The Creative Moment: How Science Made Itself Alien to Modern Culture

Schwartz, author of Einstein for Beginners, trained in high-energy physics at Berkeley. In the book's preface he states, "I want to show that it is possible to respond critically to a work of science in the same way that we respond critically to a movie, to show that it is possible not only to evaluate the work--good, bad, overrated, indifferent--but also to interpret it. Why here? Why now? What assumptions about the world did it express? Are those assumptions valid today?" (xv) Schwartz uses some pivotal events in the history of science to demonstrate this approach to science criticism. He argues that science can become corrupted in the service of the powerful. Schwartz sees science as a human activity which has become inhibited through a widespread alienation of humans from nature and from meaningful work. He accepts as one of his basic assumptions that "the world is comprehensible" and that the understandings of nature developed in the natural sciences can and should be conveyed to as many people as possible. He demonstrates how to do this well in his discussion of some of the basic notions of classical physics, relativity, molecular biology, and quantum and particle physics. Rejecting "the myth of genius," Schwartz emphasizes that "creative moments" in science don't occur out of nowhere but rather within particular social contexts and are affected by historical, political, economic, cultural, etc., factors. This 1992 book remains challenging, rich in engaging detail and provocative views.