Galileo Galilei's Corpuscularianism In The Assayer

Galileo Galilei’s essay called “Corpuscularianism” from his book The Assayer offers an extensive argument supporting his belief that motion is the cause of heat. He describes the key role motion plays in creating heat through pointing out how motion affects the other senses such as taste and smell. However, Galilei’s stance does not come without opposition, as I will criticize his over-simplistic and contradictory explanation for how we sense the world around us. Galileo begins by differentiating between primary and secondary qualities. He states that objects necessarily have shape, size, place, motion, contact, and number (primary qualities,) but they do not necessarily have color, taste, sound, smell, or feel (secondary qualities.) He establishes …show more content…
One objection I can pose is on his explanation of taste and smell. He states that tastes and smells depend on having particles with “this or that shape, high or low velocity, and whether they are many or few” (23). From this statement, one can infer that an apple, for example, will have a specific combination or recipe due to its specific shape, velocity, and number of particles which makes it identifiable as an apple. Under this assumption, eating a small slice of an apple should taste different than eating a large slice due to the variation in particle amount thus creating a different “recipe.” However, as we know, this is not the case. Small or large, a bite of an apple is easily identified as such. This mistake begins to break down the belief that the senses are only due to shape, movement, and number. Concerning this objection, Galilei would reassure me that senses are passive receptors of particle contact since all they do is receive an object’s shape, size, amount, place, and motion. Although I can agree with this, I believe that individual, active perception, as well as passive reception, both have to work together to create a sense. This conclusion brings me to my next objection. If all there is to sensing is the reception of particles’ shape, velocity, and number as Galilei thinks there is, then why is it that one person can think an apple is delicious while another person eating the same apple …show more content…
Though he recognizes that we perceive the world around around us, he reduces this perception to passive reception of motion and contact. His only understanding of the senses is that particles of a certain shape, velocity and number come in contact with us. This is confused for two reasons. First, this would require each individual stimulus to have a specific recipe of shape, velocity, and number. This does not work because small amounts of a stimulus would then be sensed differently than large amounts of stimulus which is not the case. Second, different people can experience the same stimulus in a very different way. On another note, Galilei supposes that fire is a primary quality through asserting that it resides stagnant in all objects whether ignited or not. It is for these reasons that I am unable to full-heartedly agree with Galilei on the key role that motion plays on our