Catherine Elgin famously argued that scientific representations (e.g. models, diagrams) are ‘felicitous falsehoods’, insofar as they diverge from ‘truth’ by simplifying or idealizing their target system but this divergence is exactly what makes them epistemically felicitous since it facilitates understanding (cf. 2017, 1). Elgin thus defines the ‘felicitousness’ of scientific representations solely in epistemic terms which excludes the possibility that they might engender understanding but nevertheless be ‘infelicitous’ due to ethical-political reasons, such as some of Marie and Otto Neurath’s Isotypes which e.g. reveal a racist aesthetics by representing East Asians with yellow-coloured figures and using similar visual stereotypes.

In this talk, I critically discuss Elgin’s conception of scientific representations as ‘felicitous falsehoods’ using the example of the Neurath’s Isotypes and their use of racist visual stereotypes and show that this leads to a ‘dilemma’ since the epistemic success of such representations depends essentially on the use of politically problematic visual stereotypes. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s artwork-essay (1969), I analyze this dilemma in terms of the opportunities and dangers coming along with a ‘collective aesthetic’. Concludingly, I follow Benjamin’s call for a ‘politicization of the aesthetic’, arguing for an account of scientific representations which complements Elgin’s with a political dimension.