Meisterwerke der Literatur und was sie uns lehren

Wolfgang M. Schmitt in conversation with Martyna Linartas about "Life of Galileo" by Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht's drama "Life of Galileo", which premiered in 1943, is a dialectical and materialistic examination of the tense relationship between science, power, individual responsibility and opportunism. At its center is the astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei, whose empirically based confirmation of the Copernican world view - which sees the sun and not the earth as the center of the universe - fundamentally contradicts the dogmatic ideas of the Catholic Church. Brecht portrays Galileo ambivalently, oscillating between enlightenment, adaptation and resignation, which makes the scientist a very contemporary figure. On the one hand, because AI technology seems to be bringing about a Copernican revolution that calls the Enlightenment project into question - not only in relation to the production of fakes, but also with regard to the disempowerment of the human subject. On the other hand, there are unmistakable tendencies towards fascization that are giving rise to new dogmas. And last but not least, the sphere of economics is often determined by outdated dogmas. Inequality researcher and author Martyna Linartas and podcaster and YouTuber Wolfgang M. Schmitt discuss the masterpiece and its topicality.