Poetic Imagination in Scientific Practice: Grand Unification as Narrative Worldmaking

Arianna Borrelli

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Chapter 12 Poetic Imagination in Scientific Practice: Grand Unification as Narrative Worldmaking

In: Narrative Cultures and the Aesthetics of Religion

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Arianna Borrelli

Arianna Borrelli
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 314–344

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004421677_014

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Abstract

Since the 1970s, particle physicists have been searching for unified, fundamental principles valid from the nano-physical to the cosmic scale. Candidates for such a “theory of everything” appear to laypersons as coherent mathematical constructs, but in fact the mathematical elements in them are fragments bound together by words, diagrams, and images which, together with the symbolic formulas, form a multi-medial construct telling a story—e.g. of how the original symmetry of the universe broke down—and fulfilling a worldmaking function analogous to religious narratives. This thesis contradicts widespread claims of a long-standing, inevitable conflict between science and religion and of an alleged opposition between the “poetic imagination” of religion and the “rational,” “objective,” and logically-structured statements of science. However, historians of science have shown that no such general conflict can be postulated, and that relationships between the two areas are complex and multiform. In my contribution, I use the case study of Grand Unified Theories of elementary particle interactions, one of the earliest forms of “theories of everything,” to argue that scientific theories may take the form of hybrid narrative constructs and display features of a “poetic imagination” traditionally associated with the religious sphere. Building upon recent results on the aesthetics of knowledge in science and religion, I show how the two cultural spheres of science and religion share an aesthetic tradition going back to Romanticism, which provides a framework for powerful narrative worldmaking.

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Narrative Cultures and the Aesthetics of Religion

Series: Supplements to Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, Volume: 14

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004421677

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 23 Jan 2020

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies
  - Cultural History
  - Memory Studies
- Religious Studies
  - General
  - Comparative Religion & Religious Studies

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Chapter 12 Poetic Imagination in Scientific Practice: Grand Unification as Narrative Worldmaking

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Narrative Cultures and the Aesthetics of Religion

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