Department of
History and Philosophy of Science
Paolo Palmieri
I do research on the history and philosophy of modern science, and practice modern science. I focus on the intellectual traditions that shaped the values of modernity. I am fascinated by the creativity processes at the crossroads of art, science, and technology. To learn about the interplay of cognition and practices, I design computer models of experiments and perform real experiments.
Education
· 1998 DEGREE in Philosophy, University of Bologna LINK
· 1987 DEGREE in Aeronautical Engineering, Polytechnic of Milan LINK
Non-Academic Employment
1989-1995 Engineer Ferrari Formula One Racing Team
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Selected Publications
BOOKS
• (2008) Reenacting Galileo’s Experiments: Rediscovering the Techniques of Seventeenth-Century Science. Foreword by William R. Shea. The Mellen Press, ISBN10: 0-7734-5018- ISBN13: 978-0-7734-5018- 9 Pages: 304 Year: 2008. LINK
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“No one has examined in such detail and with such patience how Galileo arrived at his results. Palmieri extends our understanding of what Galileo wanted to achieve and how he went about getting his pioneering results, and his book will be welcomed by everyone interested in the genesis of the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth-century.” – William R. Shea, Galileo Professor of History of Science, University of Padua, Italy
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“A particular strength of this book is the way that it places Galileo in his intellectual context. It is rare to find such detailed study of Galileo’s contemporaries or recent predecessors, either those working in similar problems to Galileo or those defending Scholastic views. Such work is of considerable importance.” – Prof. Andrew Gregory, Senior Lecturer, History of Science, University College, London, UK |
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“Scholars go astray if they interpret Galileo’s writings in the light of remembered elementary lessons in physics. Palmieri would have us enter the experimental scene in its complexity, by actual experiment if feasible or by computer simulation where the factors are multiple and numerical integration with variation of parameters is needed to discover what they portend.” – Prof. Curtis Wilson, St. John’s College, Emeritus |
This book is accompanied by numerous videos of experiments which are available at www.exphps.org or www.pitt.edu/~exphps.
PAPERS
• (2008) “Galileus deceptus, non minime decepit: A re-appraisal of a counter-argument in Dialogo to the extrusion effect of a rotating earth”, Journal for the History of Astronomy 39, 425-452. LINK
• (2008) “Breaking the circle: the emergence of Archimedean mechanics in the late Renaissance”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 62, 301-346. LINK
• (2008) “The empirical basis of equilibrium: Mach, Vailati, and the lever”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 39, 42-53. LINK
• (2007) “Science and authority in Giacomo Zabarella”, History of Science 45, 404-42. LINK
• (2006) “A new look at Galileo’s search for mathematical proofs”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 60, 285-317. LINK
• (2005) “Galileo’s construction of idealized fall in the void”, History of Science 43, 343-389. LINK
• (2005) “'…spuntar lo scoglio più duro': did Galileo ever think the most beautiful thought experiment in the history of science?”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 36, 223-240. LINK
• (2005) “The cognitive development of Galileo’s theory of buoyancy”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 50, 189-222. LINK
• (2003) “Mental models in Galileo’s early mathematization of nature”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 34, 229-264. LINK
• (2001a) “The obscurity of the equimultiples. Clavius’ and Galileo’s foundational studies of Euclid’s theory of proportions”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 55, 555-597. LINK
• (2001) “Galileo and the discovery of the phases of Venus”, Journal for the History of Astronomy 32, 109-129. LINK
• (1998) “Re-examining Galileo’s theory of tides”, Archive for History
of Exact Sciences 53, 223-375.
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Works in Progress
Experimental history and philosophy of science
We have started a research program with the objective of exploring a new approach to the history and philosophy of science. Experimental history and philosophy of science (ExpHPS) consists in re-creating as faithfully as possible the experimental apparatus of landmark experiments in the history of science, and in re-performing the experiments. ExpHPS asks questions about knowledge shaped by experiment. ExpHPS, we hope, will cast new light on the history and philosophy of science. Please visit www.exphps.org or www.pitt.edu/~exphps for the latest on the project.
