Goethe died in 1832. As you know Goethe was very active in science. In fact he did some very good scientific work in plant morphology and mineralogy. But he was quite bitter at the way in which many scientists refused to grant him a hearing because he was a poet and therefore they felt he couldn't be serious.
I don't think academic writing ever was wonderful. However science used to be much less specialized.
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Science is not a heartless pursuit of objective information. It is a creative human activity its geniuses acting more as artists than as information processors.
