Richard Feynman: The Beauty of the Flower

http://www.FreeScienceLectures.com

This video is from 1981. The interview is also the subject of Feynman's book The Pleasure of Finding Things Out.

I have a friend who's an artist and he's some times taken a view which I don't agree with very well. He'll hold up a flower and say, "look how beautiful it is," and I'll agree, I think. And he says, "you see, I as an artist can see how beautiful this is, but you as a scientist, oh, take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing." And I think he's kind of nutty.

First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me, too, I believe, although I might not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is. But I can appreciate the beauty of a flower.

At the same time, I see much more about the flower that he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside which also have a beauty. I mean, it's not just beauty at this dimension of one centimeter: there is also beauty at a smaller dimension, the inner structure... also the processes.

The fact that the colors in the flower are evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting - it means that insects can see the color.

It adds a question - does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms that are... why is it aesthetic, all kinds of interesting questions which a science knowledge only adds to the excitement and mystery and the awe of a flower.

It only adds. I don't understand how it subtracts.

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[xiner]

Anyone going into science for the money is deluded.

[chopin65]

I have a couple of this man's books. I was thinking of early Vedic sources and their cosmic view while watching this. Beauty is not a quality of a paticular object but the event of its reception, that is to say when we view it. The event on a atomic and sub atomic level has as much beauty as on traditional levels. I am a web developer and think that the script (the Html and other mark up styles I use) is like poetry. Would Shakespeare agree to this?

[kirbykidsmith]

@ThereIsCake no. that's just such a wrong way of seeing it.

[eliskander]

Very arrogant view.

[ILoveBlackMetal100]

@Ostgrindarn doubt is natural in the human mind, it gets us to interact with others more, and interacting is one of the basic instincts of a human being

[Ostgrindarn]

@ILoveBlackMetal100 Why is a word, that will awake all these interesting questions then you will doubt, but why?

[ILoveBlackMetal100]

Flowers are beautiful, why?

Seriously, "why", that is the most annoying question in the entire universe.

[Rellics]

@xiner I can't upvote this hard enough.

[ThereIsCake]

There's nothing that detracts from the wonder of the universe more than explaining it all by "God did it".

[lordtoranaga]

I concur. I do not see where science subtracts from beauty.

[NahstayScience]

Does he know that there is a flower behind him? Consciously, or subconsciously? If not, was it a coincidence? Oh Dr. Feynman, you're one of my favorite inspirations. - Aspiring Ph.D. in Physics