The Experimental Imagination: Literary Knowledge and Science in the British Enlightenment by Tita Chico (review)

Chico argues that because science requires literary representation, "the representation of early science persistently discloses its literary status—not merely in the tropological nature of scientific writing and practice, but also through the metaphorics of science that allow writers to posit a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Eighteenth - Century Studies 2020-07, Vol.53 (4), p.750-752
Main Author: Sha, Richard C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
18th century
Age of Enlightenment
British culture
Imagination
Literary language
Literature
Philosophers
Philosophy
Science
Self interest
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Chico argues that because science requires literary representation, "the representation of early science persistently discloses its literary status—not merely in the tropological nature of scientific writing and practice, but also through the metaphorics of science that allow writers to posit alternative models of authority and evidence" (1–2). [...]she offers the concept of "scientific seduction" to think about how science compels belief. Emily Jane Cohen has written about how Enlightenment natural philosophers were expected to have dirty hands, and the belletristic qualities of literature could offset such filth or lower classness.3 That said, this thoughtful study demands how we think we know the difference between literary and scientific knowledge, and the disciplinary troubles that this puts in motion are well worth the price of admission.
ISSN:0013-2586
1086-315X
1086-315X
DOI:10.1353/ecs.2020.0059