In the natural sciences progress can be made, but in the arts this is not possible. To what extent do you agree?
by
34444 (student)
Jesseril Suriawinata
Mr. Fox
Theory of Knowledge
“In the natural sciences progress can be made, but in the arts this
is not possible”. To what extent do you agree?
Progress is defined by the further advancement to a goal, the improvement to understanding. Where art’s main concern is to project human expression and thoughts, natural sciences aims to explain the physical world in the fashion of patterns. One must realize, however, that because objectivity in natural sciences differ from the subjectivity in arts, they have their respective goals in progress. In natural sciences, researchers have aspired to reach a convincing explanation, an absolute truth for humans, of the mechanisms that the world possesses using reason for which enables us to grasp with some clarity the logic behind it. Popularly known as the extreme of natural sciences, art is the medium to capture complex ways of thinking in physical and tangible representations and has ever since created newer methods to articulate individual human experiences. Natural sciences progresses by forming a more comprehensive understanding of the world through disproving prior theories; arts, too can progress by expanding a deeper range to reflect on human emotions through modern technology. Despite polar opposites to one another, they share the aim to understanding knowledge that is advantageous to human intellect.
The progression of natural science would seem transparent; naturally, we apply new knowledge to our previously acquired understanding to create a clearer picture of the natural world, known as linear progression. However, it doesn’t necessarily work that way. Instead new scientific theory replaces the old and shifts the paradigm to our perception of reality. The revolutions in science are often refused in societal approval. A branch of neuroscience, phrenology is associated with the reputable idea of localization of the brain in which certain brain regions are responsible for particular behaviors. Phrenology, however, takes it to such specificity that the proportions of personality correlate with the sizes of brain regions. It also entails that the brain can be divided into 27 different personality areas as opposed to the four lobes established. For instance, a bump in the area hypothetically responsible for a heightened sense of taste, would assume he or she is a chef. Progress was made when modern technology demonstrated that character traits cannot be in a strictly linked to exact portions in the brain as what phrenology proposes. Progress is defined by the development in adjusting an explanation to the physical world’s mechanisms and processes.
