Two problems of Galileo’s «theory of two books»

Abstract

The article analyzes the concept of the relationship between science  and religion proposed by Galileo Galilei, which can be called the  “theory of two books”. Under one book is meant the Holy Scripture,  under the other - the universe itself, as it is known by science on the  basis of experience and evidence. What is new in this article is the  study of the origins of Galileo’s conviction in the complete truth of  scientific knowledge about nature, due to which Galileo believed  that the statements of the Holy Scriptures about the world should  be interpreted in accordance with existing scientific knowledge.  The article demonstrates that Galileo followed Aristotelian ideas  about scientific knowledge, despite the fact that he criticized  Aristotelian physics. As a result of the analysis, the article formulates  and highlights two problems of the theory of the “two books of  Galileo”. The first is that the history and philosophy of science have  shown the invalidity of Galileo’s belief that scientific knowledge  provides the final completely infallible knowledge of “divine truths”  about nature. The second problem is related to the fact that in the  Christian tradition there has always been a distinction between  the knowledge of truth acquired by grace and preserved in the  Church, and “external” wisdom subject to error, which are equalized  in Galileo’s “theory of two books”. The article for the first time  specifically considers Galileo’s appeal to the views of Tertullian and  shows the difference between the positions of the first and second  in relation to the “book of nature”.