Poetry, Science and Truth: The Case of ‘Poet-Scientists’ Miroslav Holub and David Morley

Abstract

From the starting point of I. A. Richards’ distinction between scientific statements, which can be verified ‘in the laboratory’, and poetry, which can only make ‘pseudo-statements’, a study is made of two ‘poet-scientists’, Czech immunologist Miroslav Holub (1923–98) and British poet and ecologist David Morley (b. 1964). Their attitudes to the concept of truth in science and poetry are analysed along with the form of authority that they assign to each. How each ‘poet-scientist’ makes use of the verifiability of scientific ideas within the imaginative arena of their poetry is examined, thereby giving the lie to Richards’ distinction.

Keywords:

• poetry
• science
• truth
• experiment
• authority

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vicky MacKenzie McCarty

Vicky MacKenzie has completed a PhD on contemporary poetry and science at the University of St Andrews, supervised by Robert Crawford and John Burnside. She has a MLitt in Creative Writing and writes poetry and fiction, for which she has won a number of prizes including the McLellan Poetry Award and the Ruth Rendell Short Story Competition. A regular tutor for the St Andrews Creative Writing Summer Programme, she also reviews poetry and is currently working on a radio play.