Galileo Gambit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Galileo Gambit is a rhetorical technique sometimes used by proponents of denialist^[1]^[2]^[3] or pseudo-scientific positions, such as the Intelligent Design/Creationist movement.^[4]^[5]

The technique consists of pointing out that important scientific theories were often dismissed out of hand when they were first proposed. A commonly used example is the Heliocentric Theory.

The writer or speaker then compares their own theory with that of Galileo and implies that they are similarly advancing a valid theory which is being rejected without being fully considered. They also seek to imply that those rejecting their theory are close-minded and lacking vision.^[6]^[7]^[8]

The term seems to have been originated by Respectful Insolence

“

Alties^[9] frequently invoke Galileo and other scientists like Ignaz Semmelweiss, who were at first rejected by the scientific orthodoxy of the time and had to fight to get their ideas accepted. The implication, of course, is that their ideas, whatever they may be (alternative medicine, intelligent design, Holocaust denial, psychic abilities, etc.), are on the same plane as those of Galileo or Semmelweiss. Frequently, they will add a list of famous scientists or experts who made predictions about the impossibility of something or other and were later found wrong, so much so that the statements sound ridiculous today.^[10]

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In specialist fields, other terms such as the Semmelweis Gambit have been used to describe similar techniques.^[11]