The Link Between Arts and Science

[Mandolin Picker]

There has been a lot of talk about how to improve Science and Technology in the classroom. Often this has come at the expense of courses in the arts (such as music and artistic classes). The consensus was that these classes were basically fluff and that we need to get down to the 'nuts and bolts' of science and tech in order to maintain our place in the world. Now a new study has shown that maybe that was really short-sighted, as some of the most accomplish scientists, nobel prize winning scientists, are more likley than the general population to have an arts or craft hobby.

 

We have seen previous articles on how there appears to be a link between music and improved learning in other school subjects (http://www.livescience.com/9964-music-tones-brain-improves-learning.html). Now a new study is showing how 'Arts and Crafts' correlate to winning a Nobel Prize (http://priceonomics.com/the-correlation-between-arts-and-crafts-and-a/). From the article:

 

It turns out that even for individuals, the interaction between science and art is actually pretty complicated. It seems avocational creativity discoveries of professional scientists go hand in hand: the more accomplished a scientist is, the more likely they are to have an artistic hobby.

 

 

 

The average scientist is not statistically more likely than a member of the general public to have an artistic or crafty hobby. But members of the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society -- elite societies of scientists, membership in which is based on professional accomplishments and discoveries -- are 1.7 and 1.9 times more likely to have an artistic or crafty hobby than the average scientist is. And Nobel prize winning scientists are 2.85 times more likely than the average scientist to have an artistic or crafty hobby.

 

....

 

 

 

“I have slowly come to realize that the analytic, quantitative approach I had been taught to regard as the only respectable one for a scientist is insufficient," British metallurgist Cyril Stanley Smithonce wrote. “The richest aspects of any large and complicated system arise from factors that cannot be measured easily, if at all. For these, the artist’s approach, uncertain though it inevitably is, seems to find and convey more meaning.”

 

 

[BobF_]

When I first read the subject line, "Consilience" popped in between my ears ...

[Folder]

Art is science isn't it?

[blue2blue]

I don't find those study findings surprising at all.

 

I do like the word consilience. I wasn't familiar with the word, but the concept is well engrained. Much of my course study in my college years grew from the interdisciplinary studies program I was in that sought to tie study of all arts and sciences together for a basic general education (it was an alternative to all the 'general education' requirements for graduation save two classes). It was truly a great program that drew fairly heavily from my school's somewhat pioneering comp-lit department, founded back in the 1950s. (That school being Cal-State Long Beach.) The program, sadly, was eviscerated by a new incoming president appointed by the then-Republican governor who insisted that the school, which had recently been granted university status, should be 'returned to its roots' as a trade-tech. (Happily, that was subsequently reversed -- but not before a lot of damage was done.)

 

[bTW, That uni prez ended up turning GOP politician after he left the university after a series of scandals, one of which involved 3 million missing dollars -- back when 3 million dollars was something. I had a 'personal relationship' with the 'gentleman' because I had been given the choice assignment of writing a narration script for a 27 minute documentary about the university that he was to deliver on the soundtrack. I did and he did -- except that he changed no more than 5% of the words and then claimed full credit for the writing, and I ended up as one of two 'researchers' -- even though the other guy did all the research and I did almost all the writing. Stephen Horn (looks like his Wikipedia page 'benefitted' from some seriously unprincipled historic revisionism!) A real asswipe. May he rest in peace.]

[BobF_]

I have the hardback version ... this is a pretty good read.

http://wtf.tw/ref/wilson.pdf

[blue2blue]

I will definitely have to do some reading! Thanks for that link.

[blue2blue]

Just looked over the Wikipedia page for the book -- I'm definitely going to do some reading.

 

As described there, Wilson's ideas are directly in keeping with the philosophical ethos of the interdisc program I was in. We studied the development of art, science, philosophy, and religion across centuries and cultures -- looking at confluences within disciplines and cross-culturally as well as the evolutionary development of the disciplines and the major ideas behind their growth.

 

It was very, very cool.

 

 

(It was, like any small program -- a maximum of 100 per year -- beset by a certain claustrophobia. And though it was seen as an experimental workshop where future pedagogies could be experimented with, it definitely had its enemies, who saw the whole notion of such a program as 'intellectually elitist.' When the original director of the program, August Coppola, left somewhat suddenly for a complex set of reasons, the new leaders didn't have the political acumen to successfully defend the program, which ultimately passed into the hands of the 'anti-elitist' critics. And, yes, one of the students, an aspiring choreographer/theatre major did break out singing Camelot spontaneously when we got the news. )

[rasputin1963]

What was that quote by Winston Churchill he made during The Blitz... something to effect of, "Yes, we will be keeping our music and arts funded during this period... Because otherwise, what would we be fighting for?"

 

Art is always more important than tech and war, and it's the stuff we humans collect and remember long after other aspects and personages of a culture are forgotten.