The poetry and the prose of science

Abstract

A historical review of the relationships between art, literature and science is briefly presented. It shows that the common feature between these different types of knowledge is the emotional involvement that is present in the artistic as well as in the scientific creativity. It is then suggested that scientific teaching should grant more importance to the course or process of knowledge elaboration, rather than to its results, and to acknowledge not only its literary and historical interest, but also its scientific pertinence. Operative Epistemology may be an interesting way to explore, among other characteristics, the aesthetics of theory construction.