Science Sublime: The Philosophy of the Sublime, Dewey’s Aesthetics, and Science Education

Abstract

Feelings of awe, wonder, and appreciation have been largely ignored in the working lives of scientists and, in turn, science education has not accurately portrayed science to students. In an effort to bring the affective qualities of science into the classroom, this work draws on the writings of the sublime by Burke, Kant, Emerson, and Wordsworth as well as Dewey’s notion of aesthetic experiences to explore a new construct I have called the “scientific sublime.” Also described is a pedagogical approach developed to teach for the scientific sublime as well as the results of utilizing this approach.