As neuroeconomist Greg Berns pointed out in his 2008 book, Iconoclasts, humans face many constraints on innovative thinking, including the urge to conform, the tendency to interpret sensory information in familiar ways, and of course, the fear of missing out on a promotion, or even losing a job. Over 20+ years working in health and development, I’ve come to realize just how powerful these constraints are. I’ve observed many development policy and health policy experts following the dictates of conventional or ‘organizational’ wisdom, even as they perceived, ever more clearly, its unsoundness. Reflecting carefully, I’d have to place myself among those who have often “gone along, to get along”. These reflections have increased my appreciation of iconoclasts, those too-rare individuals who question even the most cherished, or revered, beliefs. I am thus inspired to share a few tidbits about Galileo, perhaps the most famous iconoclast in human history.
A great scientist. As most know, “Galileo made major discoveries about the motion of planets and stars, the motion of uniformly accelerated objects (i.e. that two objects would fall at the same rate regardless of their masses), sound frequency, and the basic principle of relativity, among other things—and major advancements in technology, including inventing or improving upon the telescope, microscope, thermometer, pendulum, and the compass. His work was central to most future developments in science, including those of Newton and Einstein, and most of what he discovered was in contradiction with conventional wisdom.” Summary by Tim Urban at waitbutwhy.com.
..and iconoclast. What is most praise-worthy, in my view, is that Galileo did all this despite the threats and repression of the Catholic Church. Ultimately, Urban notes, in 1633, “the Church found him ‘vehemently suspect of heresy,’ and placed him under house arrest for the rest of his life.”
…and clever(?) public communicator. Striving to get his not-acceptable-to-the-Church views understood more widely, Galileo wrote a book – Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. It presents a series of discussions, among two philosophers and a layman, and is written in vernacular language. Salviati argues for, and explains, Galileo’s views; Sagredo is an intelligent layman who is initially neutral; and, Simplicio, presents the conventional wisdom about the structure of the universe. The 6:10 – 8:10 section of this episode of the Great Books TV series, gives a description of the book and a dramatic presentation of one of the exchanges. Despite the technical complexity of the topics, you can see, the dialogue is witty and engaging. Much of what Simplicio says were well known to be the views of the Pope (Urban VIII), indirectly insulting the Pope and contributing to Galileo’s later conviction and sentencing to house arrest. Nevertheless, the book, and all the trial-related publicity it received, doubtless helped draw attention to the problems with the conventional wisdom and persuade many to rethink their long held beliefs about how the universe is structured.
Dialogue Concerning Development Thinking? A few development policy and health/ development experts are working to challenge unsound, but deeply held, and operationally-entrenched, beliefs. Bill Easterly, Lant Pritchett, Michael Woolcock, and Matt Andrews come to mind. Reading bits of Galileo’s Dialogue, I couldn’t help but wonder whether something similar might be useful for challenging those beliefs.
April Harding 