Insights of Genius: Imagery and Creativity in Science and Art [Paperback]

Here, distinguished science historian Arthur I. Miller delves into the connections between modern art and modern physics. He takes us on a wide-ranging study to demonstrate that scientists and artists have a common aim: a visual interpretation of both the visible and invisible aspects of nature. Along the way, we encounter the philosophy of mind and language, cognitive science and neurophysiology in our search for the origins and meaning of visual imagery.
At a time when the media are overeager to portray science as a godless, dehumanising exercise undermining the very fabric of society, this sixth book by Professor Miller shows how scientists are struggling to understand nature, convince their peers, inform the public and deal with the reactions to their research.
Thus, Insights of Genuis must interest everyone who cares about science and its place in our culture.Since the Enlightenment, science has been seen as an objective, true method of explanation about the physical and mathematical laws that explain and govern the universe. The 20th Century has shown that science is also a human enterprise, informed by idealogy and other assumptions. In this book, distinguished historian and philosopher of science Arthur Miller examines these and other important questions about what and how we know about the world. Dr. Miller also discusses, in non-technical language, our current ideas about the nature of scientific thought and explanation, its relation to truth, and the relationship between scientific and common sense. Does science, in its historical claim as an exalted endeavor, stand above other human activities?1 Common Sense and Scientific Intuition.- At the Beginning.- The Mindset of Renaissance Scientists.- Galileos Imagination.- Conceptual Frameworks and Common Sense.- Galileo and Newton Become Common Sense.- The Waviness of Light Waves.- Life on a Moving Platform.- A Problem with Relative Motion.- /Another Way to Think About Relative Motion.- Time lĂ3