a Catholic theologian in 1744. This must be kept in mind when discussing Galileo's motives for writing the book. Although the book is presented formally as a consideration of both systems (as it needed to be in order to be published at all), there is no question that the Copernican side gets the better of the argument.

Structure

The book is presented as a series of discussions, over a span of four days, among two philosophers and a layman:

* Salviati argues for the Copernican position and presents some of Galileo's views

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