Rationality and Ambiguity between Art and Science in Transnational 20th Century

Abstract

In the study of some contexts of cultural production, a researcher may be induced to undervalue the significance of some elements that elude, by their own nature, a rigorous quantitative, statistical or even mathematical definition. This may result to be a source of error. Going beyond the usual reference to the objective/subjective dualism, these sociological reflections aim to point out how the rational thought, while being the common foundation – at least in the western culture – of both science and art, leaves room to two forms of creativity that are definitely different in their premises and, most of all, in their outcomes. Both science and art aspire to produce shared representations of the world, but science aims to a convergence of factual assessments through theories and experimentation, while art tends to generate divergence and ambiguity.