Abstract
AbstractThis article starts an engagement on the aesthetics of experiments and offers an account for analysing how aesthetics features in the design, evaluation and reception of experiments. I identify two dimensions of aesthetic evaluation of experiments: design and significance. When it comes to design, a number of qualities, such as simplicity, economy and aptness, are analysed and illustrated with the famous Meselson-Stahl experiment. Beautiful experiments are also regarded to make significant discoveries, but I argue against a narrow construal of experimental aims. By drawing on the plurality of goals experimenters have and diversity of aesthetic responses, I argue that experiments are aesthetically appreciated both when they discover and when they produce disruptive results.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference82 articles.
1. Anscomb, C. (2021). Visibility, creativity, and collective working practices in art and science. European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 11, 5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-020-00310-z
2. Beauchemin, P. H. (2017). Autopsy of measurements with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Synthese, 194, 275–312.
3. Baetu, T. (2019). On the possibility of crucial experiments in biology. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 70, 407–429.
4. Beardsley, M. C. (1982). Aesthetic experience. In D. M. Callen, M. J. Wreen, & M. C. Beardsley (Eds.), The aesthetic point of view: Selected essays (pp. 285–297). Cornell University Press.
5. Breitenbach, A. (2020) One Imagination in Experiences of Beauty and Achievements of Understanding, The British Journal of Aesthetics, pp. 71–88
Cited by
12 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献，注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献，订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献