Speaker: Rafał Gruszczyński
Date and Time: Thursday, January 21st 2021, 16:30-18:30, Amsterdam time.
Venue: online.
Title: Galileo’s thought experiment in mereological setting.
In the talk, I would like to present a formalization of Galileo’s argument against the Aristotelian view that the weight of free-falling bodies influences their speed. The formalization witnesses the application of concepts of parthood and mereological sum, and recognizes a particular principle that is not explicitly formulated by the Italian thinker but seems natural and helpful in understanding the logical mechanism behind Galileo’s train of thought. To locate the formalization in a broader perspective of philosophy of science, I will analyze and compare two main approaches to the nature of thought experiments: Platonic view versus thought-experiment-as-argument view.
See here for the recording of the talk.