260027 Beautiful Science: The Roles of Aesthetic Judgment in Scientific Theories and Practices (GradS) (WiSe 2024/2025)

Aesthetic judgments are common in scientific practice. Scientists often perceive beauty in their objects of study and make methodological and theoretical decisions based on aesthetic considerations. Scholars in philosophy, history, and social studies of science have recently started to pay serious attention to this important facet of scientific research. What is the relationship between aesthetics and science? What are the roles of aesthetic judgments in scientific theory and practice? In this course, we will engage these and related questions in topics such as the nature of scientists’ aesthetic experiences, the roles of aesthetic judgments in theory construction and choice, experimentation, and mathematical proof, and the aesthetic value of scientific images, among many others. In doing so, we will discuss case studies ranging from paleontology and plate tectonics to conservation biology, astronomy, physics, and chemistry.