I found myself compelled to answer the scientific question in the pre-class questionnaire rigorously, which first of all proved to be challenging because I am not familiar with many biological and chemical compounds, and secondly, the way in which I am used to write and think about things is usually not as straightforward as it sometimes needs to be in scientific writing. I remember these discussions about style with my former roommate, who majors in chemistry. Our increased appreciation for each other’s fields of study is the result of a liberal arts education, I’d say!
Yet, I have come across scientific writing that are quite funny and even poetic. Scientific writing adjusted for popular articles and such also have a lot of journalistic elements in them, and is different from hard research papers. Similarly, I have also read art pieces that are quite technical (what would we consider Prof. Conway’s articles?) while most are very philosophical, critical, and encompassing in their scope.
Art and science, either combined or approached separately is about perspective. The more we learn about both, the more we widen our understanding about two disciplines that dominates our world quite literally.
For those of you who haven’t done the pre-class questions, maybe you’ll find some inspiration with Tolstöi : http://web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/phil%20of%20art/printer-friendly/tolstoy_on_art_two_columns.pdf
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