Galileo, Descartes and the new view of the world

Galileo, Descartes and the new view of the world - The aim of this paper is to show as the view of the world developed by Descartes in his natural philosophy amplifies some crucial aspects of Galileo's important discoveries. The paper analyses the use of the principle of conservation of motion by Galileo and Descartes in their cosmologies, and what role sunspots played in both. Comparing Galileo's and Descartes's refutation of the argument from divine omnipotence, the paper argues that both Galileo and Descartes preserved the autonomy of natural philosophy.