THIRD PILLAR - Portal για την Φιλοσοφία

Athena's Temple

Athena's Temple
ΑΕΙΦΩΤΟΣ ΛΥΧΝΟΣ

Search This Blog

Monday, December 14, 2009

"Literature and Science" by Aldous Huxley,1963

In these reflections on the relations between art and science, Aldous Huxley attempts to discern the similarities and differences implicit in scientific and literary language, and he offers his opinions on the influence that each discipline exerts upon the other.

Literature and science reflect different aspects of experience. Experience that may be broadly shared, "public" and "objective," is the domain of science, which tries to express these aspects in universal terms, in technical, unambiguous jargon that has operational import. Other areas, personal, private, and in essence unsharable, form the domain of literature. Founded on "raw unconceptualized existence," literature must treat what is unique and unsharable, so that it becomes "a window opening onto the universal," and thus meaningful to others.

It is with concepts such as these that Mr. Huxley opens this short but meaty volume. Literature and science each has its own scope. What relations can exist between them? Modern science represents a world view that takes its place with other explanatory systems which have held man's allegiance in the past. Modern science has worked a vast revolution in thought, way of life, modes of behavior.

No comments: