ABSTRACT
Even if art is, among other things, an enquiry into the nature of our feelings about things, it is an enquiry that seems, prima facie, to be intrinsically different from the general enquiry into nature that is science. In some ways, art and science can be seen as opposite sides of the same coin, the one illuminating self-knowledge, the other public knowledge. Knowledge about the natural world, of which we and our emotions are a part, connects the two, even though the truths revealed are very different animals. But there is a utilitarian flavour in this sort of connection that need not be insisted on; equally there is the excitement and gaiety of creating something of special significance, be it a painting or a research paper – both are painstaking, absorbing activities which offer that intense, characteristic satisfaction that creativity has. In this respect laboratories and studios have a lot in common.
