Kevin D McMahon Student ID 78513 SED 610 CURRICULUM FUNDING PROJECT Funding Agency W M Keck Foundation Southern California Program Funding Request 115 000 for 3 years Principal Investigator Kevin D McMahon Science Teacher Science Magnet Co Investigators Karen Nicols Art Teacher Performing Arts Academy Don Moore Literature Drama Teacher Performing Arts Academy Project Name Teaching Science in the Context of Classical Aesthetics Investigator Credentials Kevin D McMahon Principal Investigator BA Biology Chemistry California State University Northridge MS Clinical Nutrition University of California at Davis MS Science Education California State University Northridge Karen Nicols Co Investigator BA California State University Northridge Don Moore Co Investigator BA Theatre Arts San Francisco State University PROBLEM STATEMENT You can recognize truth by its beauty and simplicity said Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman Augros Stanciu 1984 p 39 It is in this relationship between truth and beauty that many scientists are beginning to recognize that aesthetics has the potential of playing a significant role in the Scientific Method As Augros and Stanciu observed The New Story of Science All of the most eminent physicists of the twentieth century agree that beauty is the primary standard for scientific truth Augros Stanciu 1984 p 39 However it should be noted that when scientists speak of Beauty they are not informed by the Modernists subjective interpretation of aesthetics whereby beauty is in the eye of he beholder Rather as Arthur Miller observed So what makes science beautiful For most art theorists and artists beauty is subjective but not for scientists To scientists symmetry is beauty and therefore objective Miller 2006 Objective Beauty is inherent in the object perceived and is independent of the subject and hence is not subjective Consequently the Beautiful in science is not in the eye of the beholder but is intrinsic to the object being beheld Whether or not the Beauty is beheld is therefore a function of the acuity of the perception of the beholder In this regard aestheticians of science have more in common with Classical Aesthetics than Modern subjectivists conceptions of beauty This Classical view of aesthetics holds that there is an intimate relationship between the Beautiful the True and the Good As the philosopher theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar observed a being appears it has an epiphany in that it is beautiful and it gives itself it delivers itself to us it is good And in giving itself up it speaks itself it unveils itself it is true von Balthasar 1993 p 116 This epiphany of Beauty is an encounter with Mystery as Albert Einstein observed The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science Einstein 1931 Mystery reminds us of the limits of our epistemologies while transfiguring our inquiry from an investigation of an object to an epiphany of the Other This is a radical re conceptualization of the Nature of Science The next generation of scientists may be more open to challenging the Baconian axiom of Science Scientia est Potentia Knowledge is Power that the goal of science is the empowerment of man through the manipulation of nature But Beauty cannot be possessed only safeguarded And it is only with the utmost care and humility that we should ever consider manipulating Her Would we dare to complete Schubert s Unfinished Symphony What would happen if someone entered the National Gallery and attempted to finish Leonardo da Vinci s uncompleted painting The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist Yet scientists are pushing headlong into the manipulation of genomes the material manifestation of Beauty s formal cause as a Classical Aesthetician might characterize DNA Do these scientists expect that genomic manipulations will produce organisms that will possess more unity harmony symmetry and wholeness than they did formally Will they be more radiant Does any one care or think that these are questions worthy of asking The Action Research Project I conducted Teaching Science in the Context of Classical Aesthetics suggests that a new generation of scientists may indeed be ready for a new perhaps even radically new approach to doing science During the course of a four month study AP Chemistry students from the Reseda High School Science Magnet received instruction in Classical Aesthetics and philosophy and its relationship to science Although this instruction was minimal the findings of this study indicated that it had a significant effect on the students perception of science One student stated It opened up science in a new way for me to incorporate philosophy and freedom of thought into the scientific field which I had previously considered really strict Here we begin to see an openness to re conceptualizing science one willing to consider the value of incorporating aesthetically and philosophical ideas into what was formally believed to be really strict And students recognized the value of learning science in the context of classical aesthetics and what a science informed by this perspective might look like I think students would have greater appreciation for science if they understood the beauty of it Then I think that would make them more motivated to learn science and do well in class They also began to perceive that a new more modest science might emerge from being informed by Beauty You get to appreciate the beauty within science and science is not all about trying to find an answer What is science then if it is not all about trying to find an answer Perhaps it is more than taking Francis Bacon s inquisitional stance to force nature to reveal her secrets The secret workings of nature do not reveal themselves to one who simply contemplates the natural flow of events It is when nature is tormented by art when man interferes with nature vexes nature tries to make her do what he wants not what she wants that he begins to understand how she works and my hope to learn how to control her It is my intention to bind and place at your command nature Francis Bacon as quoted by Comstock 2000 p 139 Perhaps science newly configured by Classical Aesthetics will not approach Nature as an object to be vexed tormented and bound but as the Other who simply asks of us to be open as one student stated By giving Beauty a chance I hope to be more open minded And in this openness we may encounter