The Argument Form "Appeal to Galileo": A Critical Appreciation of Doury’s Account

Abstract

Following a linguisticdescriptivist approach, Marianne Doury has studied debates about "parasciences" (e.g. astrology), discovering that "parascientists" frequently argue by "appeal to Galileo" (i.e., defend their views by comparing themselves to Galileo and their opponents to the Inquisition); opponents object by criticizing the analogy, charging fallacy, and appealing to counter-examples. I argue that Galilean appeals are much more widely used, by creationists, globalwarming skeptics, advocates of "settled science", great scientists, and great philosophers. Moreover, several subtypes should be distinguished; critiques questioning the analogy are proper; fallacy charges are problematic; and appeals to counterexamples are really indirect critiques of the analogy. Résumé:En poursuivant une approche linguistique-descriptiviste, Marianne Doury a étudié les débats sur les «parasciences » (par exemple, l'astrologie), et a découvert que les «parasavants» raisonnent souvent en faisant un «appel à Galilée" (c.-à-d. ils défendent leurs points de vue en se comparant à Galileo et en comparant leurs adversaires aux juges de l'Inquisition). Les adversaires des parasavant critiquent l'analogie en la qualifiant de sophisme, et en construisant des contreexemples. Je soutiens que les appels à Galilée sont beaucoup plus largement utilisés, par des créationnistes, des sceptiques du réchauffement planétaire, des défenseurs de la «science établie», des grands scientifiques, et des grands philosophes. En outre, on doit distinguer plusieurs sous-types; les critiques de l'analogie sont appropriées; les accusations de sophisme sont problématiques; et les contre-exemples sont vraiment des critiques indirectes de l'analogie.

The Political Psychology of Lynching: WhatsApp Rumors, Anti-Government Appeals, and Violence

“…In addition to these factors, in this paper, we argue that those seeking to disseminate and profit from misinformation often accompany their messages with subtle, and not so subtle, appeals to the untrustworthiness of government. These appeals, we argue, are a key part of the anatomy of misinformation and play a central role in the capacity of violence-inducing rumors to propagate Appeals to Government Distrust and The Spread of Rumors Long before the popularization of social networks, individuals seeking to propagate outlandish ideas and rumors have done so by appealing to what some have informally called the "Galileo Gambit" (Finocchiaro 2015;Johnson 2018). Broadly construed, this strategy consists of claiming that an idea or event is true because it reflects negatively on the reputation of the establishment and, therefore, generates incentives for rebuttals and attacks (Finocchiaro 2015).…”

“…These appeals, we argue, are a key part of the anatomy of misinformation and play a central role in the capacity of violence-inducing rumors to propagate Appeals to Government Distrust and The Spread of Rumors Long before the popularization of social networks, individuals seeking to propagate outlandish ideas and rumors have done so by appealing to what some have informally called the "Galileo Gambit" (Finocchiaro 2015;Johnson 2018). Broadly construed, this strategy consists of claiming that an idea or event is true because it reflects negatively on the reputation of the establishment and, therefore, generates incentives for rebuttals and attacks (Finocchiaro 2015). While it is true that the establishment has opposed numerous ideas, what makes this strategy fallacious is that it seeks to support the truth of a claim by triggering the audience's general distrust of those holding power rather than on logic or evidence.…”

The Political Psychology of Lynching: WhatsApp Rumors, Anti-Government Appeals, and Violence

“…Long before the popularization of social networks, individuals seeking to propagate outlandish ideas and rumors have done so by appealing to what some have informally called the "Galileo Gambit" (Finocchiaro 2015;Johnson 2018). Broadly construed, this strategy consists of claiming that an idea or event is true because it reflects negatively on the reputation of the establishment and, therefore, generates incentives for rebuttals and attacks (Finocchiaro 2015). While it is true that the establishment has opposed numerous ideas, what makes this strategy fallacious is that it seeks to support the truth of a claim by triggering the audience's general distrust of those holding power rather than on logic or evidence.…”

“…Still, regardless of its epistemological dishonesty, this strategy has been shown to be quite effective. Long before the popularization of social media, proponents of the most outlandish conspiracy theories, as well as advocates of Supplementary, Complementary, and Alternative Medicine (SCAM) have used this strategy to promote their products through rumors (Finocchiaro 2015;Johnson 2018). Throughout the nineteen and twentieth centuries, for example, charlatans spread rumors of fraudulent cures for tuberculosis, cancer, and other ailments through rumors that contained appeals to the untrustworthy of the medical establishment (Newsom 2002) and, recently, the American author and fraudster Kevin Trudeau made millions marketing books that -like his famous "Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know" -directly appealed to the public's distrust in the establishment.…”