“ They seemed to forget that the increase of known truths stimulates the investigation, establishment, and growth of the arts; not their diminution or destruction. ”
Galileo Galilei, Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany (1615). copy citation
| Author | Galileo Galilei |
|---|---|
| Source | Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany |
| Topic | truth knowledge science investigation |
| Date | 1615 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | https://web.stanford.edu/~jsabol/certainty/readings/Galileo-LetterDuches... |
Context
“The novelty of these things, as well as some consequences which followed from them in contradiction to the physical notions commonly held among academic philosophers, stirred up against me no small number of professors-as if I had placed these things in the sky with my own hands in order to upset nature and overturn the sciences. They seemed to forget that the increase of known truths stimulates the investigation, establishment, and growth of the arts; not their diminution or destruction. Showing a greater fondness for their own opinions than for truth they sought to deny and disprove the new things which, if they had cared to look for themselves, their own senses would have demonstrated to them.”
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Meaning and analysis
