Esthetique Mathematique: Théorie de la Peinture by Joseph Chacron (review)

162 Books taken place. Provided with a wealth of up-to-date references, one finds in the book a brilliant view of the present state ofscience in the subjects chosen. After two deeply significant articles on new fields of mathematics (Dieudonne, Rene Thorn), there is an especially excellent one by Ugo -Arnaldi (one-fifth of the whole book) dealing with the physics of high energy particles. The detailed discussion ofdevelopments in this subject during the last 50 years provides one with a good understanding of present hypotheses, theories and experiments. He does not hesitate to mention what is still obscure, but he does so in a friendly spirit. This attitude is also found in the next three articles, which deal with statistical mechanics (Ryogo Kubo), astrophysics (V. L. Ginzburg) and irreversible phenomena (I1ya Prigogine). The end of the first part deals with molecular biology and its relation to biological evolution (Francisco Ayala), its consequences in genetics (V. Sgaramella, H. S. Chandra). If Part II had been in the same spirit for other sciences, the whole collection would have constituted, as announced in the title, a remarkable presentation of Scientific Culture in the Contemporary World; but, of course, only if the term Culture is taken to mean knowledge. This was evidently not the only intent of the authors, as a reading of Part II shows, for it deals with the place and significance ofscience in the life of present-day humans and their societies. Two articles are devoted to the problem of the relations between science and culture. The first one, entitled Science as a Cultural System; An Anthropological Approach (Yehyda Elkana). seems to me a brilliant analysis of the problems that are evoked by the two first words of the title of the book Scientific Culture. This expression is, incidentally, somehow contradicted by the title of the next article, Science and Culture (Jacques Rigaud). I cannot avoid the impression after confronting the three expressions used throughout the book (Scientific Culture; Science as a Cultural System; Science and Culture) that the problems evoked by the use of the term science in association with the term culture are far from being resolved or even being satisfactorily formulated. Anyway, Elkana has an efficient and clever approach in the article, much deeper, more philosophical and thoughtful than the qualification 'anthropological approach' would lead one to expect. But, even so, he does not solve the essential problem he poses, that of the choice between scientific realism and scientific relativism. He proposes to avoid the choice and to hold both positions simultaneously, which is what many thinkers do, however more or less consciously. A proposal of the same kind is formulated by Rigaud, who describes competently the dualism of science and art, but he also points out the strong influence of one on the other. The authors of the last five articles of Part II present good analyses of the problems of popularizing science, of environmental and technical developments, of the increasing role of computers in industrial societies, of human needs and of respect for nature. These articles might be considered dealing with the consequences of scientific discoveries and developments described in Part I. The first two of them could have constituted a third part, a kind of conclusion for the book containing philosophical positions on science, culture and their relations. These two papers have some statements with which a number of scientists (including myself) will disagree, at the risk of being classified as 'not sensible realists' (p. 287). The book as a whole is of highest interest, for different reasons in different articles. Part I is full of instructive information, and the last five articles of Part II contain important introductions to present-day social and ethical problems. The two first articles of Part II will set many readers thinking and will induce them to try to establish a firmer basis for their own views regarding the value of science and its cultural aspects. Esthetique Mathematique: Theerie de la Peinture. (In French) Joseph Chacron, Editions Scientifiques de l'Art, Arniens, 1980. 357 pp., illus., plus cassette. Cloth. Reviewed by Denis Bresson' The purpose of Chacron's book is to describe and to analyze some present...