ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the products or ‘outputs’ of science, including not just theories and models but also thought experiments, for example, and the practices, covering, in addition to theory discovery and justification, the presentation of theories at lectures and seminars. It addresses head-on ‘the problem of the aesthetic’ in the context of science: is there any epistemically good reason to prefer a theory that possesses certain aesthetic qualities to one that does not? The book considers the role of symmetry in modern science, regarded as an aesthetically pleasing feature. It examines how experiences of beauty and the sublime are contrastive in this way, with the latter manifesting an overwhelming and, often, negative aspect not present in the former.
