Science or Literature?: The Divergent Cultures of Discovery and Creation - Hardcover

Maxwell, Donald R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 082045009X ISBN 13: 9780820450094

Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers, 2000

Synopsis

Donald R. Maxwell discusses the differences and similarities in the cultures and disciplines of literature and science, the origin of this dichotomy, the distinction in the use of language, and the differences in the practice of the two cultures. As distinct from literature, the physical sciences are empirical and concern truths that cannot be deduced intuitively. Science, not literature, is cumulative, predictive, and reproducible and its language is transparent and unambiguous. Literature attempts to give utterance to the ineffable and uses ambiguity, metaphor, and the evocation of memory to create new and wonderful worlds. Science discovers that which already exists while literature creates that which might never exist. These differences are illustrated by the writings of Marcel Proust, Henri Bergson, and others.

About this title

About the Author:

The Author: Donald R. Maxwell, was born in Paris and holds two Ph.D.s, from the University of Cambridge (Faculty of Medicine) and, more recently, from the University of Michigan (French) where he is Visiting Assistant Professor of French. He spent many years in biomedical research and is the author of numerous publications on physiology and pharmacology. Before retiring from his scientific career, he was Executive Vice President for Scientific Affairs of a major U.S. corporation. He is the author of the monograph, The Abacus and the Rainbow: Bergson, Proust, and the Digital-Analogic Opposition.

About this edition

• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 082045009X
• ISBN 13: 9780820450094
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 165