Patterns of Creativity
by S. Chandrasekhar
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An extract from a lecture by the astrophysicist S. Chandrasekhar, exploring why patterns of creativity differ between practitioners of the arts and of the sciences. Rather than answering directly, he offers 'an assortment of remarks'. He considers how scientists and poets view one another: Wordsworth and Keats distrusted science ('We murder to dissect'; 'Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings'), and Lowes Dickinson claimed 'When Science arrives, it expels Literature'; scientists like Peter Medawar countered that literature expels science. But Chandrasekhar argues that such attitudes are not typical, and points to Shelley, 'a scientist's poet', who loved science and expressed its thoughts in poetry (as in 'The Cloud' and 'Prometheus Unbound'). He notes Darwin's sad confession that his mind became 'a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts', causing the atrophy of his taste for poetry, music and art, and Faraday's witty reply to Gladstone that his discoveries could soon be taxed. Finally, quoting Shelley's magnificent A Defence of Poetry, he asks why no scientist of equal stature has written a comparable 'Defence of Science', a question that itself hints at an answer to why creativity in the arts and sciences follows different patterns.
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Chandrasekhar's lecture examines the relationship between poetry and science and why creativity follows different patterns in the two fields. He proceeds not by direct argument but by a series of illuminating observations, quotations and examples drawn from both poets and scientists.
How poets and scientists view each other
Chandrasekhar notes the traditional hostility: Wordsworth ('We murder to dissect') and Keats ('Do not all charms fly / At the mere touch of cold philosophy?... Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings') distrusted science, and Lowes Dickinson said 'When Science arrives, it expels Literature'. Scientists like Peter Medawar retaliated that, on the contrary, 'when literature arrives, it expels science'.
Shelley, the scientist's poet
Chandrasekhar argues that Wordsworth's and Keats's attitudes are not typical, and holds up Shelley as 'a scientist's poet' who loved science and delighted in expressing its thoughts in poetry. He cites 'The Cloud', which fuses 'a creative myth, a scientific monograph, and a gay picaresque tale', and 'Prometheus Unbound', hailed as the greatest expression of humanity's desire for intellectual light and spiritual liberty.
Darwin's loss and Faraday's wit
He quotes Darwin's sad confession that his mind had become 'a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts', causing 'the atrophy of that part of the brain' on which the higher tastes for poetry, music and pictures depend. Against this he sets Faraday's confident wit: when Gladstone asked what use his electrical discoveries were, Faraday replied, 'Why, Sir, there is every probability that you will soon be able to tax it.'
A Defence of Poetry, and no Defence of Science
Chandrasekhar quotes Shelley's A Defence of Poetry, which calls poetry 'the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and the best minds' and poets 'the unacknowledged legislators of the world'. He ends by asking why no scientist of equal endowment has written a similar 'A Defence of Science', a question that itself begins to suggest an answer to why the patterns of creativity differ in the arts and the sciences.