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Social Sci inferiority complex
Tim Trask (TTRASK@RCNVMS.RCN.MASS.EDU)
Sat, 18 Dec 1993 11:08:02 -0500
Well put, Dan Jorgensen. It would be good to keep in mind, though, that
when Aristotle said, "Poetry is a higher art than history," he was not
claiming superiority for either history or poetry. Poetry involves
more "artifice" or creativity, but history (and other social sciences)
are not devoid of artifice themselves. Neither, I would say, are the
hard sciences. When physicists call a collapsed star a "black hole,"
they are dealing with metaphor. When they subsequently talk about
going THROUGH that "black hole" to find an anti-universe filled with
anti-matter, they have fallen into their own metaphor. Metaphor is a
kind of knowledge that poets are better at than scientists.
Tim Trask IN%"ttrask@ecn.mass.edu"
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