How would Galileo and his work be received today? Most people think they know what happened to Galileo but often get the details mixed up. Yet even when the details are clear, how does Galileo’s life, work, and controversy still shape the culture of the university and the form of liberal learning? (Hint: Is there a secret cold war between the “trivium-ists” and the “quadrivium-ists.” And how would discoveries comparable to Galileo's be received today? In this conversation we take up the Galileo affair, seek to clarify its details, and discuss its reverberations through the contemporary academy.

Links of Potential Interest:

Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" from the Republic (Book VII)

Boethius, De Institutione Arithmetica (on the Quadrivium)

Sister Miriam Joseph, C.S.C.  The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric. Reprinted by Paul Dry Books.

Maurice A. Finocchiaro. The Essential Galileo. (Masterful use of mostly primary documents from the early 1600’s)

Marshall McLuhan, The Classical Trivium: The Place of Thomas Nashe in the Learning of His Time. (McLuhan's 1942 doctoral dissertation.) Gingko Press. ISBN 1-58423-067-3.