TITLE:
Experiments, Mathematics and Principles of Natural Philosophy in the Epistemology of Giovanni Battista Baliani
AUTHORS:
Danilo Capecchi
KEYWORDS:
History of Mechanics, Impetus Theory, Mixed Mathematics, Epistemology
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Historical Studies,
Vol.6 No.2,
June
21,
2017
ABSTRACT: The epistemology of Giovanni Battista Baliani, a
leading 17th century Italian scientist, is the focus of this article. In his
treatise on motion, De motu naturali
gravium solidorum (1638), Baliani’s epistemology was grounded on empirical
principles—the law
of the pendulum essentially—in the
footsteps of the “old” mixed mathematics. In a
new edition, De motu naturali gravium
solidorum et liquidorum (1646), Baliani changed his approach and grounded
his epistemology on principles of natural philosophy with a metaphysical and
not empirical evidence. An analysis of Baliani’s writings reveals a tension
between his empiricist philosophy, which he maintained throughout his life, and his mathematical approach, which was still based on
experience; but on
an experience derived from measurements and intrinsically affected by errors, it was hence
uncertain. A comparison with Galileo’s epistemology is also made to better understand
trends in mathematical physics at the end of the 1600’s.