Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was one of the "giants" on whose shoulders the great Isaac Newton stood. Galileo not only helped create revolutionary devices like the telescope but the possibility of mathematical natural science itself. As one of history's great free thinkers, he helped define relations between science and religion that have been volatile and debated ever since. Standing at the intersection of antiquity and modernity, Galileo has always meant many different things to different people. To this day, he remains an icon for scientists, philosophers, historians, atheists, believers, playwrights, songwriters, feminists, and novelists.

This course will survey scholarship and writings about Galileo in order to both learn about science's most famous heretic and, specifically, to apply and evaluate different theories about historiography, the writing of history. With Galileo as a case study, we will equip ourselves to ask, To what extent can we reliably recover facts and knowledge about the past, and to what extent do we (or must we) project our own values and interests back in time? Are historical figures like Galileo best understood as constructions that evolve and change or do they have objective, perhaps even scientific, knowability? Readings will include some of Galileo's scientific texts, studies of his famous trail in Rome, writings about Galileo by historians and philosophers, and various texts about historiography and the philosophical analysis of historical knowledge. Counts toward the History and Religious & Ethical Studies specializations.