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Questions on the nature and role of visual representations in scientific and artistic practice, what counts as "objective" and "accurate" representation, when and how images count as "evidence".
Science, Art and Philosophy
This module explores the interactions between science and art from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Its philosophical focus is the notion of "representation", conceived as a crucial common link between scientific and artistic visual practices. Integrating the history and philosophy of scientific and artistic representations, the course will address a broad range of issues.
Course Objectives:
The aim of this course is to explore the notion of “representation” as a crucial link between scientific and artistic visual practices. Drawing on a variety of interpretative tools from analytical and continental philosophical traditions, the course will address a range of philosophical questions arising from the parallel histories of representations in science and
art. These will include issues concerning the nature and role of visual representations in scientific and artistic practice, what counts as “objective” and “accurate” representation, when and how images count as “evidence” in the sciences, and whether the relations between science and modernism contribute to overturn the common sense view that “art invents, science discovers”.
By the end of the course, students will have acquired the necessary analytical and interpretative tools to engage critically with a broad range of visual materials and to establish interdisciplinary parallels between visual representations in science and in the visual arts.
Course Syllabus:
UCL Module Catalogue: Science, Art and Philosophy (HPSC0111)