“In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry it’s the exact opposite. ” (P A M Dirac) Do both the approaches suggested in the quotation enjoy equal success in expanding human knowledge? The expansion of knowledge is many a person’s main goal. Like most goals, expanding knowledge (“familiarity, awareness, or understanding gained through experience or study”1) can be attained via many paths.
These paths, or ways of knowing, include, among other channels, two very important, seemingly conflicting ones: science (a methodological activity, discipline, or study) and poetry (a piece of literature written in meter or verse). In order to explore each discipline’s success in expanding knowledge their differences, similarities, links, and impacts must be explored. A difference that lies between the two could be in how each one serves in creating acceptable truths. Scientific truths, for example, are discovered while poetic truths are arbitrated.
The former are known to already exist, as scientists seek them, while poetic ones are infinite and created via mediation. In science, there are facts (which are agreed upon and irrefutable) while in poetry nothing is “correct” or “accurate” (since unlike science, poetry has many conflicting views on truth and knowledge). Usually a scientist does not seek truth in the absurd and illogical; an artist strives to look for knowledge and beauty in the incongruous. Poetry’s goal may be to go beyond languages (usually via metaphors, similes, etc…
); science is a language that is there to describe what is beyond us. Poets utilize imagination to lose themselves; mathematicians map out their imagination to use it. Some claim that scientific theories come to play with a flash of intuition before it is built using meticulous construction. In poetry, the theory comes after a poem’s writing which was built through of a flash of intuition. Mathematical creations could be fashioned by anyone; poetic ones are unique to the individuals that have fabricated them.
As mentioned earlier, science can be seen as a language, while poetry uses it. Some claim that poetry is beauty through truth, while science is truth through beauty. There are many differences between the two, with campaigners of both parties claiming each one more important to expanding human knowledge and criticizing each other’s successes. Another view is that these differences are superficial and superfluous in the light of their similarities and importance to each other while expanding one realm.
