Presenter: Phoebe Penix
Mentor: Barbara Mossberg, Honors College
Oral Presentation
Major: General Science
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Albert Einstein were extraordinarily famous in their respective times. Their revolutionary ideas have potential to inform today’s scientific culture and communication such that the result is a more informed and scientifically literate public. Albert Einstein wrote: “The greatest scientists are artists as well.” Einstein expresses this idea in various contexts and forms throughout his writing. In his address, “The American Scholar,” Ralph Waldo Emerson criticizes the state of academia, and offers suggestions as to how scholars might improve their effect on society. He emphasizes being inspired to action rather than cramming one’s mind with facts. Emerson’s work reflects deep wonder and awe at nature. Einstein shares the same attitude of wonderment, and shows how such an attitude can shape scientific discovery. Einstein and Emerson each expressed revolutionary conceptions of good scholarship, science, and world citizenship. Their ideas remain innovative and informative even today. Both believed in education as an invaluable catalyst of world change; both emphasized that valuing creative and individual thought is key to societal progress. They saw that empowering thinkers to personal growth and freedom would spur them to seek improvement within their spheres of influence. When considered together, their unique, yet similar approaches toward science lend profound insight to attitudinal changes with potentially far-reaching effects in today’s scientific community and broader world.