have been expressed by various philosophers, some explaining it by attrac-
tion to the center, others to repulsion between the very small parts of the
body, while still others to attribute it to a certain stress in the surrounding
medium which closes in behind the falling body and derives it from one of
its positions to another. Now, all these fantasies, and others too, ought to
be examined; but it is not really worth while. At present it is the purpose of
our Author merely to investigate and to demonstrate some of the properties
of accelerated motion (whatever the cause of this acceleration may be)....Finally, Wisan (1978: 3) argues that Galileo uses mathematics “in order to
achieve the logical certainty of mathematics” in reasoning:
Also, while much has been said concerning Galileo and mathematics (and
Archimedes), it has been insuffi ciently noticed that to an important degree
his ‘mathematicism’ consists in the attempt to reduce natural science to
the Greek mathematical model in order to achieve the logical certainty of
mathematics. To do this meant substituting the kind of reasoning used by
mathematicians for that of traditional logicians, for to Galileo the greater
certainty of mathematics comes not from contemplation of ideal objects
(pace Koyré) but from use of a superior technique of reasoning.This passage is interesting in that it clearly shows one of the roles that math-
ematics plays in modern science. In section 3.3, I will show how these meth-
odological characteristics of Galileo’s science of motion are connected to those
of biolinguistics.
2.4 Natural philosophy
During the Scientifi c Revolution, natural philosophy was also transformed before
it was amalgamated with mathematical sciences. Henry (2008: 69) states a s
follows:
By the end of the century [the seventeenth century], the mechanical phi-
losophy had effectively replaced scholastic Aristotelianism as the new key
to understanding all aspects of the physical world, from the propagation
of light to the generation of animals, from pneumatics to respiration, from
chemistry to astronomy. The mechanical philosophy marks a defi nite break
with the past and sets the seal upon the Scientifi c Revolution.Westfall (1971: 1) makes two interesting remarks about the mechanical philoso-
phy. First, the mechanical philosophy “conceived of nature as a huge machine
and sought to explain the hidden mechanisms behind phenomena” and “con-
cerned itself with the causation of individual phenomena.” Second, Westfall
(1971:1) observe s that “the explication of mechanical causation frequently
stood athwart the path that led toward exact description, and the full fruition
174 Masanobu Ueda