Science and literature: the importance of differences

ABSTRACT

The long history of the relations between science and literature reveals a constant pattern of hostility. This paper argues that there has rarely been a genuine ‘conversation’ and that attempts to reconcile the fields have largely been unsuccessful. The effort to assimilate science to literature is understandable and in certain respects appropriate, but their radical differences, particularly via the distinction between fact and value, are permanent conditions. This paper argues that the healthiest and most fruitful relation between science and literature is one in which literary critics sustain their work of critique, not to enter the internal workings of science but to contextualize science and set against scientific activity aesthetic and ethical criteria.

KEYWORDS:

• Science
• literature
• critique
• consilience
• conversation
• humane values

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This lecture was delivered at a conference, ‘Literature and Science, 1922–2022,’ sponsored by La Sapienza, Universita’ di Roma, on 30–31 March 2023. For the call for papers, see https://www.anglisti.it/cfp-literature-and-science-1922-2022-sapienza-universita-di-roma-30-31-march-2023/

Additional information

Notes on contributors

George Levine

George Levine is Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University. He has published widely on the relations between science and literature. His books include Darwin and the Novelists (Harvard University Press, 1988), Realism and Representation: Essays on the Problem of Realism in Relation to Science and Literature (University of Wisconsin Press, 1993), Dying to Know: Narrative and Scientific Epistemology in Victorian England (University of Chicago Press, 2002), Darwin Loves You: Natural Selection and the re-enchantment of the World (Princeton University Press, 2008), and Darwin, the Writer (Oxford University Press, 2011).