Mario Biagioli

This work, now considered the definitive treatment on the Galileo saga where he was silenced for arguing for the Copernican view that the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around, argues that the setting of Galileo's story has never been well-considered. He was a courtier. He lived under the patronage of various rulers of his day and had to produce great wonders for them.

As such, his story was not one of speaking scientific truth to power, as it is often told, but a courtier trying to make a living in a new environment. He expanded beyond his original identity as a mathematician into a new natural philosopher. Since the university system was dominated by Aristotelian philosophers, his legitimacy was found at court - and at court alone. A prince and eventually the pope served as his audience and could freely support any ideas that they deemed appropriate. The professionals/courtiers were not yet bound by accreditation by groups like the Royal Society in Britain. Their "accreditation" came from the court and the patronage system alone.

Galileo's well-told story, then, needs to be contextually situated in this light. He was trying to persuade princes to support him financially and was shut down when his patron decided to overthrow Galileo as the patron's "favorite." (This overthrow of the sovereign's favorite can also be seen historically in Queen Elizabeth's shunning of Sir Walter Raleigh after Raleigh married a court-maid.) Galileo, of course, belonged to the prior age more than the coming age. While science can speak truth to power today, its institutional identity and strong professional organizations lay as its supporting source of integrity. Without these modern innovations, scientists, academicians, and intellectuals are mere fodder for rulers.
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An excellent collection of interdisciplinary writing on IP. Fairly heavy on patents, but even those tend to be interesting—there’s even a piece on the role of patent drawings in constructing the ideal patent reader. A lot of the pieces are shortened versions of articles available elsewhere and/or online (Tarleton Gillespie’s great work on copyright education campaigns, Chris Sprigman & Dotan Oliar on stand-up comedians and IP norms, Peter Jaszi on postmodern copyright, Cori Hayden’s "No Patent, No Generic: Pharmaceutical Access and the Politics of the Copy," Lawrence Liang on the figure of the pirate, etc.).… (plus d'informations)

Biagioli further refines his view on Galileo (published earlier in Galileo Courtier) in a social context. Taking his methodology from SSK (Social Science of Knowledge), Biagioli shows that Galileo used distance (physical distance) to his own advantage; it created uncertainty, forcing for example the Grand Duke de Medici to take decisions on less information than he was comfortable with.

In SSK, 'Truth' is founded not on objective facts (an idea taken from philosophy of science) but on persuasion. There are many possible forms of persuasion, and Galileo was a master in many of them, as Biagioli shows. Personal credit (founded on priority claims), social standing (founded on networks) and convincing argumentation (founded on oratorial rather than rational principles) were used by Galileo to further his position from mathematics professor to grand-ducal philosopher and to promote the Copernican world view. Seen in this way, the Trial of 1633 and the condamnation of Copernicus' teachings by the Church are the result of an overestimation by Galileo of his own credit against a stronger authority.

A very insightful book, but not to be considered as a Galileo biography. Biagioli provides us with new insights, and indeed a new range of instruments to gain insight, that will now have to be considered and researched further.… (plus d'informations)