Illustrations of Universal Progress: A Series of DiscussionsSpencer, Herbert
Philosophy
Illustrations of Universal Progress: A Series of Discussions
Spencer, Herbert
Philosophy; Political science; Science
So close, indeed, is the relationship, that it is impossible to say where
science begins and art ends. All the instruments of the natural philosopher
are the products of art; the adjusting one of them for use is an art; there
is art in making an observation with one of them; it requires art properly
to treat the facts ascertained; nay, even the employing established
generalizations to open the way to new generalizations, may be considered
as art. In each of these cases previously organized knowledge becomes the
implement by which new knowledge is got at: and whether that previously
organized knowledge is embodied in a tangible apparatus or in a formula,
matters not in so far as its essential relation to the new knowledge is
concerned. If, as no one will deny, art is applied knowledge, then such
portion of a scientific investigation as consists of applied knowledge is
art. So that we may even say that as soon as any prevision in science
passes out of its originally passive state, and is employed for reaching
other previsions, it passes from theory into practice--becomes science in
action--becomes art. And when we thus see how purely conventional is the
ordinary distinction, how impossible it is to make any real
separation--when we see not only that science and art were originally one;
that the arts have perpetually assisted each other; that there has been a
constant reciprocation of aid between the sciences and arts; but that the
sciences act as arts to each other, and that the established part of each
science becomes an art to the growing part--when we recognize the closeness
of these associations, we shall the more clearly perceive that as the
connexion of the arts with each other has been ever becoming more intimate;
as the help given by sciences to arts and by arts to sciences, has been age
by age increasing; so the interdependence of the sciences themselves has
been ever growing greater, their mutual relations more involved, their
_consensus_ more active.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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