Contrarians and the Galileo Gambit
Understanding logical fallacies is important for critical thinking and being able to identify misinformation and lies. A crucial logical fallacy for which most of the loud contrarians fall is called the Galileo Gambit.
Let’s talk about what that means.
Galileo is widely considered the “father” of observational astronomy and modern physics. He identified evidence for and argued that the sun did not, in fact, revolve around the earth, but that the earth revolves around the sun — the Copernican heliocentric model.
He was persecuted due to his questioning of the Catholic church orthodoxy and other astronomers of the time, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest after trial during the Inquisition.
Few people have developed entire scientific fields of pursuit or theories which have so changed the course of human history and our understanding of the universe. Yet plenty of people would like to believe that they are both clever enough and important enough to be Galileo. While some people do develop theories or new advancements or technologies that do change the world, a rare few are truly persecuted for those advancements or beliefs.
As you might imagine, falling for the Galileo Gambit takes quiet a bit of hubris, or what you might refer to this as a certain level of narcissism…
