So, pardon for the gigantic picture, but I was skimming around the internet and this quote by the famous scientist Richard Feynman popped up. It got me thinking. We often wonder about the relationship between science and ethics, and whether one can influence the other. However, because of this quote I wonder what the relationship between science and aesthetics may be. Can scientific knowledge deepen or change our concept of beauty? Does science 'deaden' our aesthetic sense, or liven it? Can our aesthetic sense influence how we regard scientific knowledge? Does science let us see more of the inherent beauty in an object, or does it just change our perception of the object? Can we call facts such as "A flower is laced with a deeply intricate and complex cellular structure" beautiful? These are just some questions that have popped into my head that deeply tie these two subjects.
My gut instinct would to say scientific knowledge influences our perception of beauty based on our meta-scientific beliefs, or our beliefs on how we perceive science. For example, if one finds science boring, then science is likely to destroy the sense of beauty one can perceive in an object. If this were the case, then scientific knowledge wouldn't change our aesthetic sense, it would be our beliefs about such knowledge. However, I am unsure about how to go about explaining things in more detail, because I believe there is more to it than that. If anybody would like to expand upon this, please be my guest.
Yes, I would imagine that how people react to learning scientific information about something would depend on how they view science. But I think that a more important aspect is how people present the science of that thing.
ReplyDeleteFor example, let us take this flower and pretend that it is red. Some people may look at it and say, "wow, it is red, and it is beautiful." A scientist may come along and say "it only a simply reflection of light." Which sort of belittles the beauty and complexity of the flower. Another scientist could come along and say "Wow, it is beautiful. Light is so complex and amazing, and it's amazing to think about how different wavelengths of light produce different perceptions of colors when they hit the rods and cones in our eyes. It's also amazing that our eyes developed to see the visible wavelengths of light rather than the ultraviolet or infrared wavelengths. Oh Aramark, this is so beautiful and awesome."
Science has answers for many things, but that does not mean that it needs to present everything as simple.
Personally, I enjoy complexity and precision. Knowing the complexity of things, or the work that went in to them helps me to find things more beautiful - I spend more time reflecting on those things that I know more about. I'd rather hear of something's complexity than hear that something is "simply beautiful" or "simply explainable." On the other hand, I think that this is largely a matter personal preference.