Science and Art : some necessary distinctions

Perhaps we need to remove the concept of 'truth' as a goal in Science and more utilise the concept of problem solving. Thus 'truth' is returned to it's origin, as a value; it is not 'up front' but more something that comes upon reflection and so after the event.

In Art (aka NOT Science) so the product of the art is given value in the form ot 'good' or 'bad' more so than in Science where it is the method that is given the value. A 'fact' is a 'fact' -- end of story, there is no 'good' nor 'bad'. In this sense so Art is more 'foreground', 'in your face' whereas Science is more background in trying to establish what is BEHIND things. (especially these days when compared to the past of the identification of things. Now we want to identify the patterns behind the things).

Science seems to emphasise identification whereas Art favours sensation, or perhaps re-identification. In this sense, so the Art of your Science is to see the 'thing' in all of it's manifestations (the many) and the Science of your Art is to not lose sight of the 'thing' (the one).

By declaring Science as a structured method of identifying and solving problems we shift emphasis to a relational, dynamic process; it is doing rather than being. Thus Social Science deals with identifying, categorisating and eliciting algorthmns and formulas that solve social problems.

The 'truth' in this is cultural rather than universal and as such is a value and the robustness of a solution is a measure of it's usefulness that includes it's relationship to the universe as well as the culture and as such becomes 'well'-valued and seen as 'true'..but then things can become over-valued....

What this leads to is the need for the use of discernment in both camps, Science and 'other', and the recognition that there may be 'universal' truths but there are also cultural truths and as such they 'die' with the culture.

If all that can be measured and categorised is determined by how we represent and interpret the information so there are no 'truths' other than what we interpret to be 'truths' (!), but the task of Science is to find solutions to problems, to remove doubt, to make things 'clear' - end of story.

The entanglement of this task with values can lead to 'misunderstandings' and so we must be discerning in this linkage; to link a solution to a problem with the concept of 'truth' is false in that it is not a 100% guarantee in that one problem can have many solutions depending on local contexts. In this sense, Science as a process never stops trying out it's algorithms and formulas due to the immense variations possible in contexts; the emphasis is in validating the method rather than the product, the product is a benefit, it acts as a confirmation on the robustness of the method and THEN gets used as an example of 'truth'. "X is the result, but of course we always knew that..."

In this sense so the 'truth' in Science is the value linked to the method rather than the product; Science is not about the search for truth but more about the search for a method of identification that is consistant and ensures repeatability and so the method is 'true'.

This leads into Heidegger and his search for "Being" in that he felt Art was a better bet.. and I think he was right in that 'pure' Art has nothing behind it, everything is out in the open, and so open to interpretations, but there is structure in emotion-led interpretations and this introduces a degree of objectivity in values...