A DFG research grant for the project Aesthetic Values and the Social Dimensions of Science, led by Dr Alice Murphy.
Philosophers now widely agree that if we are to understand science, we need to understand its social dimensions. This has given rise to hugely productive studies into the legitimacy of the influence of social values on research, the collective production of scientific knowledge, and the communication of results and methodologies to other scientists and to the public. Discussions on the role of aesthetic values in science have had a resurgence in recent years. Moving beyond the traditional focus of beauty in physics, various aesthetic properties and judgements have been shown to be embedded within many scientific practices, impacting their epistemic goals. Yet these topics have been explored almost entirely independently from the collective aspects of scientific inquiry and knowledge production.
The aim of this project is to develop a novel perspective on aesthetics in science, one which better reflects scientific practice, by centring its social dimensions. In doing so, the project also targets an underlying source of scepticism: the aesthetic is not an anti-social, wholly personal, or subjective sphere; it is intimately connected with the judgements and choices of a scientific community.
Principal Investigator: Alice Murphy