was brought up in 13th and 14th century， which presented that science can be grounded on experiment and formulated by mathematic. It states that the study of ancient mathematics resulted in the rise of modern science. Galileo is also mentioned in the article. However， it is just said that as a member of Padua， Galileo made contributions on mathematics techniques and the experimental science. The details of Galileos achievements are not demonstrated in the article. The readers may get confused about the process of how experiment and mathematics became the new core of science.

2.2 About Galileo Galileis achievements

Gregory Dawess journal article titled Experiment， Speculation， and Galileos Scientific Reasoning is published in 2016. The author doubted the utility of the method of analysing early modern science with the distinction of natural and speculative science. In this article， Dawe admitted Galileo is the first scientist who emphasized the importance of experiment. But he does not agree that Galileo preferred the experimental style of science philosophy. According to Dawe， Galileos experiment aimed to establish the truth of premise rather than truth of conclusion. Moreover， according to the author， Galileo claimed that the reliability of knowledge which can be learned from mathematics is equal to what we learned from God. The ideas demonstrated in the article are new and interesting. And Dawe also supported his ideas with enough details from works of Galileo himself as well as other scholars. However， I am not completely agree with the author. Galileo tend to use experiment just to test his hypothesis. Experiment is also one of the major parts of Galileos scientific philosophy.

3. Theories and evidence

3.1 Features of Modern science

To discuss why Galileo is the first modern scientist， we need to know the features of modern science first. In general， experts agree that modern science based on mathematics and experiment. That may be the most obvious feature which differ modern science from ancient science： the ancient science mainly based on hypothesis. The idea of experimental and mathematical science first appeared in 13th and 14th century， but Galileo is the person who developed mathematics and experiment into the important ways of doing scientific research. Galileos new scientific research method of combining the observation， experiment and mathematics was considered the origin of modern science.

3.2 Galileos experimental science

Galileo may not be the first person to do the experiment， but he is the first scientist to point out the importance of experiment in scientific research. According to Galileo， the research on objects should not be based on intuitions， all assumptions or theories should be tested by experiments before it be considered correct by scientists. Most of his theories are supported by the evidence gained form experiments. For example， he dropped unequal weights “from a tower”（not the Tower of Pisa） to test his uniformly accelerated motion principle. Through this experiment， he found the gravity and proved his hypothesis of free fall motion. In another experiment， Galileo let a ball fall down through a slope and record the time of the ball accelerating along different lengths. According to Galileo， a new science base on the definition of uniform acceleration and a hypothesis： when the same material moving down the slopes with different inclinations， the speed remains the same if the slopes have same heights， has been discovered. Galileo had tested his theory of the science of naturally accelerated motions through the experiment， which is a big improvement in the history of modern science.

3.3 Galileos mathematic approach

Just as experiment， mathematics is also the core of Galileos scientific method. Galileos mathematical science found balance between mathematical knowledge and experience. For example， he used sequence to demonstrate the speeds of free falling material “at the end of successive equal intervals of time”. In Galileos late works， he also wrote about the notion of proportion. Before Galileo， there are scientists who use mathematics to research on things and motions. However， Galileo is the one who made the new mathematical-experimental method became a general scientific methodology. The qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis are two basic research methodology of the modern science. Galileos mathematical-experimental methodology can be seen as a combination of these two methodologies.

4. Conclusion

From what have been discussed above， a conclusion can be made： there is no doubt that Galileo should be considered as the “the father of modern science”. His achievements on astronomy and motion had opened the door of modern physics. Moreover， Galileo may not be the first person to do the experiment， but he is the first scientist to point out the importance of experiment for science. And this is the foundation of modern experimental science. Besides， it is Galileo who made the mathematical method became a general scientific methodology. Galileos scientific philosophy is a combination of the experimental and mathematical science， which represents the most important feature of modern science. Since the great influence that Galileo has on modern science， he truly deserves the title “the first modern scientist”.

References：

[1]Drake Stillman， Galileo： A Very Short Introduction[M]. Oxford University Press， 2001：16.

[2]Gorge Dawes. Experiment， Speculation， and Galileos Scientific Reasoning[J]. Perspectives on Science， 2016，24：343.

[3]Settle T. An Experiment in the History of Science[J]. Science， 1961，133：19.

[4]Settle T. An Experiment in the History of Science[J]. Science， 1961，133：20.

[5]I Cohen， Revolution in Science[J]. （Harvard UP， 1985），140.

[6]Editorial Department of Learned Periodical， Jialilve Shuxue Shiyan Fangfa Ji Yanjiu Yiyi[D]. Journal of Qinghai University（Natural Science）， 1996，2：31.

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【作者簡介】杨帆依蓝（1992.08-），女，汉族，四川广汉人，中国民用航空飞行学院，研究生，研究实习员，研究方向： 翻译与跨文化交流。