PHGA7558 Galileo, Bacon and Descartes
Professor Dominic Balestra   
Spring 2007
Thursday 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM

An examination of Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, Newton and Leibniz on nature and a science of nature with some consideration of the relation between science and religion.

 Likely course readings for seminar:

• Galileo, Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615)
• Galileo, The Assayer (1623)
• F. Bacon, The New Atlantis (1624)
• ———, The Great Instauration (1620)
• ———, The New Organon, Part One
• ———, The New Organon, Part Two
• R. Descartes, Rules for the Directioning of the Mind 1-12 (1628) & Discourse II & III (1637)
• ———, Discourse on Method, IV-VI(1637)
• ———, Principles of Philosophy (1644) Part II, 1-42
• Newton on science (1687-1713)  pp. 142-83 of The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence
• The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence (1715-16)
  • God & God's relation to nature
  • Leibniz's Principles: of sufficient reason,  of identity of indiscernibles and of the best.
  • Nature and structure of space and time.

Course requirements:

1. Seminar presentation on  assigned reading.
2. Short paper (c. 6-8 pp.): critical assessment of theme(s) on the relation of science to Scripture in Galileo's Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina. cf. R. Blackwell, Galileo, Bellarmine and the Bible
3. Research Paper on a topic related to the subject matter of the course. Topic to be determined with instructor. 

Likely course texts:

Required:

1. Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. Trans. Stillman Drake.
2. Francis Bacon: Selected Philosophical Works. Ed. Rose-Mary Sargent.
3. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, Vol. I&II. Trans. J. Cottingham, et al.(CUP)
4. The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence. Ed. H. G. Alexander.

Recommended:  R. Blackwell, Galileo, Bellarmine, and the Bible (UND Press).