I some times wonder which is more basic, science or arts? I am obviously prejudiced because I have studied science for 17 years of my life. I fell in love with Physics when I was exposed to the Newton’s laws of motions. I then decided in life to continue with science. Well to be frank I had little choice because taking arts after 10th was like a social taboo! I am happy I didn’t have to take the bold step of going against the society norms then. My interest in Physics further grew in +2. I was overwhelmed with concepts like pseudo frame of reference and electrostatics. Only after joining engineering I realised that the Physics I fell in love has more to do with engineering rather than superficial concepts.
Lets analyse the evolution of human civilization and try to correlate this concept that science is the most basic. Fire and wheel are the first 2 scientific inventions which didn’t emerge out of research but they were accidentally discovered. Science was yet to be born. But language as means of communication evolved, both spoken and written. People used symbols to display their feelings in written form and these symbols evolved out of facial expressions or bodily gestures. Language was detrimental in propagation of knowledge from one generations to another.
Science was yet to be discovered. (I mean the concept and not in physical sense because any progress in development were accidental rather than brainchild of a researcher and as you know exceptions prove the rule :D). Progress was slow initially because of lack of scientific knowledge. Language alone cannot bring drastic changes in a civilization.
The period of Industrial revolution in Europe finally managed to change the this picture. Progress was fast because science as a concept evolved. People were contemplating on the basics of life. The apple that fell on Newton wasn’t the first time that such incident happened on the face of planet and it is highly probable that people before him could have visualized a force exerted by earth but due to absence of science as a concept, they didn’t come out with a law. Newton was intelligent and lucky! Same could have been the case with Galileo and Archimedes. Science has made huge strides after the industrial revolution. Research formed the basis of this. Human have made far greater progress in the last 500 years than they made during the past 5000 years, all because of science.
I don’t deny this fact that other areas of study like language, history and music also contributed to the development. But then all of these areas were linked to science in some way or the other. Musical instruments were developed on scientific concepts of wave propagation and resonance. Historians were able to dig out past because of technology bestowed on them by engineers. Literature has printing technology as a savior. Journalists today are equipped with technologies like satellite communications. Similarly every non-scientific profession is some way or the other related to science and this proves my point that science is the most basic.
But I wouldn’t justice to others if I don’t analyse the situation the other way round. Would science have evolved without language? How would researchers document their work? They are inter-related and science owes a lot to the evolution of means of communication. I cannot even imagine the scientific world without coherence in language of communication. But still I believe that science is the most basic of all!
I also believe that a man of science has the intellectual power to excel in any field, except social :P.
And this is precisely the reason I support Kalam for another term as president.
New Delhi: An opinion poll conducted by a leading news magazine has found that an overwhelming majority of three out of four wants APJ Abdul Kalam for another term in presidency.
The survey conducted by ‘The Week-C Voter Opinion Poll’ found that 74.8 per cent of 1,240 respondents favoured incumbent Kalam as the next President. 12.4 per cent of those surveyed said ‘no’ to his candidature while almost an equal number could not say anything on the issue.
To a question if he was the best President ever, 61.3 per cent nodded in the affirmative, while 22.7 per cent did not think so.
thats a good one.
he will set things right. Was he out of his mind when he was claming that? and it was bold of you to walk out of class.
This is bringing it down to semantics because the answer to your question would depend on how you define ‘basic’. If that means the ‘first few building blocks’ of something upon which you build then I’d say science is more basic. Man’s lifestyle evolves based on each new finding of his, and most if not all of those findings are in some way ’scientific’. They all begin with observation followed by a hypothesis, then some research, an extended period of hands-on application and eventually a theory is born; a scientific process no doubt!
However, as you pointed out yourself, language is an essential component of this scientific process because this process cannot be conducted in a social vacuum. Given that, language becomes mandatory; the tool with which to communicate in a social setting.
So Science and language seem to be intertwined inextricably; both are as basic to human development.
Interesting post.