New Values for Science: An Appeal for the Aesthetic Transformation of Scientific Research

Abstract

It’s strange: The sciences are equipped with the best opportunities for understanding beauty in evolutionary nature and for explaining its attractive efficiency. They also have countless reasons for seizing beauty in the intellectual sphere and for putting its creative efficiency to use. And yet, these days the idea only occurs to a few to call the products of science beautiful and to look for beauty in this region of the intellectual world, although not too long ago we were still gripped by the scientific view of the world or at least seemed enthusiastic about it. In addition to the far-reaching theories on the inner workings of physical matter and of the cosmos, we could be astonished by the whole idea of biological evolution. And although we tried for a while to draw near to this scientific sketch and its truth, many people would rather turn away from it when they observe the scientific world and see, for example, photographs of manipulated and cloned life forms. They stand by helplessly and no longer see a worthwhile goal in science. Earlier, we stood in awe before Einstein’s theory of relativity; today people pity a geneticist’s fly with 14 eyes or similar creatures that are hard to look at and violate common sense. Earlier we looked to science for progress and then to increase our longed-for power over nature. Today we fear the progress of science and its consequences that seem to increase our feelings of powerlessness.