Philosophy: Science & Story: The importance of narrative in science, not only compatible, but inseparable

Roald Hoffman, writing in American Scientist, uses the classic example of a 1905 scholarly paper by Albert Einstein regarding the photoelectric cell, to demonstrate his thesis that story has an integral place in the scientific process, contrary to the phobias of great hordes of scientists in denial about the phenomenon.

Science seems to be afraid of storytelling, perhaps because it associates narrative with long, untestable yarns. Stories are perceived as "just" literature. Worse, stories are not reducible to mathematics, so they are unlikely to impress our peers.

This fear is misplaced for two reasons. First, in paradigmatic science, hypotheses have to be crafted. What are alternative hypotheses but competing narratives? Invent them as fancifully as you can. Sure, they ought to avoid explicit violations of reality (such as light acting like a particle when everyone knows it's a wave?), but censor those stories lightly. There is time for experiment—by you or others—to discover which story holds up better.

The second reason not to fear a story is that human beings do science. A person must decide what molecule is made, what instrument built to measure what property. Yes, there are facts to begin with, facts to build on. But facts are mute. They generate neither the desire to understand, nor appeals for the patronage that science requires, nor the judgment to do A instead of B, nor the will to overcome a seemingly insuperable failure. Actions, small or large, are taken at a certain time by human beings—who are living out a story.

I leave the further telling of this particular story, a story about a feature of philosophy, theoretical thawt, and all science - despite the claims to the contrary and the obsession with mathematics - I leave the reading to you. But I do want to alert you that the article is downloadable as a PDF; and that I tip my hat to Jason Kottke, whose blog tells us a bit about himself and his purpose online: "I like play around with hypertext, design, photography, media, text & programming, and this site is the result. Kottke.org is up-dated near-daily and recently became my full-time concern, supported almost entirely by financial support from you, my readers."

You may enjoy his blog entry "I will soon have no memory of this," as well. Scroll down a bit on the page, soon, as he updates daily. And, for this one timeliness is doubly important, as he links to a New York Times article on memnomics (techniques of enhancing memory, accounting for its lapses, and studies of it in generally). If you're interested you may want to know that NYT quickly secrets away its articles in it's pay-for archives - so again, if interested, do get on it. -Owlb