Science and the Creative Arts

Abstract

IT is impossible not to welcome this sensitive, and in part brilliant, essay with open arms. At the same time, it is equally difficult to accept all of it without reserve. Mr. Honey does well to stress that a work of art is an ‘ultra’ event, transcending the metrical limitations inherent in scientific methodology. Nevertheless, it is very doubtful whether men of science do, in fact, claim to evaluate art in terms of immediate usefulness. What is more likely is that the difficulty experienced in deciding what is ‘pure science’ and what is ‘applied science’ has extended to the frontier region between the ‘fine arts’ and the ‘applied arts’ with the equivalent blurring of intention. The author's ideal State, sketched in his last chapter, will need to focus upon this boundary line very critically if it is not to produce aberrations gross enough to obliterate the true image. For the rest, many will be encouraged by such a deeply felt attempt to discover the good and the beautiful, and to render them available to all and sundry; and this in spite of one or two sweeping generalizations which either side (materialist or ‘other-worldly’) will do well not to take too seriously. Science and the Creative Arts W. B. Honey By. Pp. 84. (London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 1945.) 6s. net.