Jonah Lehrer’s goal was to try and persuade the heavy science thinkers of the world to believe in the importance of art with science and discovery. He uses examples with famous scientists or painters who used both methods in order to create master pieces or discover a new way of viewing a complex idea. Metaphors are a type of language, which is also a kind of art, which can be used to explain complex ideas to the general public. This is useful because not everyone in society has the background knowledge that a scientist would so concepts need to be explained using metaphors so the audience can relate it and understand the concept properly.
I was able to understand the examples Lehrer used and what the specific scientist or artist did in order to achieve their goal. However, I found some parts of his article confusing and I wasn’t able to wrap my head around how art would help in some situations. He mentions how it is better to understand concepts if they are broken down into smaller pieces in order to understand the fundamentals and then try to look at the bigger picture. He says this will help science deeply understand these concepts. But where does art fit in? How does art allow us to break down scientific theories or new ideas to understand them better? I’m not sure where art can help in this situation and Lehrer does not clearly explain what art can do to better our understanding. He mentions the artist Monet and said that his paintings appealed to use because he “had a practical understanding of color perception.” However, how does this crossover into the science world and how does art allow us to look at the fundamentals first?
Vocabulary:
- Reductionism: explaining a complex phenomenon by using the fundamental or most simple phenomenon within the bigger phenomenon
- Epiphenomenon: secondary effect/byproduct arising from a particular process
- Holistic perspective: alternative approach to a situation that involves the whole issue at hand not just one part (such as in medicine, look at the person as a whole not just the specific illness)
It’s so useful for me to read your musings. I would recommend that you revisit Lehrer’s thoughts on reductionism and art’s potential to capture the whole. For example, what does he say about consciousness and our ability to study it?