ART, LITERATURE AND SCIENCE

The meaning of art is the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic
principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. The word origin and
history for art dates back to 10th century, comes from Old French word art meaning skill as a
result of learning or practice, and from Latin word artem, meaning work of art, practical skill, a
business, craft. In Middle English, it usually used with a sense of skill in scholarship and learning,
especially in the seven sciences, or liberal arts. When we check out the dictionary for the meaning of
art, we will see its cousin words such as artifact or article, and it suggests that the word art
refers all the expertly crafted works created by humans.

Artists are pushing the boundries of this definition, amazes us with their works. In some cases,
the role of the artist becomes more like that of the critic, to evaluate and then select some results as
superior to others.

Art expands many aspects, theatre, cinema and other visual arts, music, literature and other
fancy works. Today, we might also consider high fashion, interactive video games, graffiti, antique
furniture, websites as artworks, since they are also appealing works. From all this, we should conclude
that social context plays a key role in determining what art is, or even if it is.

Literature is considered as a branch of art. Literature means written material such as poetry,
novels, essays, and other works ofimagination characterized by excellence of style and expression and
by themes of general or enduring interest. Literature refer to artistic writings worthy of being
remembered.

The most basic characteristic of literature, is that a literary work is a verbal text. That
characteristic alone would include all kinds of texts which might be considered literature. However,
prototype theory suggests that there will be less agreement on calling them literature, and that those
speakers of English who do so will express less confidence that everyone will agree with them. In fact,
the second characteristic is also quite important: that literary texts are marked by careful use of
language, including features such as creative metaphors, well-turned phrases, elegant syntax, rhyme,
alliteration, meter. This is quite significant in establishing the meaning of the word literature. On the
basis of this criterion, carefully-written personal essays are more likely to be considered literary than
are, for example, encyclopedia articles. This characteristic may also provide some explanation for the
use of the word literature to mean the published research in a particular field: such literature, in
addition to be written text, must also exhibit features of careful use of language according to particular
standards.

A reader reads aesthetically when the main purpose of reading is not to derive information,
facts, date to be remembered. Of course that doesn't mean that we would not remember what we read
aesthetically, we may well remember it, but that is not our primary focus in reading. Readers who read
a novel aesthetically may read the same novel many times again, even with increased enjoyment,
despite the fact that they know every detail of the plot quite well.

A literary work should be fancy and aesthetic to fit in the characteristics of literature. But that
brings out a question. Do every novels and poems meet all of these characteristics? Probably not,
although they can be read aesthetically, they are not typically marked by many weak implicatures. The
text may be more straightforward than a literary text would be. Some are, in fact, quite predictable, in
style as well as in content, so that the writing is probably not marked by prototypical features such as
creative metaphor. In fact, this corresponds to our sense of whether these works are literary. Many, or
even most people, might say that they are literary works. But there would be some disagreement, some
hesitation, some lack of confidence. Thus, some novels and poems, might not be the ideal examples of
literature.

Science aproaches, builds and discovers the explanations about universe. It questions whats in
the universe and how those things work today, how they worked in the past, and how they are likely to
work in the future. Scientists and science enthusiasts are excided about testable interpretations about
things that were unknown before.

Science creates knowledge that is powerful and reliable. Science helps our lives in many ways,
for example new technologies helps the life became more easier, faster and safer. New treatments for
diseases increases the life span of people. Science also expands our knowledge about the Earth, so we
can try to fix problems that we found out.
 Since literature is a form of art, it's the work of complex abstract thinking, and it's complete
opposite of science. Science is about logical thinking. With the fanciness and charm of it, literature is
quite fascinating, while science is mostly serious. But of course, some people prefer science over
literature and find it more exciting.

If we try to find out which one of is the superior, between art, literature and science; we have to
think about how they changed our lives. Art and literature is about inner world of us people, they
trigger our feelings. These feelings brought up many improvement in world's history. Literature and art
not only shapes culture, society, people, and the times that they were written, but also reflects them.
Literature includes written records of events that are history and natural events involving humanity.
Literature allows humanity to have a collective source of memories of events from the past. The writing
down of history allows people to progress beyond one stage of thought or development, building on
what has gone before.

Science is extremely important in everyday life because there is a lot of aspects of daily living
that science has changed. Science results in technology that people rely on for health, communication
and transportation. The scientific developments make way for another developments. For example, the
discovery of steam-power or electricity leaded much more developments. Scientific knowledge helps
people understand the world from a cellular to a universal level. It lets people to learn the solid
explanation about life and universe.

In light of these information, I think science affects us more than literature or art, so I think
science is superior than other two. I personally love science, I follow the current progressions about
science and technology. I would prefer to be in the scientific community. I would motivated by the
thrill of seeing or figuring out something that no one has before. Also, being helpful to humanity and
being a part of the developments would make me happy. While I enjoy and cherish the fascinating
works of art and literature, I think their primary purpose is to give joy and entertainment, but science is
more important aspect in our lives, and its impact to humanity is greater.

Vurkan Kara
130601023
 References

Hernadi, Paul, ed. 1978. What is literature? Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Eagleton, Terry (2008). Literary theory: an introduction: anniversary edition (Anniversary, 2nd ed.).
Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Meyer, Jim (1997). "What is Literature? A Definition Based on Prototypes". Work Papers of the
Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session. 41 (1).

Heidegger, M. (1960), The origin of the work of art, in Poetry, Language, Thought, trans. A.
Hofstadeter (London & New York: Harper & Row, 1975).

Feynman, Richard. "What is science?" Resonance 16.9 (2011): 860-873.

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition (William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd.
1979, 1986; 10th Edition by HarperCollins Publishers, 2012)