Artist: Science is boring. It’s like constructing Lego. Darwin came up with the theory of evolution by bringing together many facts. How tedious this must have been! Art is much more exciting! It’s all about inspiration! It’s a venture into the unknown!
Scientist: You speak like an old-fashioned romanticist. Inspiration is a popular term to describe how neurons form connections that create a groundbreaking idea. We have it in science too. Remember the widely known Eureka? Archimedus exclaimed it when he discovered displacement.
Philosopher: Why do you need to be so dichotomic? Both scientists and artists experience inspirations.
Scientist: Artists are like monkeys in the zoo. They just imitate what they see, and unintended subjective distortions are taken for “shifts of paradigms”, “new ways of seeing the world”. People are like herds and artists are like meadows. For some time, audience consumes the artist. Gradually this becomes boring. The audience migrates to another meadow and neglects the artist. On the contrary, in science we raise fundamental questions, dare to investigate the depths of universe. It makes us immortal.
Artist: Oh, come on! Who needs to know that water consists of H2O molecules if one can just drink it?
Philosopher: Both art and science rise questions and look for answers. The only difference is in methodologies.
Scientist: What kind of methodologies do artists use? That’s absurd. It only makes sense if you confused “an artistic gift” with a methodology. People are either good in science or in art. Not both. These are mutually exclusive entities. Kids born with “innate talent” are generally uncapable of calculating 2 + 2.
Artist: Well, at least we are not imprisoned behind the bars of axioms, hypotheses, theories, algorithms and alike. We are people of feelings, not rationality. When we say that 2 + 2 equals 10, we shatter worldviews, challenge stereotypes, and encourage thinking outside of the box.
Philosopher: I have never seen a scientist without feelings… Creativity is the soil where trees with fruits both of science and art flourish. Arts and sciences stand on common grounds. Achievements within these realms are made due to hard labour and are equally remarkable. I would tell you, my dear friends, that every scientist is an artist and every artist is a scientist. Be free from the illusions of binary divisions, my dear disciples!