On beauty and truth in art and science

The artistic and scientific cultures have intrinsic distinctive characters. The first culture is by definition subjective, the second is instead objective, and thus necessarily subjected to validation. The essence of science is progress, whereas the idea of progress is supposed to be alien to art. Finally, there is the matter of aims: that of art has been traditionally assumed to be the production of beauty , that of science the achievement of truth . Whereas the first point of distinction—subjectivity as opposed to objectivity—is obvious, the other points must instead be better defined and discussed. This contribution will do it: while acknowledging the intrinsic differences of the two cultures, it will endeavour to bring them closer together by analysing the differences in some detail. In particular, it will try to show that the search for beauty and for truth is a unifying, rather than a distinctive character of art and science.