Professor Biagioli Comments on Galileo for New York Times
Professor Mario Biagioli commented for the New York Times on a recent remark by Republican presidential candidate Governor Rick Perry, in which Perry--suggesting that the current thinking that climate change is a result of human activity could be overturned later--remarked that "Galileo got outvoted for a spell."
Biagioli said that there was perhaps some validity to the comparison drawn by Perry. "Theology at the time was the powerful discipline, and Galileo went up against it and was condemned," he said. "Now the powerful discipline is science and not theology." But the comparison is mostly flawed, he added. "Galileo was not a doubter. He said, ‘Look, this is the evidence I have.' It was the theologians who were saying, ‘No, no, no, this evidence is inconclusive.' "
Professor Biagioli, an internationally renowned expert in the fields of Intellectual Property and the History of Copyright, is the founding Director of the Center for Innovation Studies at UC Davis.