On Taylor’s account, the force of such subtraction stories is as much in their narrative power as in their ability to account for the “data,” so to speak. There is a dramatic tension here, a sense of plot, and a cast of characters with heroes (e.g., Galileo) and villains (e.g., Cardinal Bellarmine). So if you’re going to counter subtraction stories, it’s not enough to offer rival evidence and data; you need to tell a different story. And so Taylor not only “has to tack back and forth between the analytical and the historical” (p. 29), he has to offer the history as story, as a
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