Making Art / Discovering Science

Abstract

H ere is one way that, in ordinary speech, we mark the distinction between science and art. We say that scientists discover things—the relationship between the volume and pressure of air was discovered by Boyle; nuclear fission was discovered by Hahn, Strassmann, and Meitner; the structure of DNA was discovered by Watson and Crick. We say, however, that artists invent, compose, construct, or make things—Mozart composed Così fan tutte; Botticelli made La Primavera; Philip Roth invented Nathan Zuckerman. In ordinary speech, all genuine art is made up and no genuine science is made up. Again, in ordinary speech, the difference between these categories is fundamental: it’s an important way we have to distinguish science and art in the stream of culture, to assign them to different institutions, to give us confidence in our distinctions, to hold them to different standards, and to assign them to different schemes of value. The categories also mark out different kinds of relationship between the named responsible people, and what it is they are said to be responsible for. And it picks out different existential standings for the