Dec 20, 2009

Witness | Historical Context

Poetry and Science

Plato thought science and poetry were antithetical. Aristotle, in his Poetics, challenged Plato’s opinion. Aristotle explained that science and art more generally are complementary (rather than opposing) ways of understanding the world. Science studies the tangible, empirical world, and poetry expresses human perception and feeling about the world. Both seek truth. Dante in the thirteenth century argued that science is truth achieved through reason and poetry is truth achieved through imagination.

During the Renaissance, thinkers...