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Lumpen Prole
09-30-2005, 04:29 PM
This was a question for one of my college essays. I thought it was pretty interesting, and decided to make a thread for it. Here it is:


Some writers suggest that by tradition science is concerned with truth while art is concerned with beauty. How might these two endeavors be the same? How might they be irreconcilably different?

Confucius
09-30-2005, 05:13 PM
if you asked me, that question is rhetorical. but i think, both seeks the same thing, perfection.

Redratio1
09-30-2005, 05:20 PM
Good answer. PErhaps on is a priori (art) and the other a posteriori (science) conceptions of perfection.

Lumpen Prole
09-30-2005, 05:23 PM
I'd agree that truth and beauty both seek perfection, which explains how the two endeavors are the same. But you're forgetting the second part of the question: how are they irreconcilably different?

Confucius
09-30-2005, 05:24 PM
Umm, they both seek perfection, yet perfection if different things

Redratio1
09-30-2005, 05:26 PM
I'd agree that truth and beauty both seek perfection, which explains how the two endeavors are the same. But you're forgetting the second part of the question: how are they irreconcilably different?

Post #3 I think answers that.

Blueangel
09-30-2005, 05:32 PM
Some writers suggest that by tradition science is concerned with truth while art is concerned with beauty. How might these two endeavors be the same? How might they be irreconcilably different?Look at Guernica or The Scream and tell me they're about beauty!

Science wants to know "Why life?" whereas art wants to know "What life?"
What unites them is that they're both inquisitive about why we're here and what we experience whilst we're here.

Redratio1
09-30-2005, 05:35 PM
Look at Guernica or The Scream and tell me they're about beauty!

There is beauty in those paintings however. It is a gutteral viceral experience that still requires digestion.

Science wants to know "Why life?" whereas art wants to know "What life?"
What unites them is that they're both inquisitive about why we're here and what we experience whilst we're here.

I think science is more "how life"? Religion is "why life"? Art is more "life".