Die aufschimmernde Nachtseite. Kreativität und Offenbarung in den Naturwissenschaften

How did Kepler arrive at his certainty long before his revolutionary astronomy became provable? Why did Goethe “instinctively” resist Newton’s theory of colours? What led Einstein to vehemently reject the idea of complementarity? How did Pauling come to the sudden realisation of large biological molecules? Was there a mystical experience when Heisenberg spelled out the mathematical formula of atomic theory? Original researchers often experience an abrupt breakthrough, an avalanche of insights. They often encounter these new insights in a highly “irrational” way, namely with intuition or through resistance. However, the question of what’s behind such creativity is rarely asked.