Sztuka i nauka

The paper presents a comparison between two views on art and science: the modern and the traditional one. According to the modern view the two areas of human activity are radically different: a science is presented as nothing more than a dull craft useful only for practical purposes, while an art is presented as a domain of creative activity of the human mind, free of all external constraints. The author points out that these two radically different pictures are the effects of an attack on the fundamental values of our civilization, truth and beauty. As a result of it the traditional picture of science and art has become fundamentally distorted. The author is convinced that the traditional view is essentially correct. According to it science and art are similar areas of human activity because both are crafts engaging the most subtle skills of the human mind. Such skills involve in particular sensitivity to the fundamental values of truth and beauty – both of them in either discipline. As a result both of them yield products which are true and beautiful.