Vrolijke en minder vrolijke wetenschap. Een confrontatie tussen Gerrit Krol en Willem Frederik Hermans

Abstract

Gerrit Krol and Willem Frederik Hermans: Two views on science Both Gerrit Krol and Willem Frederik Hermans are equally fascinated by the triumphs of the modern sciences. On closer inspection however they propagate a very different conception of what science is about. It is argued that they don't intent to give the reader neutral information about science and technique but that they subtly exploit the topic to investigate the relation of the human mind and the unknowable reality it has to cope with. Their attitudes towards this basic predicament may be characterized as, respectively, 'optimistic' (Krol) and 'pessimistic' (Hermans).