Critical Overview
The work of D’Arcy Thompson reveals one of the notable intellectuals in scientific history. His work has inspired much praise from critics of scientific theory. Admirers of the text identify specific attributes that provide the framework for Thompson’s brilliance.
To begin with, On Growth and Form is considered to be one of the greatest pieces of scientific prose of the twentieth century. Dr. Stephen Jay Gould describes Thompson’s prose to be ‘‘like a Wagnerian opera: it flows on and on in waves of sumptuous sound, with occasional cadences at climactic moments.’’
Gould, as others, praises not only Thompson’s connection of mathematics to the topic of morphology within the text but the way in which mathematics is expressed. He is quick to point out that although Thompson was well acquainted with mathematical theory, he chose to approach the text as a classical scholar. He states, ‘‘This book dwells in the Miraldi angle, the Fibonacci series, the logarithmic spiral and the golden ratio.’’
Although his biological theory is sometimes mired or stuck amongst undo elaborations and examples, it is by far enriched and enhanced by Thompson’s classical and mathematical training. Says Gould, ‘‘I have been astonished at how many people can read the book, enjoy the sweep of the prose and all the ingenious examples, and then thoroughly miss the coordinating theory!’’
In his work, ‘‘Doing what Comes Naturally: Morphogenesis and the Limits of the Genetic Code,’’ Martin Kemp believes that insights offered by Thompsonian Morphogenesis point to a largely unexplored potential in the study of art, particularly that of the twentieth century. Kemp bases his claim on two simple assertions, one being ‘‘the impact of his writings and illustrations on specific artists.’’ His second claim concerns
the discerning of fundamental qualities of structure and process in nature as shared enterprises of art and science, at a time when a significant number of artists were experimenting with various types of abstraction as revealing basic structures behind natural appearance and when science was increasingly concerned with the mathematics and physics of what could not be seen with the human eye.
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