Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science
By Midas / November 18, 2017 / 3 Comments / Motivation
“What a splendid book! Reading it is a joy, and for me, at least, continuing reading it became compulsive. . . . Chandrasekhar is a distinguished astrophysicist and every one of the lectures bears the hallmark of all his work: precision, thoroughness, lucidity.”—Sir Hermann Bondi, Nature
The late S. Chandrasekhar was best known for his discovery of the upper limit to the mass of a white dwarf star, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983. He was the author of many books, including The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes and, most recently, Newton’s Principia for the Common Reader.
3 thoughts on "Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science"
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Intellectual convergence This is really a confluence of interests that a creative scientist encounters in his lifetime. Chandra calls it quest for perspectives. He is sort of like Dirac but unlike Dirac, his interests diverge into areas like the renaissance architectures, Beethoven’s compositional beauty, Shakespearean prose. He draws parallels from these experiences. They are compelling essays but one can tell Chandra is out of his depth in discussing figures like Beethoven however he corrects himself and warns the…
Excellent facts by a master! Professor Chandrasekhar was not only a brilliant physicist, but he was also a very caring and wonderful human being. His views on the aesthetics and motivations in science clearly show his love of fellow beings and how to inspire the younger generation.
Truly beautiful. Chandrasekhar humbly reports on the achievements of other scientists at different times and speculates about the implications. An interesting read.