Re: science and art as fashionable habits
Jay Lemke (JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU)
Fri, 11 Jul 97 14:13:44 EDT
I'm not sure I can quite recall what period of history it was in
which the arts were regarded as a proper occupation for a serious
gentleman (European-derived cultures)? or when they were nearly as
well-paid or remunerative as war, business, agriculture, politics,
or religion? If science was mere technical craft, for the lowly
artisan, or a dilettantish hobby of less-than-serious gentlefolk,
then the arts were equally the province of hired-hands, who had
at most the respect of vastly entertaining pets. Perhaps the closest
the arts have come to real cultural respect was as handmaidens of
religion, unfortunately for them this sponsor is now in decline.
While science has learned to ride piggyback on war, business,
agriculture, and politics.
People who are interested in thinking through the complexities of
issues of the status of science and the arts might do well to consider
two special cases: mathematics, and literature.
JAY.
JAY LEMKE.
City University of New York.
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