Is there such a thing as scientists block like a writers block?

Question

I am interested to know where and how imagination and creativity takes its place in the scientific process. We often hear about how reason and rationity are important back- bones to the scientific process but I'm wondering how much of what is something usually attributed to art is also very important to the sciences. I'm interested in any views from scientists in any area.

Answer 1

Your question is brilliant, and yet impossible to completely answer, as the human brain and it's functions are not yet fully understood. Even in a paragraph, no one could give you a satisfactory amount of information. Your question is being studied and researched as of this very moment. I suggest going to the library and beginning by reading books on the subject. The scientific dissertations and published research documents are difficult for laymen to understand, but the books are immensely helpful.

Answer 2

Art begins when a human being starts wondering " why and what causes such things". For example the ozone hole in antartica, the whole universe or the melting glaciers. What is the relation between spirit and god, how to describe such thing or an event like god, how to represent an atma/spirit on a paper. The beautiful images formed by clouds in the sky, the whole three dimensional world, the sceneries of sun rise and sun set and the beautiful and 100% accurate drawings by shawdows of nature. when a human being sees both +ve and -ve and realises the correct path, he choses his way to his destiny with the help of his tool Art.

Answer 3

Look up the tools of creative thinking. You will find things like similarity, difference, change, levels, point of view, order, structure, relation, and mental imaging. Mental imaging is imagination (root word: image). Using imagination in correspondence with the other named tools to help solve problems that are grounded in reality, in science? YES. This is not at all inconsistent with scientific method. In many cases, creative thinking comes before application of scientific method.

And, if executing a procedure masterfully can be called artful action, then a scientist who does her job masterfully could be said to go about science artistically.

Answer 4

There have been some famous "blocks" such as believing in Newton's theories and rejecting Einstein's relativity. Or Einstein's own "block" when he refused to admit his friend's Niels Bohr quantic mechanics.
They are usually caused by (often religious) prejudices like in my last example. Einstein believed that God "orders" the universe up to its smallest parts -here electrons- and hence a "theory of disorder" like Bohr's is not coherent.
Other famous examples are the reject by Inquisition of Galileo's cosmology, etc. and the reject of Darwinism by christian or muslim "scientists". When one such scientist indeed encounters a phenomenon that he/she cannot understand, it is a common excuse not to further investigate by saying "it's God's act" and let's do something else.
(personally I am a -retired- biologist)

Answer 5

Yes. It happens to all scientists once they become professors with a reputation to protect. Paul Feyerabend once observed that a professor will have a more rigid world view than your average schizophrenic. That's a cynical viewpoint but it has a grain of truth in it.

"Against Method" is an excellent book to read on the subject of the irrationality of scientific progress.

Answer 6

I am not a scientist, however; my opinion is needed for an accurate test. I am a writer who knows what creates my blocks and what structures I can create with those blocks. U know how to respond if U need my help...just give me a holler, I'll find you.

Answer 7

Without imagination you can not create anything except a mess.
Makes no diff what you are, as in occupation.
Human mind does take a brake here and then. So do scientists.

Answer 8

well, im a scientist, well sort of, i dunno, im a clumsy git most of the time.
DUH!!! ofcourse scientists get the bloomin block, its just that the situation has a different context, think about it: writers need to be creative in terms of the words flowing from the brain to the pen; similarly, when experiments go wrong, or when all the possible variables have been explored, then a scientist would feel as though there aint nothing left to do....hence BLOCK!!!

Answer 9

As a software developer I get Programmer's Block - I guess scientists are no different !

Answer 10

I was going to say cynically you won't find many scientists on Yahoo Answers!
But Whoops wrong again, impressed.