Dreams of a Final Theory: The Scientist's Search for the Ultimate Laws of Nature

by Steven Weinberg

There is another respect in which it seems to me that theoretical physics is a bad model for the arts. Our theories are very esoteric—necessarily so, because we are forced to develop these theories using a language, the language of mathematics, that has not become part of the general equipment of the educated public. Physicists generally do not like the fact that our theories are so esoteric. On the other hand, I have occasionally heard artists talk proudly about their work being accessible only to a band of cognoscenti and justify this attitude by quoting the example of physical theories like general relativity that also can be understood only by initiates. Artists like physicists may not always be able to make themselves understood by the general public, but esotericism for its own sake is just silly.