I've defined Art & Science and I think htis is the right definition.?

Question

Please read my article at http://geocities.com/idrees.scientist and comment on that.

Answer 1

My favorite definition of art is "the selective recreation of reality," which means that the artist chooses the metaphysical elements which will fill the work, whether it is a folk song, a concerto, a painting, a novel, etc.

Does that not describe more accurately what an artist does? He/she chooses whether to paint an apple or a face; to make the apple look real or like a drooping image from a circus mirror that has been draped over a tree; to make the face curious and bright-eyed or like someone who has nothing left to live for; whether the music is uplifting and makes you feel human, or whether it makes you feel like crawling in a hole and burying yourself.

Selective re-creation means the artist makes a world of his/her own.

Francis Bacon best defined science when he said that "To command nature one must first obey nature." The definition of science then becomes the task of identifying the elements of nature, especially its laws, in order to command them. Without a command of nature, we would be as the other primates, huddling under cover from storms and carrying only what our hands and arms can contain, instead of moving tons at a time, and without fulfilling the age old dream of walking on the moon, and without wiping out disease.

It seems to me that all of this, both art and science, happen "in the mind" first, and both then move to the material world. Neither would be of value to anyone if it did not begin with reason and end with a reasoned material object, or at least a theory of science that affects material objects.

Opening yourself to scrutiny is a primary necessity of any thinker. You have done that. I do it everytime I answer a Q here or in a face to face discussion, and everytime I author an idea of my own.

That I disagree with you should mean nothing to you; but the meaning behind what I said should at least give you pause to consider better the epistemological base from which you are going to operate.

I look forward to more of your observations.

Answer 2

Good start, and some good general thoughts behind the writing.

Definitions are done for the purpose of clarity without over trivializing the details.  But I feel there are some deliberate confusions as well as missing details while reading those definitions.

Any human activities include some form of internal calculation -- for the human brain is one of the most sophisticated computer system on earth -- yet to be completely duplicated.

The higher level of academic achievement, whether in art or in science, is called doctoral of philosophy.  It implies that the study is done with tremendous amount of external research and calculations as well as internal thoughts.  They are very much inter-related aspects of any subject.

With those in mind, you might want to revise with more specific distinctions between art and science.  IMHO of course.