Re: paleonet of Galileo, Michelangelo and the ghosts of San Croce

[Duncan McLean <d.mclean@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Quoting "Park,Lisa E" <lepark@uakron.edu>:

> Maybe my recent trip to Florence could offer some illumination.  One only has
> to visit the cathedral of San Croce to witness the tombs of Galileo,
> Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Bruni, Dante, and da Vinci to understand how
> difficult it was to transcend the influence of the Church.  Those artists,
> writers, scientists and philosophers brought forth ideas that would change
> Western Civilization> 

I like Jacob Bronowski's take on this one, which is that, while the
enlightenment was born in southern Europe, it could not grow there under a
domineering church. So although Galileo came up with ideas in Italy, they were
supressed until somewhere outside of the Roman hegemony (i.e.  in increasingly
protestant northern Euope) published and disseminatd his ideas. The ultimate
upshot of this process was that the scientific centre of the western world
shifted to northern Europe while southern Europe stagnated; northern Europe
speedily moved towards the economic develoment associated with the industrial
revolution, while southern Europe did not; and southern Europe ceased to
determine the fate of the western world.

Is there a lesson to be learned here for any state which would prefer ignorance
and dogma over learning and criticism?

Duncan McLean

Wot? No fossils!

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