Galileo wrote Two New Sciences (Discorsi e Dimostrazioni Matematiche Intorno a Due Nuove Scienze in Italian). It is presented as a three way discussion, among Salviati, Sagredo, and Simplicio. Galileo’s work is famous. The best selling book by Douglas Hofstadter, Godel, Escher Bach, presents some of its material using dialogues. What I have not found is a list anywhere of the best (or even any) scientific dialogues. Is there such a list? Are there any scientific dialogues which have been important to the history of science?
I recently read an English version of Galileo's Dialogue. I found it interesting as a didactic method. It is really a writing device. One person is cast in the role of “dummkopf” and is cleverly fed with questions that will lead to remarkable insights when answered. Galileo's dialogue had nothing to do with his order of discovery of scientific truths, but was a smart, student-centred way of teaching succinctly what he (and others) had discovered in the most logical order for acceptance, absorption and retention by the student.
There are parallels with Frequently Asked Questions. These are questions that are so frequently asked that it is worth while posting the answers (e.g., to save call centre staff's time). In fact, they may not be frequently asked or even asked at all, but are presented as if they were actually asked!
I have usefully used this device when starting up courses last century by titling each Learning Object as a question, to be answered by the content of the Learning Object. This served a dual purpose: I had to ensure that the question really was answered by the content, and it encouraged students to engage with the material.
So, like the scientific report is a fraud in its order of presentation of facts, so too the dialogue is a fraud in that things never were discovered in the order presented. This deception is accepted in the writing of research reports and in the presentation of educational content.
The best dialogue for presenting science is the order expected by the reader or understood by the student.
During a long sea voyage , CVRaman wondered why the sky is blu. Finally unravelled it with Raman effect and won Noval prize for physics in 1930. Wonder, years after, his nephew Chandra Sekhar made some long boat trip and spent the journey absorbed in deep thoughts . As he sat on the deck and gazed at the stars with great thinking about them and result was awarded Noval prize in Physics in 1983.
Werner Heisenberg, "Der Teil und das Ganze: Gespräche im Umkreis der Atomphysik", Piper, München 1969; English translation: "Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations", World Perspectives Series: Vol. 42, Harper & Row, 1971 (*).
(*) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_and_Beyond
J. Joyce. (1828) Scientific dialogues, intended for the instruction and entertainment of young people: in which the first principles of natural and experimental philosophy are fully explained.
Dialogues of Plato are sill today a great inspiration to the virtues of the method of expanding reflection and knowledge through dialogue in opposition of the overwhelming monologue used in modern science that only induce an a posteriori critics.
In addition to his Two New Sciences, Galileo wrote his book on cosmology and astronomy in dialogue, namely, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, in 1632, translated from Italian to English by Stillman Drake, first edition around 1953, second edition 1967 or so, University of California Press. I did not find an electronic version. of the entire book online. I am still reading, through, it is, at least, historically interesting, and an opportunity to hear from Galileo, once removed, as recorded in his, translated, words.
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