CONTACT (1997): IMAGINATION AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

Abstract

The modern scientific approach invariably resides upon a procedural scheme that is articulated with observation and experimentation, commonly denying knowledge buildup not subjected to its epistemological and methodological rationality. The scientific community seldom discusses creation and imagination in science, being these attributes considered inappropriate. The post-modernity crisis challenges, to a certain extent, the hegemony of rationality and mathematically-based knowledge, which is the sustaining column for natural phenomena abstraction. We propose to debate, based on Zemeckis’ movie – Contact (1997) –, that its protagonist, the scientist Ellie, brings us essential (and why not fundamental?) elements for scientific knowledge buildup, that is, imagination and personal experience. Both the narrative and the plot of this film work drive us into a reflection of three plausible arguments: proof of the lie, proof of truth, and proof of impossibility. After all, is science made only on the track of observable facts, or is it also built from imagination? The present article tries to discuss such a possibility.