Book
The English Galileo : Thomas Harriot's work on motion as an example of preclassical mechanics
Summary
In the context of a dissertation project, the work on motion of Thomas Harriot, an English contemporary of Galileo, has been reconstructed and interpreted on the basis of an analysis of Harriot's extant working notes. Harriot and Galileo exploited the same shared knowledge resources in order to approach the same challenging subjects. While the paths Harriot traces through the shared knowledge are different from Galileo's, the work of the two scientists displays striking similarities as regards their achievements as well as the problems they were unable to solve. The study of Harriot’ s parallel work thus allows the exploration of the structure of the shared knowledge of early modern mechanics, to perceive possible alternative histories, and thus to distinguish between individual peculiarities and shared structures of early modern mechanical reasoning.
