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The historicity of ‘imagination’ and ‘creativity’: a response to Tom McLeish's The Poetry and Music of Science (2019)
Interdisciplinary Science Reviews ( IF 1.0 ) Pub Date : 2020-01-02 , DOI: 10.1080/03080188.2020.1730470
Michael H. Whitworth 1
Affiliation  

For the last 40 years or so, historicist studies of the relations of literature and science have been shaped by the idea of there being fundamental similarities between literary and scientific creation, and for that reason if no other, Tom McLeish’s The Poetry and Music of Science will be of interest to those working in the field. The idea that scientific theorization involves imaginative modelling, making use of metaphor and analogical relations, was influentially adopted by Gillian Beer in Darwin’s Plots (1983), drawing on the work of philosophers of science, notably Max Black (1955) and Mary B. Hesse (1966), and historians of science such as Robert Young (1985). If scientists use metaphor and analogy to shape their theories, the argument goes, then in some ways their theories are as permeable to cultural influences as literary texts are to scientific ones. Bidirectional influence – the ‘two-way street’ – becomes possible, even if, in practice, the evidence base that might allow us to demonstrate the influence of literature on science is often fragmentary and difficult to work with. The lack of an evidence base is sometimes an obstacle to McLeish’s project, as scientists are not encouraged to reflect on their creative processes or to articulate them, and, where their reflections are available, too few historians have listened to them (McLeish 2019, 287). Nevertheless, by aiming to give an account of scientific creativity that goes into considerable expository detail about the scientific problems involved, and the specific solutions that were found, McLeish opens up the territory for future investigation. Unlike Laura Otis’s (2015) study, which focuses very specifically on the relation between visual and verbal thinking in contemporary creative thinkers, McLeish’s study touches on a wide range of parameters. One of the striking features of McLeish’s account is that it does not explicitly define the relation between the terms ‘creativity’ and ‘imagination’, the first of which appears in the book’s subtitle, or between their various cognates. To someone interested in the historical relations of literature and science, such omissions are interesting, because, although the two terms share much common ground, the changing relations between them are potentially revealing

中文翻译:

“想象力”和“创造力”的历史性:对汤姆·麦克利什的《科学诗歌与音乐》(2019)的回应

在过去 40 年左右的时间里,文学与科学关系的历史主义研究一直受到文学创作与科学创作之间存在根本相似性的思想的影响,因此,如果没有其他原因,汤姆麦克利什的科学诗歌和音乐在该领域工作的人会感兴趣。Gillian Beer 在 Darwin's Plots (1983) 中借鉴了科学哲学家的工作,特别是 Max Black (1955) 和 Mary B. Hesse (1966) 和科学史学家,如 Robert Young (1985)。如果科学家使用隐喻和类比来塑造他们的理论,那么论点是:那么在某些方面,他们的理论对文化影响的渗透就像文学文本对科学文本的渗透一样。双向影响——“双向街道”——成为可能,即使在实践中,可能让我们证明文学对科学的影响的证据基础往往是碎片化的,难以处理。缺乏证据基础有时是 McLeish 项目的障碍,因为不鼓励科学家反思他们的创作过程或阐明他们,而且,在他们的反思可用的情况下,很少有历史学家听取他们的意见(McLeish 2019, 287 )。尽管如此,通过对科学创造力进行说明,对所涉及的科学问题进行大量说明性细节,以及找到的具体解决方案,麦克利什为未来的调查开辟了领土。与劳拉·奥蒂斯 (Laura Otis) (2015) 的研究特别关注当代创造性思想家的视觉思维和语言思维之间的关系不同,麦克利什的研究涉及广泛的参数。麦克利什描述的一个显着特点是它没有明确定义术语“创造力”和“想象力”之间的关系,这两个术语出现在本书的副标题中,或者它们的各种同源词之间。对于对文学和科学的历史关系感兴趣的人来说,这种省略很有趣,因为尽管这两个术语有很多共同点,但它们之间不断变化的关系可能会揭示 麦克利什的研究非常专注于当代创造性思想家的视觉和语言思维之间的关系,涉及广泛的参数。麦克利什描述的一个显着特点是它没有明确定义术语“创造力”和“想象力”之间的关系,这两个术语出现在本书的副标题中,或者它们的各种同源词之间。对于对文学和科学的历史关系感兴趣的人来说,这种省略很有趣,因为尽管这两个术语有很多共同点,但它们之间不断变化的关系可能会揭示 麦克利什的研究非常专注于当代创造性思想家的视觉和语言思维之间的关系,涉及广泛的参数。麦克利什描述的一个显着特点是它没有明确定义术语“创造力”和“想象力”之间的关系,这两个术语出现在本书的副标题中,或者它们的各种同源词之间。对于对文学和科学的历史关系感兴趣的人来说,这种省略很有趣,因为尽管这两个术语有很多共同点,但它们之间不断变化的关系可能会揭示 麦克利什描述的一个显着特点是它没有明确定义术语“创造力”和“想象力”之间的关系,这两个术语出现在本书的副标题中,或者它们的各种同源词之间。对于对文学和科学的历史关系感兴趣的人来说,这种省略很有趣,因为尽管这两个术语有很多共同点,但它们之间不断变化的关系可能会揭示 麦克利什描述的一个显着特点是它没有明确定义术语“创造力”和“想象力”之间的关系,这两个术语出现在本书的副标题中,或者它们的各种同源词之间。对于对文学和科学的历史关系感兴趣的人来说,这种省略很有趣,因为尽管这两个术语有很多共同点,但它们之间不断变化的关系可能会揭示
更新日期:2020-01-02
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