ATD background: Nature as a book

[pynchonoid]

The book of nature

Critical Point: December 2006

Galileo's famous metaphor of the "book of nature",
which he used to defend the work of scientists from
religious authorities, can be dangerous today, says
Robert P Crease

In 1623 Galileo crafted a famous metaphor that is
still often cited by scientists. Nature, he wrote, is
a book written in "the language of mathematics". If we
cannot understand that language, we will be doomed to
wander about as if "in a dark labyrinth".


Like other metaphors, this one has two facets; it is
insightful, but it may be misleading if taken
literally. It captures our sense that nature's truths
are somehow imposed on us – that they are already
imprinted in the world – and underlines the key role
played by mathematics in expressing those truths.

But Galileo devised the metaphor for a specific
purpose. Taken out of its historical context and
placed in ours, the image can be dangerously
deceptive. [...] 

During the Renaissance, however, scholars came to
appreciate more keenly that the truths of nature were
not always easy to discern. Rather, such truths were
often cleverly encoded in nature and so required a
special training to unlock. Meanwhile, the Protestant
Reformation brought about changes in the understanding
of texts, emphasizing the truths in them that were
exact and self-contained rather than symbolic or
allegorical.

Building on these scientific and religious changes, in
1623 Galileo decided to appropriate the "two books"
metaphor for his own purposes to get him out of a jam.
In fact, his troubles had begun a decade earlier, when
one of his students was discussing Galileo's work at
the Pisan court, and a participant noted the apparent
conflict between scripture and Galileo's scientific
claims, especially regarding the motion of the Earth.
The authorities were also threatening to put De
Revolutionibus, written by Galileo's intellectual ally
Copernicus, on the official index of forbidden books
for similar reasons. [...] 

But the image of the book of nature can haunt us
today. One reason is that it implies the existence of
an ultimate coherent truth – a complete text or "final
theory". While many scientists may believe this, it is
ultimately only a belief, and it is far likelier that
we will endlessly find more in nature as our concepts
and technology continue to evolve. Furthermore, the
image suggests that the "text" of the book of nature
has a divine origin. The idea that the world was the
oeuvre of a superhuman author was the precursor of the
idea that it was the engineering project of an
intelligent designer. This implication has led some
contemporary sociologists of science to succumb to the
temptation of characterizing scientists as behaving,
and seeking to behave, in a priest-like manner.

The most important lesson to be found in Galileo's
image is the need to keep developing and revising the
metaphors with which we speak about science.  
http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/19/12/4/1


 
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