The Elusive Synthesis: Aesthetics and Science: Aesthetics and ScienceA.I. Tauber The tension between art and science may be traced back to the Greeks. What became "natural philosophy" and later "science" has traditionally been posed as a fundamental alternative to poetry and art. It is a theme that has commanded central attention in Western thought, as it captures the ancient conflict of Apollo and Dionysus over what deserves to order our thought and serve as the aspiration of our cultural efforts. The modern schi sm between art and science was again clearly articulated in the Romantic period and seemingly grew to a crescendo fifty years aga as a result of the debate concerning atomic power. The discussion has not abated in the physical sciences, and in fact has dramatically expanded most prominently into the domains of ecology and medicine. Issues concerning the role of science in modern society, although heavily political, must be regarded at heart as deeply embedded in our cultural values. Although each generation addresses them anew, the philosophical problems which lay at the foundation of these fundamental concerns always appear fresh and difficult. This anthology of original essays considers how science might have a greater commonality with art than was perhaps realized in a more positivist era. The contributors are concerned with how the aesthetic participates in science, both as a factor in constructing theory and influencing practice. The collec tion is thus no less than a spectrum of how Beauty and Science might be regarded through the same prism. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 3 |
THE AESTHETIC CONSTRUCTION OF DARWINS THEORY | 15 |
THE SCIENCES AND ARTS SHARE A COMMON CREATIVE AESTHETIC | 51 |
BEAUTIFUL EXPERIMENTS IN THE LIFE SCIENCES | 85 |
ABSTRACT PAINTING AND ASTRONOMICAL IMAGE PROCESSING | 105 |
THE VISUAL AND CONCEPTUAL AESTHETICS OF EMERGING FORM | 127 |
FORM AND FUNCTION IN THE MOLECULARIZATION OF BIOLOGY | 155 |
CONSERVATIVE FACTORS IN REVOLUTIONARY CRISES | 171 |
FALSE LEADS FROM T S KUHN ON THE ROLE OF THE AESTHETIC IN THE SCIENCES | 191 |
KANT AND THE AESTHETICEXPRESSIVE VISION OF MATHEMATICS | 205 |
THE GERMAN TRADITION AND THE SYMBOLIC TURN IN PHILOSOPHY HISTORY OF ART AND NATURAL SCIENCE IN THE 1920S | 229 |
THE PROBLEM OF POSTMODERNISM | 253 |
MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS | 269 |
FROM DESCARTES DREAM TO HUSSERLS NIGHTMARE | 291 |
315 | |
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Common terms and phrases
abstract aesthetic aesthetic experience Aesthetics and Science artistic astronomers Beagle Beagle Channel beauty Cassirer cell century color comma-free code concept construction Copernican Copernicus Copernicus's theory criteria Critique Critique of Judgement culture Darwin's discovery Elusive Synthesis embryo embryology emotional empirical entangled bank Essays exhibits experimental expression fact finitude formal function genetics geometric Goethe Goethe's Heidegger Heisenberg holism human idea image processing interpretation intuition ISBN Kant Kant's Kantian Kepler's knowledge Kuhn Kuhn's language linear perspective mathematics meaning Meselson-Stahl experiment modern molecular biology museums natural selection Nietzsche notion object organic organicism Origin painting Panofsky perspective phenomena Philosophy of Science physics postmodern principles problem quantum R.S. Cohen rationality reality Reason replication representation role Root-Bernstein science and art scientific scientists sense simplicity space structure style symbolic symmetry Synthese Library Tauber tion tradition trans understanding University Press vision visual wedging metaphor York