Angels and blue brains: aesthetics of knowledge in science and religion

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Arianna Borrelli
Technische Universität Berlin and Bielefeld University

This paper deals with the sensory and culturally situated dimension of knowing, which I refer to as “aesthetics of knowledge”, and focuses on knowing and knowledge in two fields of the modern and contemporary cultural sphere: science and religion. Since its emergence during the 19th century, science has been sharing many elements of the aesthetics of knowledge with modern Western religion. These are shaped by common heritage from the Romantic period and, while often dismissed as superficial borrowings, they contribute to construct scientific meaning. Based on existing literature, this paper endeavours to show how a focus on shared aesthetics of knowledge in science and religion can provide new insights in science, media and art studies by complementing other approaches.

Keywords
aesthetics of knowledge, science and religion, visual communication, brain simulations, inscriptions

Article Details

How to Cite
Borrelli, Arianna. “Angels and blue brains: aesthetics of knowledge in science and religion”. Artnodes, no. 34, pp. 1-11, doi:10.7238/artnodes.v0i34.426353.
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(c) Arianna Borrelli, 2024


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Author Biography

Arianna Borrelli, Technische Universität Berlin and Bielefeld University

She is a historian and philosopher of natural philosophy and modern science currently teaching at the Technical University in Berlin and Bielefeld University. The focus of her research is the relationship between scientific knowledge and the strategies employed to represent, communicate, store and transform it. Her specific fields of interest include medieval mathematical cosmology, early modern meteorology and mechanics, and quantum theories from their early days up to the present. Currently, she is focussing on the historical-epistemological premises and implications of the increasing use of computational tools in the natural sciences. She worked in research first as a theoretical physicist (Italy, UK, Switzerland), and later in humanities (Braunschweig, Berlin, Lüneburg).

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