What is Science?What is Art?

What’s the Difference?James P. Evans MD, Ph.D

Festival of IdeasUniversity of Alberta 100th Anniversary

14 November 2008

Science & Art

Art and Science are Ancient Human Activities

• Both likely began as efforts to understand and control a frightening and impersonal world

Commonality Between Art and Science Passion & Creativity

Art and Science are Ubiquitous Influences in our Lives

• Science affects every moment of our lives

• We seek Art in everything we do

Architecture as the blending of Art and

Engineering

We Evolved as Seekers• We seek out science for material

reasons• But we also pursue it for its own

sake• Humanity is driven to create• A fact which is explicable through

evolutionary theory• Seeking and answering were

powerful traits that empowered human ancestors– And gave us a selective advantage

• Seeking, Creating, Questioning– The job description of both scientist and

artist

The Artist and the

Scientist as Iconoclasts

Art and Science are Different• The rules of Art and Science

differ, as do their product

• Art is whatever we decide it is

• Art flaunts rules

• In the end, art is what resonates with us as humans– Whatever we call art is art in

the most profound sense

Art is Lawless• Its trajectory is

evident only in retrospect

• We cannot predict what tomorrow’s Art might be

Science Has a Trajectory• Science more

adequately describes the universe than what came before

• There is a “right answer” in Science– That which better

describes external reality

• Ptolemy was wrong• Copernicus was

right

Science has Strict Rules The Scientific Toolkit

• Observation

• Hypothesis• Measurement

– Refined observation• Predictions• Experiment• Tentative Conclusions• Predictions• Revision (or discarding) of conclusions• Collective / Cumulative

The Universality of Science & the Humanity of Art

• Art is an intensely and uniquely human endeavor– It is ultimately “tethered” to the

human condition and the human brain

• Science is strictly tethered to the universe– It ultimately is not “about us”

Science in a Distant Galaxy

Art in a Distant Galaxy

Science, Art and Meaning• Science is our best developed

method yet for understanding and exploring the world – Science can make our lives

richer– It can also impoverish or

threaten our lives – But ultimately it stands apart

from humanity– Science is defined by the

universe• Art is the quintessential human

endeavor– Its purpose is to invest life with

meaning and connect us with fellow humans

– Its only rule is that it must evoke human emotion and resonance

– Art is defined by the human mind

The Limits of Science and ArtA Paradox

• Science provides a uniquely powerful portal through which to know the world

• It can even explain (through neurobiology and evolutionary biology) why we need human connection and emotional warmth

• But it cannot fulfill those needs

• For that we need Artnucleusaccumbens

hippocampusstriatumfrontal

cortexsubstantianigra/VTA

Science, Art and Empowerment of the Human

“Only Connect” “There is a grandeur in this view of life”