Abstraction in Science and Art

This volume explores theroles anduses of abstraction in scientific and artistic practice. Conceived as an interdisciplinary dialogue between experts across histories and philosophies of art and science, this collection of essaysdraws on the shared premise thatabstraction is a rich and generative process, not reducible to the mere omission of details in a representation.When scientists attempt to make sense of complex natural phenomena, they often produce highly abstract models of them.In the history and philosophy of art, there is a long tradition of debate on the function of abstraction, and – more recently – its relation with theories of depiction.Adopting a process-oriented perspective, thechapters in this volumeexplore the epistemic potential of a diversity of practices of abstracting. The systematic analysis of a wide range of historical cases, from early twentieth-century abstractionist painting to contemporary abstract photography, and from nineteenth-century physics to recent research in biology and neurosciences, invites the reader to reflect on thematerial livesof abstraction throughconcrete artefacts, experimental practices and theoretical and aesthetic achievements.Abstraction inScience and Artwill be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in aesthetics, philosophy of science,and epistemology, as well as to historians of science and art, and to practicing artists and scientistsinterested in exploring foundational questions at the heart ofthecreative practiceof abstracting.