SOURCE: Peterson, Thomas E. “‘Le Dernier Coup de Pinceau’: Perception and Generality in Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu.” Romantic Review 88, no. 3 (May 1997): 385-407.

In the following essay, Peterson investigates the scientific notion of proof in the artistic context of Balzac's Le chef-d'oeuvre inconnu.

In what amounts to a primer of holistic studies, Gregory Bateson asserts, “Science probes, it does not prove”.¹ Science can only enhance certain hypotheses and discard others. The changing paradigm of what constitutes scientific knowledge is only part of a new epistemology, a forma mentis shared with artists and humanists. If “science is a way of perceiving and making what we may call ‘sense’ of our percepts,” since “all experience is subjective,” then the gap between scientific and aesthetic discourse has been narrowed.² Henceforth any search for truth is tinged by narrative interferences, imperfections in the measuring device or procedures, the impact of the questions not asked...