現代物理学の発展にとって極めて大きな意義のあるガリレオ・ガリレイ（1565-1642年）の方法論は、科学と哲学を切り離す決定打になりました。その研究が原因ではなく法則を探求することに根差したという点において、物理に対する取り組み方が、いかにアリストテレスのそれとは異なっていたかということを、ガリレオの明快な議論を用いて解説しています。
    

• Galileo is the best known figure in the history of astronomy — known for his insistence that the sun, rather than the earth, is the centre of the solar system, and for being the first person to use a telescope to observe the heavens
• His work was also of huge importance in providing the basis for modern physics
• Stillman Drake was one of the most important authorities on Galileo's work, and translated many of his scientific writings
• Controversial views about the causes of Galileo's trial and condemnation by the Inquisition

 
In a startling reinterpretation of the evidence, Stillman Drake advances the hypothesis that Galileo's trial and condemnation by the Inquisition was caused not by his defiance of the Church, but by the hostility of contemporary philosophers.

Galileo's own beautifully lucid arguments are used to show how his scientific method was utterly divorced from the Aristotelian approach to physics in that it was based on a search not for causes but for laws. Galileo's method was of overwhelming significance for the development of modern physics, and led to a final parting of the ways between science and philosophy.