The Aesthetics of Science
This volume builds on two recent developments in philosophy on the relationship between art and science: the notion of representation and the role of values in theory choice and the development of scientific theories. Its aim is to address questions regarding scientific creativity and imagination, the status of scientific performancessuch as thought experiments and visual aidsand the role of aesthetic considerations in the context of discovery and justification of scientific theories.
Several contributions focus on the concept of beauty as employed by practising scientists, the aesthetic factors at play in science and their role in decision making. Other essays address the question of scientific creativity and how aesthetic judgment resolves the problem of theory choice by employing aesthetic criteria and incorporating insights from both objectivism and subjectivism. The volume also features original perspectives on the role of the sublime in science and sheds light on the empirical work studying the experience of the sublime in science and its relation to the experience of understanding.
The Aesthetics of Science tackles these topics from a variety of novel and thought-provoking angles. It will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in the philosophy of science and aesthetics, as well as other subdisciplines such as epistemology and philosophy of mathematics.
Steven French is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds, UK. He is a co-editor of Thinking about Science, Reflecting on Art (Routledge, 2017) and Co-Editor-in-Chief of The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
Milena Ivanova is a teaching associate in the Department for the History and Philosophy of Science and a bye-fellow at Fitzwilliam at the University of Cambridge, UK.
Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Science
Science after the Practice Turn in Philosophy, History, and the Social Studies of Science
Edited by Lna Soler, Sjoerd Zwart, Vincent Israel-Jost, and Michael Lynch
Causation, Evidence, and Inference
Julian Reiss
Conceptual Change and the Philosophy of Science
Alternative Interpretations of the A Priori
David J. Stump
Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science
Edited by William M.R. Simpson, Robert C. Koons and Nicholas J. Teh
Essence in the Age of Evolution
A New Theory of Natural Kinds
Christopher J. Austin
The Instrument of Science
Scientific Anti-Realism Revitalised
Darrell P. Rowbottom
Understanding Perspectivism
Scientific Challenges and Methodological Prospects
Edited by Michela Massimi and Casey D. McCoy
The Aesthetics of Science
Beauty, Imagination and Understanding
Edited by Milena Ivanova and Steven French
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-the-Philosophy-of-Science/book-series/POS
The Aesthetics of Science
Beauty, Imagination and Understanding
Edited by Milena Ivanova and Steven French
First published 2020
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: French, Steven, editor. | Ivanova, Milena, editor.
Title: The aesthetics of science : beauty, imagination and understanding /
edited by Steven French and Milena Ivanova.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2020. | Series: Routledge studies
in the philosophy of science | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019051567 (print) | LCCN 2019051568 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367141141 (hardback) | ISBN 9780429030284 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Art and science. | SciencePhilosophy.
Classification: LCC N72.S3 A325 2020 (print) | LCC N72.S3 (ebook) |
DDC 701/.05dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019051567
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019051568
ISBN: 978-0-367-14114-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-03028-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
MILENA IVANOVA AND STEVEN FRENCH
CATHERINE Z. ELGIN
LETITIA MEYNELL
CAIN TODD
MILENA IVANOVA
MARGHERITA ARCANGELI AND JRME DOKIC
ALEXANDER BIRD
ALICE MURPHY
MATTHEW KIERAN
STEVEN FRENCH
This volume is the end result of a conversation that began at a conference in Konstanz in January 2016 and was continued later that year at the annual conference of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science in Cardiff. With funding from the British Society of Aesthetics and the British Society for the Philosophy of Science and with the assistance of Alice Murphy, we organised a conference on the Aesthetics of Science at the University of Leeds in July 2017, featuring a number of the contributors to this collection. This wasnt the first such conference on this topic by any meansindeed, there were two previous workshops in this area at Leeds alonebut we would argue that it was one of the most agreeable, certainly of those we have attended! The presentations were uniformly excellent, the discussions were insightful and engaging, and the atmosphere overall was constructive and supportive. We hope that some of those qualities have carried over to the chapters collected here that represent a diversity of perspectives and approaches but also display a number of common themes and concerns. In our Introduction we try to set those issues out as clearly as we can and highlight not only the commonalities but also the interesting distinctions and divergences going forward. And we hope that you, the reader, get as much pleasure and insight out of these pieces as we did reading them and putting the volume together!
Milena and Steven
As well as the financial support of the BSA and the BSPS and the logistical help of Alice Murphy, wed also like to thank all the contributors for their willingness to participate and, particularly in the final stages, for their patience.
