Introduction

Alfred Tauber

pp. 1-12

in: Alfred Tauber (ed), The elusive synthesis, Berlin, Springer, 1997

Abstract

I was in college in the latter half of the 1960's, at the height of student unrest on campus and a general discontent with society-at-large. Much of the debate centered on the role of "science" in dehumanizing man, although a better focus might have been on unbridled technology, a different problem altogether. In any case, my friends and primary intellectual passions were in the humanities, although I was a biology major. Confusion reigned and I pursued courses to reconcile the tension. One course directly sought to find the common denominator, or shared foundation, of aesthetics and science. It was my failure to find a resolution then that has led to a lingering quest, in part expressed by this anthology.