Art and Science in Education: The Common Ground

Recent work aimed at establishing a rational, objective basis for aesthetics and the arts repudiates the division between the ‘two cultures’ which is used politically to justify marginalization of the arts in education and society. Far from weakening this cultural division, however, such writing and research has reinforced it. With the aim of reversing this trend, it is argued that ‘scientism’ is a myth, that objectivity of knowledge in science is comparable but not superior to that in aesthetics and the arts, and that polarization of the ‘two cultures’ and marginalization of the arts is based on ideology, not reason. There is and always has been significant common ground between art and science, encompassing not only issues of mutual concern but also modes of enquiry, many of which are far more similar than seems commonly to be supposed. A consideration of some of the similarities and differences between art and science shows that there is no fundamental division between them: both are part of one culture, not paradigms of two. This observation leads to ideas on the possible re-integration of art and science in education, particularly through development of observation and common curriculum content.