ABSTRACT
In the autobiography that A. R. Luria wrote in the last years of his life, in which he put a whole lifetime, and a lifetime's work, in perspective, the final chapter is entitled "Romantic Science." The constructions of physical science, or biology, may be lyrical, but are impersonal and theoretical. There is no "story" in the life of an orchid or earthworm—no personal story, no drama, no plight, no predicament. The terms "classical" and "romantic," with regard to certain basic attitudes or orientations to sciences, and, equally, the character or temperament of scientists, did not originate with Luria, but with the German scholar Max Verworn, but Luria adopted his terms, and adapted them to his own ends. Two modes of thought are always required — Jerome Bruner calls them the "paradigmatic" and the "narrative,"12 and these, though so different, must be completely intertwined, to produce a unity greater than either could alone.
