The Poet William Blake regarded “reason as the Devil, and Newton as its high-priest.” But when he spoke of the raptures as one strives:
“To see the World in a Grain of Sand, And Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your Hand, and Eternity in an Hour,”
he was putting to rhyme and rhythm the thrills of the scientific investigator. When chemists analyze the constitution of sand, they see a world in a grain of sand. When botanists probe the magic of flowers, and uncover the biochemistry causing their emergence, they see heaven in action in a wild flower. When cosmologists compute the age of the universe, they hold infinity in their hands. The astrophysicist examining the evolution of stellar systems, are holding eternity in an hour.
Scientists enjoy poetry. Galileo knew the entire Orlando Furioso by heart, Euler could recite the Aeneid from beginning to end. Simon Poisson mastered passages from Racine and Corneille. Newton, Maxwell, Ampère, and Faraday showed more than a passing interest in poetry.
Yet, not many poets have been as enthusiastic about science. Some have disparaged the scientific enterprise, and made pitying references to what they see as the emptiness of science. From the pathological contempt for science of the more extreme romantics to post-moderns that extoll the illogical and the irrational and venerate the absurd in the misguided conviction that mystery-mongering leads to higher levels of reality, many have vilified science even in our own times.
Literary writers who regard meticulous measurement and cold logic as unwelcome intrusions in the wholesome enjoyment of life and nature don’t realize that astronomers are also capable of merging themselves in the splendors of a starlit sky. The scientist contemplating on how the young stars of Orion are wasting away their energies can also experience mystical delights in the process,
Literature, like most other arts, attempts to see things not as they are, but as they seem from the perspective of humans. It is interested not in how the world functions, as in how that functioning affects humans. It aims to go beyond the recognition of facts and phenomena into the why and the wherefore of things. Questions of meaning and purpose, values and wisdom, are what provoke poets and novelists to thoughts and writings.
A subject may be approached from different perspectives. A waltz may be reduced to periodic patterns in a complex of forces and reactions. A sonata may be Fourier analyzed, and a smile on a babe’s face may be seen in terms of nerve impulses and muscular contractions. Sometimes this approach diminishes the associated aesthetic experience. But it leads to understandings that may be illuminating.
The scientific interpretation of nature, with its commendable dedication to coherence and consistency, is concerned primarily with cause-effect relationships. No scientific truth stands by itself. Hence, the order that science reveals is one of mutual balance, of reciprocal support, of cosmic harmony.
Science observes particulars and generalizes them into one truth. Apples fall, balls fall, rain drops fall. From these, the general proposition emerges that everything in the earth’s vicinity falls (gravitation). Generalization of particular truths is one of the goals of science. Once the order is discerned, and the mechanism exposed, the inquiry is closed.
In literature, universal truths like ‘boy and girl meet, and they fall in love’ or ‘the powerful exploit the powerless’ are illustrated in myriad examples. Exemplification of general truths is the goal here.
Science is not concerned with meaning because the truths of science have little to do with the human condition. In literature, every creative writer offers interpretations and meanings. The fascination for literature lies not in the questions posed, but in the richness of the answers. This is not a case where a puzzle baffles the mind. Rather, varied visions enrich the field. The non-uniqueness of the solution renders literature limitless in scope and lush in expressions. Then again, the stamp of the artist is seen, in contradistinction to the collective nature of most scientific truths.Language and local context circumscribe literature. Science is transcultural. We can talk of Punjabi and Polish literatures, but not of Belgian and Bengali sciences. Literature reflects the ethnic uniqueness of people. Science reminds us of our collective longing to unravel the experienced world.
Spurts of Thought 