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Why are scientists so strongly attractive
to visual images? From Galileo's drawings to Feynman diagrams
to modern brain-imaging techniques, it's almost impossible
to imagine science without pictures. To see is to understand.
In this way scientists are like artists: both seek a visual
interpretation of worlds both visible and invisible.
In Insights of Genius, the distinguished
historian of science Arthur I. Miller explores the connections
between Modern Art and modern physics in a wide-ranging
study that takes us through the philosophy of mind and language,
cognitive science, and neurophysiology in search of the
origins and meaning of visual imagery. Along the way, he
takes on such questions as:
- What is the connection between commonsense
intuition and scientific intuition?
- How does physics progress?
- Are there limits to scientific progress
and our understand of nature?
At a time when the media too often portray
science as a godless, dehumanizing exercise that is undermining
the very fabric of society, such questions are becoming
increasingly important. They help us see how science really
works and how scientists struggle to understand nature,
convince their peers, inform the public, and deal with reactions
to their research.
Insights of Genius will interest
everyone who cares about science and its place in our culture,
whether they are lay readers, students, scientists, or artists.
Arthur I. Miller is Professor of the
History and Philosophy of Science & Technology Studies,
University College, London. Professor Miller has lectured
and written extensively on the history and philosophy of
nineteenth century science and technology, cognitive science,
scientific creativity, and the relation between art and
science. He is the author of Albert Einstein's Special
Theory of Relativity: Emergence (1905) and Early Interpretation
(1905-1911), Imagery in Scientific Thought: Creating
20th-Century Physics, and Early Quantum Electrodynamics:
A Source Book, and is editor of Sixty-Two Years of
Uncertainty: Historical, Philosophical and Physical Inquiries
into the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Professor
Miller is the science presenter on WGBH's NOVA production,
"Einstein," and has appeared on numerous television
and radio programs.
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