Sir

I should like to draw your attention to a little-known quotation from The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler 5. On page 7 Chandler describes a “great thought” that occurred to him in February 1938:

“There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.”

Charles Darwin realized that by solely doing science and by thinking only in theoretical terms his mind would change into a machine, eventually depriving him of the possibility of experiencing happiness. As a consequence, Darwin resolved to read more poetry and listen more to music.

What Darwin experienced as an individual may well apply to the public and to science as a whole. People perceive science (without art) as a machine that continues to produce useful things but nevertheless detaches itself from human needs (and becomes inhuman). The growing public misunderstanding of science is not due to a lack of good explanations but to a lack of human aspects in its knowledge.

Getting artists and scientists to cooperate is crucial for future developments in both fields. Several years ago, a group of people in Germany founded a private university that no longer separates the arts and sciences but teaches both aspects of human endeavour as a unit.