The Illuminated Labyrinth

This article employs the metaphor of the scientific field as a labyrinth under construction to examine two interconnected processes: the formation and transmission of knowledge. It then addresses two problems in science communication. It is argued that the university, by signaling, paving, and illuminating the path already traveled in order to quickly guide the student to the frontier of research, renders past crossroads invisible and normatively inhibits exploratory backtracking—an interdiction analogous to the “forbidden tree of the garden.” This efficiency serves the market and the career, but violates the principle that no scientific path should be sealed off. Next, the article examines how external influences (religious, ideological, political, economic, etc.) and the available stock of knowledge condition each choice of route, suggesting that, because these factors change over time, periodic re‑exploration of the labyrinth is epistemically promising and necessary. Finally, two predominant strategies in science communication are criticized: on the one hand, the artistic‑emotional appeal, which tends to create fans and replicators rather than logically convinced subjects, engendering an illusion of understanding that weakens society’s relationship with science—historically illustrated by the example of Augustine of Hippo, who with exceptional rhetoric permanently inserted into Christianity concepts that contradict the original doctrine; on the other, unintelligible discourse, which aims not at understanding but at the public’s submission. The conclusion is that the unilateral pursuit of efficiency in training and dissemination compromises the subversive, revisionary potential of science, demanding institutional counterweights that preserve the right to go back and re‑examine the foundations of the labyrinth.