Beyond Good and Evil

The article is a review of selected passages from Steve Fuller’s recent book “To Justice and To Justify: Profiles of the Academic Vocation”. The main focus is on the epistemological aspects of Galileo Galilei’s scientific activity, whose counter-inductive methods of providing evidence for the heliocentric model of the world can, from a modern perspective, be regarded as typical scientific fraud. Various forms of scientific falsifications and unintentional cases of misinformation are analyzed through key historical examples, ranging from Gregor Mendel’s selection experiments and Robert Millikan’s oil-drop experiment to the scandals involving Hwang Woo-Suk and Hendrik Schon. The article explores the different motivations of scientists who engage in dishonest data manipulation. It raises the question of the possible ways and limits of legitimizing fraud actions in science.