QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

functions. 193
Galileo believed that for a change or property to be handled in a mathematical manner, it must be
directly measurable. This approach led him to abandon Aristotle’s concept of potential being
from which something could anyway come, since potential entities did not appear directly in
space-time as measurable objects possessing properties. 194 By abandoning inner qualities,
Galileo’s descriptions of motion and change differed radically from those employed previously.
Aristotle and the Scholastics had regarded change as “becoming”, i.e. the actualisation of
something that was potential. The Renaissance philosphers had viewed motion in the same light.
To them, change was an expression of the inner tendencies of nature: a child developed into an
adult and an acorn developed into a huge tree. For two thousand years, both animate and
inanimate nature had been viewed as a struggle about the realisation of possibilities and
purposes. The new mechanical natural science believed that everything occurring in the world
could be traced back to the motion of bodies in space-time. Galileo was not satisfied with
Kepler’s idea of formal mathematical cause. He was primarly concerned with accelerated motion
and he expressed the cause in terms of force. 195
Galileo’s notorious conflict with the Inquisition means that he occupies an exceptional position
not only in the history of natural science, but also in the history of civilisation. 196 Galileo was
living in the fervent atmosphere prevailing in Italy and he did not wisk to risk his own future by
opposing the authority of the church. 197 Within the religious establishment itself, there had long
been opposing views on how the church should react to the new Copernican doctrine. In 1616,
Cardinal Bellarmine, the chief theologian of the Catholic church, declared them to be false and
contrary to the Holy Scriptures. Earlier, the very same Bellarmine had written that this should
not be the course of action if there was evidence that the earth moved around the sun and not
vice versa. In such a case, his opinion had been that the church should proceed with caution and
admit that those parts of the doctrine that appeared to be in conflict with the heliocentric view
193 Kaila1939, 71-72. 76-77.
194
From the modern point of view, Galileo’s conception is limited. All the theoretical terms that belong to a theory
describing reality do not need to have an observable correlative. An important example of this kind of term is the
wave function in quantum theory. In its interpretation, some similarities to Aristotle’s thinking can be observed. See
sections 4.3.1. ja 5.2.
195
Burtt 1980, 98.
196
Dijksterhuis 1986, 381.
197
For example Galileo did not react when Kepler, being made aware of Galileo’s private support for both the
Copernican doctrine and Kepler’s own thoughts, sent Galileo a letter requesting him to publish his views by
appealing to “Plato and Pythagoras, our true teachers”. Galileo’s letters have also been published in Finnish, see
Galilei 1999, 90-94.
79