In The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, Richard Holmes explores how science, which emerged in a strictly Enlightenment/Rationalist era, came of age during the Romantic era.
For science in the Romantic Age, poetry and science, art and rational thinking merged. The great scientists of this time socialized and worked with poets like Shelly and Byron, producing science that was both rigorous in its methodology, but often poetic in its expression.
This marriage eventually ended in divorce . By the Victorian Era, science and poetry departed company. For Holmes, this is detrimental. This quote sums up his view:
The old, rigid debates and boundaries — science versus religion, science versus the arts, science versus traditional ethics — are no longer enough. We should be impatient with them. We need a wider, more generous, more imaginative perspective. Above all, perhaps, we need the three things that a scientific culture can sustain: the sense of individual wonder, the power of hope, and the vivid but questing belief in a future for the globe.
Generally, this book is interesting and informative. The structure of the work can be confusing. Holmes introduces characters, then other characters, then loops around again to previously discussed material. This mars the flow of the book, placing it somewhere been a demanding text and a popularizing work.
For science in the Romantic Age, poetry and science, art and rational thinking merged. The great scientists of this time socialized and worked with poets like Shelly and Byron, producing science that was both rigorous in its methodology, but often poetic in its expression.
This marriage eventually ended in divorce . By the Victorian Era, science and poetry departed company. For Holmes, this is detrimental. This quote sums up his view:
The old, rigid debates and boundaries — science versus religion, science versus the arts, science versus traditional ethics — are no longer enough. We should be impatient with them. We need a wider, more generous, more imaginative perspective. Above all, perhaps, we need the three things that a scientific culture can sustain: the sense of individual wonder, the power of hope, and the vivid but questing belief in a future for the globe.
Generally, this book is interesting and informative. The structure of the work can be confusing. Holmes introduces characters, then other characters, then loops around again to previously discussed material. This mars the flow of the book, placing it somewhere been a demanding text and a popularizing work.
No comments:
Post a Comment