The aesthetic dimension of scientific discovery: finding the inter-maxillary bone in humans
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The aesthetic dimension of scientific discovery: finding the inter‑maxillary bone in humans Jorge L. García1
Received: 11 January 2020 / Accepted: 1 July 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract This paper examines the points of disagreement between Petrus Camper and J. W. von Goethe regarding the existence of the inter-maxillary bone in humans as the link between man and the rest of nature. This historical case illustrates the fundamental role of aesthetic judgements in scientific discovery. Thus, I shall show how the eighteenth century discovery of the inter-maxillary bone in humans was largely determined by aesthetic factors—specifically, those sets of assumptions and criteria implied in the aesthetic schemata of Camper and Goethe. I argue that the relevance of scientifically ascertainable morphological properties that count as evidence for the existence of bona fide anatomical structures depend on the aesthetic schema adopted by the communities assessing the classification. At the same time, I propose and explain mechanisms by which aesthetic considerations might determine the acceptability of empirical claims about the world. Based on the reconstruction of the arguments of Camper and Goethe, I conclude that aesthetic considerations play a substantive role in both the generation and preliminary evaluation of scientific hypotheses. This paper suggests a complementary relation between the mediation of aesthetic criteria in theory choice and in scientific discovery in that while aesthetic considerations in theory choice lead to conservatism; in the context of discovery they often lead to innovation. Keywords Aesthetic schema · Scientific discovery · Morphology · Comparative anatomy · Camper · Goethe
* Jorge L. García [email protected] 1
Department of History of Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
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1 Introduction The framing of a scientific hypothesis about the world is normally preceded by devising certain patterns from a set of empirical data. Bringing to light such patterns and recognizing them as representative of objective relations among things in nature is basically what constitutes a new discovery. Hence any newly proposed hypothesis must meet certain requirements to the effect that it objectively captures the way the world is if it is to count as a scientific discovery. The first requirement is that it should explain the data at hand. Additionally, it should offer a better explanation of the anomalous facts compared to other alternative hypotheses. Yet no amount of evidence is sufficient to conclusively establish the truth of a universal proposition about the world. To begin with, there might be many ways of constructing hypotheses which are consistent with the data: there is always room for divergent interpretations in theory construction. In making such interpretations the scientist relies on various sources which influence the way she ‘sees’ the world: background beliefs, metaphysical commitments, aesthetic values
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