[Artemisia] art or science: an artificial debate on a modern topic

[Dr. C. M. Helm-Clark Ph.D.]

To even to pose the question is to give in to the
mindset of a modern person.  No Medieval person 
would even ask the question since prior to the
18th century, the arts were merely a subset of
science - where science (not natural philosophy,
which is now essentially relabeled as modern
science) is the opus of everything knowlable.

The distinction of art vs. science is a 19th century
trend in philosophy, a taffy pull between Ruskin's
maladaption of Vasari's ideas on divine inspiration
and the movement of thought on the nature of industry,
capitalism and the technological means of production 
embodied by folks like Hegel and Marx.

My advice: don't waste time on what is a meaningless
debate for your Medieval persona.  Learn about what
Medieval people thought instead on these subjects.
An excellent starting place is Umberta Eco's _Art and
Beauty in the Middle Ages_, which was the work that
put him on the map as an historian.

I believe I had an article in the Maple on this
subject.  Juliana, is that article still around on
any of your computers?  It might be worth it for
me to web it somewhere and I'm currently 1700 miles
from all my backup disks...

ttfn
Therasia