The Language of Science: A Study of the Relationship Between Literature and Science in the Perspective of a Hermeneutical Ontology, With a Case Stud (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History)

In modern times science has avoided rhetorical and poetical forms. Its hallmarks were brevity and exactitude, with disdain for "non-functional" ornamentation. This book shows that the language of scientists does remain language and that a skillful use of its rhetorical and poetic aspects often determines the "facts" and the transmission of information. The exceptional literary qualities of Darwin's The Origin of Species are taken as a point in case. The importance of language in science has ontological implications: science can no longer be considered an action performed by a speaking subject on a mute object. Does the creative role of language in science mean that human beings "create" the world? The author emphatically rejects a conclusion which would degrade nature to mere malleable material at the mercy of human beings. A hermeneutical model for the relationship between knower and known is suggested: creative interaction between reader and text. The reader's responses actualise a text's meaning; in like manner, scientists give their responses to reality by actualising one of many possibilities. The hermeneutical ontology proposed in this book steers away from the rocks of realism and anti-realism. THE LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE Copyright CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY CHAPTER TWO DARWIN'S THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES: A RHETORICAL TEXT 2.1 THE INTRODUCTION 2.2 THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES AS TEXT CHAPTER THREE THE ENIGMA OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 3.1 THE SCIENTIFIC DEBATE ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES: THE NETHERLANDS 3.2 Sociological aspects of The Origin of Species' reception in The Netherlands 3.3 The Enigma of The Origin of Species success CHAPTER FOUR DARWIN AS WRITER 4.1 VARIOUS WAYS OF READING A TEXT 4.2 DARWIN'S STYLISTIC DEVICES 4.3 SIMILE AND METAPHOR IN THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 4.4 PERSONIFICATIONS 4.5 THE EFFECTS OF DARWIN'S SIMILES AND METAPHORS: NATURE AND CULTURE 4.6 LITERARY GENRES 4.7 OF IMAGINATION AND REASON IN THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 4.8 DARWIN'S COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES IN THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 4.9 LOGICAL ARGUMENTATION AND SYSTEMATIC EXPERIMEMTATION IN THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 4.10 SEARCHING LANGUAGE CHAPTER FIVE THE SEPARATION OF SCIENCE AND LITERATURE 5.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 5.1.1 Preliminary remarks: on the separation of science and literature 5.1.2 Antiquity and the Middle Ages; nominalism 5.1.3 The demise of the language arts from the study of nature 5.1.4 Language in natural science: communication 5.1.5 Languagein natural science: representation 5.1.6 Experiments in natural science 5.1.7 From the eighteenth to the twentieth century 5.2 IGNORING THE ACTUAL TEXT OF SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS 5.2.1 Science after Darwin 5.2.2 Roman Ingarden on scientific writings 5.2.3 The contemporary scientific paper 5.2.4 Some personal remarks 5.3 MORAL AND POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF THE SEPARATION OF LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC WRITINGS CHAPTER SIX LITERARY LANGUAGE AND EVASIVE REALITY: TOWARD A HERMENEUTICAL ONTOLOGY 6.1 PRELIMINARY REMARKS: LANGUAGE AND ONTOLOGY. THE HERMENEUTICAL-RHETORICAL TRADITION 6.2 THE BOOK OF NATURE IN THE HERMENEUTICAL-RHETORICAL TRADITION: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 6.3 CONTEMPORARY LITERARY THEORY 6.4 SKETCH FOR A HERMENEUTICAL ONTOLOGY CHAPTER SEVEN CONCLUSION AND POSTSCRIPT 7.1 CONCLUSION 7.2 POSTSCRIPT BIBLIOGRAPHY GENERAL INDEX

The existence of a separation between science and literature has long been taken for granted. This study shows that in science language functions in very much the same way as in literature: it is rhetorical in that it persuades readers to the author's point of view, and it is poetical in that with its metaphors and other figures of speech it shapes the experience of author and reader. The separation between science and literature proves to be untenable.
This has important ontological implications: science can no longer be considered an action performed by a speaking subject on a mute object. Does the creative role of language in science mean that human beings 'create' the world? The author emphatically rejects a conclusion which would degrade nature to mere malleable material at the mercy of human beings. A hermeneutical model for the relationship between knower and known is suggested: creative interaction between reader and text. The reader's responses actualise a text's meaning; in like manner, scientists give their responses to reality by actualising one of many possibilities. The hermeneutical ontology proposed in this book steers away from the rocks of realism and anti-realism.

Using Darwin's The Origin of Species as a casepoint, this book shows that the language of scientists does remain language and that a skilful use of its rhetorical and poetic aspects often determines the 'facts' and the transmission of information.