Both science and art have something to say about human nature, but they come to it from different directions. Science tries to discover general principles and then apply them to the individual case. Art focuses on the particular instance and then uses this to illuminate what is universal in us all. In a sense, then, science and art are complementary, and to gain insight into our own nature we need both. Consider Hamlet’s description:
“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god—the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!” (Hamlet, Act II, scene ii)
To understand and appreciate this “piece of work” is a task too huge for any one field of human endeavor, whether art, philosophy, or science.
