Iss. #2 Art and Science are Systems of Thought and Truth Finding
Mr. Pendlum
Building a multiverse of songs, stories, characters, and poems that inspire creativity and curiosity.
I enjoy reading literature because it's fun, it's peaceful, it's entertaining. But beyond that—and, to me, the biggest reason why I love it—it is an infinitely rich and diverse sounding board.
Each book, each story, is an opportunity to reflect on the ideas and perspective of the author, of that particular world or universe, or character, or situation. And through that reflection, it is a way to bounce off my own ideas and beliefs. It is a way of discovering little truths about the self, about the world, about people, about the cosmos. Through reading literature, I can refine my views about life, about existence, about anything that I'm reading about, and about my relationship to any and all of these things.
I view literature—and art, for that matter—not just as entertainment, or a pastime, or art even, (and they are equally all of these things), but as a system of thought and truth finding. The beauty and advantage of literature and art is that they are so free. Their primary tools in the arsenal for experimentation and truth-finding are: imagination, observation, and creation—the creation of new worlds, both inner and outer worlds.
As George Saunders says in his book 'A Swim in a Pond in the Rain', "The story is not there to tell us what to think about happiness. It is there to help us think about it. It is, we might say, a structure to help us think."
"The story is not there to tell us what to think about happiness. It is there to help us think about it. It is, we might say, a structure to help us think."
I am a lover of science, and I view it in much the same way: science is not simply a set of fields of knowledge—grander than that, it is a way of thinking and understanding our world. Scientists, like creatives, must be keen and curious observers. They often imagine theoretical or abstract realities, which lead them to new truths.
As systems of thought, both systems (science and art), have their own mechanisms and parameters—rules of operation, in a sense. At professional levels, the arts, like the sciences, are technically rigorous, but they are unboundedly free in the sense of imagining and creation, whereas science, while also extremely creative, is bound to rigorous experimentation, concrete evidence, and peer review when it comes to accepting its findings as "truths". Neither system is hard-set; both are designed to be ever-changing and evolving—against heavy resistance, at times, yes—but there is no truth that is absolute and not subject to being overthrown or adapted by newer "truths".
And this is why I love science and art both, and regard them as equals and allies. There is great benefit to freedom of thought and imagination, and equally there is great benefit to rigor and evidence when in search of truths. And the greatest benefit comes from combining both, being able to play between both systems and have all of their combined tools at our disposal, one system informing the other, and vice versa.
They are relational systems, made to inspire interaction and think about relationships. To end with our friend George Saunders:
"That's a pretty hopeful model of human interaction: two people, mutually respectful, leaning in, one speaking so as to compel, the other listening, willing to be charmed."
That to me, is the beauty of literature, art, and science, alike.
Thank you for reading; to end, I'd like to leave you with a few call to actions. Each of these is a huge support!
Today's calls to action:
Thank you very much!
Feel free to leave me any thoughts, ideas, or comments, about this article or even about any other topics you're interested in hearing more about...