E-Letter responses to:

essays: Rhonda Roland Shearer and Stephen Jay Gould ESSAY ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY: Of Two Minds and One Nature Science 1999; 286: 1093-1094 [Summary] [Full text]

E-Letters: Submit a response to this article

Published E-Letter responses:

The Overlap of Art and Science

Dr. Vaijayantee Kulkarni   (11 May 2000)

The Overlap of Art and Science 11 May 2000
Dr. Vaijayantee Kulkarni, doctor Respond to this E-Letter: Re: The Overlap of Art and Science	I feel that the fields of art and science often overlap. Major scientific breakthroughs have been products of scientists' creative imagination rather than their meticulous, analytical research. Perhaps art is descriptive and revealing, while science is more reductionistic. When it comes to the generation of concepts and novel frames of reference, creative thinking, rather than critical thinking, comes into play. However, this does not mean one should belittle the analytical strength of science. Leonardo da Vinci grasped geometry and perspective effortlessly and used creative thinking to conceptualize and then add detail. Still, that does not necessarily mean the airplane he designed could have actually taken flight. My point is that dichotomies arise because we try to use common frames of references. Science has aesthetic appeal in its images and phenomena, and art can be as rigorous as science when it comes to perfection, as in music or painting, for example. Studying mathematics involves the manipulation of complex abstractions, as does composing a symphony. For both the mathematician and the composer, it can be an equally creative experience.