Phonurgia
This project aims at recreating the sounds of experiments, and investigating the cognitive structures of sound in early modern science. Early modern European society was still an orally dominated culture in which sound and voice played a decisive role in shaping scientific knowledge. Galileo, Descartes, Mersenne, Kircher, Huygens and Newton, among many others, experienced the profound relatedness of sound and cognition. The project will hopefully cast light on this all but lost dimension of thought.
OMNES. The genesis of a new geometry in Cavalieri, Galileo, and Torricelli
In this project, I investigate the genesis of the geometry of indivisibles in Bonaventura Cavalieri, Galileo Galileo, and Evangelista Torricelli. I explore the formation of a new philosophy of space and geometrical objects, quite different from the Greek traditions of Euclid and Archimedes.
Electricity in the field
I am recreating early investigative scenarios about electricity. The project aims at exploring the emergence of experimental vs. theoretical knowledge in an epistemically inclusive setting. To generate the inclusive setting, I combine the practice (in our lab), the history, and the philosophy of the science of electricity.
Paolo Ruffini, Gianfrancesco Malfatti, and the unsolvability of the quintic
The unsolvability in radicals
of polynomial equations of degree higher than four has been the subject of
a fascinating debate. Some believe that Paolo Ruffini (1765-1822) was the
first to prove that the quintic cannot be solved in radicals. Others
believe that his proof fails, or at least is not cogent and/or has gaps.
In this project, I examine the beginning of the debate, i.e., the
controversy between Ruffini and his first opponent, Gianfrancesco Malfatti
(1731-1807). Malfatti remained squarely unconvinced of Ruffini’s proof. Ruffini and Malfatti disagreed because they claimed
different rights for the participants in the practice of algebra. I suggest that the controversy has broader
implications for the history and philosophy of mathematics.
Selected Presentations
October 2007 Stanford, CA, CNRS/ Paris Two-year workshop, invitation-based. Diagrams in mathematics and mathematization of natural sciences up to the modern age. Invited paper.
May 2006 Invited Paper at the University of Padua, Italy, “Cattedra Galileiana di Storia della Scienza” series.
September 2004 Paper at the International Congress Thought Experiments Rethought 24 - 25 September 2004 Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium
June 2003 Invited paper at the 4th Meeting of the Athens-Pittsburgh Symposium, Delphi, Greece, devoted to Forms of Proof and Demonstration in Philosophy and Science.
February 2001 Paper at Eurosymposium Galileo 2001, Puerto de la Cruz, Canary Islands, Spain.
Teaching
0430 Galileo and the creation of modern science
The Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was the decisive figure in the rise of modern science. First, he ushered in a new era in astronomy when he aimed a 30-powered telescope at the sky in 1610. Second, he revolutionized the concept of science when he argued that the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics. Finally, he astounded the theologians, who eventually condemned him to life imprisonment, when he claimed that the scientist’s search for the truth must not be constrained by religious authority. This course studies Galileo in the broader intellectual, social, and religious context of early modern Europe.
0515 Magic, Medicine and Science
Science and medicine are nowadays conceived of as two spheres of human activity independent of religious and magical concerns. Science, however, is the result of a long process of formation, starting in Antiquity and culminating in the late seventeenth century, with the so-called Scientific Revolution. Before the Scientific Revolution science, magic, and medicine were strongly related. This course examines the process by which science and medicine became independent spheres of human endeavour in the modern Western world.
1530 Man and the cosmos in the European Renaissance
Art and science are
nowadays largely considered to be separate spheres of human endeavour,
which are pursued by professionals specializing in their own field. Yet in
Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a period referred to
by modern historians as the Renaissance, art and science influenced each
other. This course explores the fascinating intersection of artistic and
scientific pursuits in the Renaissance, with special emphasis on the
contribution that the visual arts gave to the rise of modern science.
When I do not teach...
I dabble in painting and drawing.
