Abstract :
This paper explores the link between science and
art in Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and Paul Gauguin
(1848–1903). More specifically, its aim is to clarify
the relations between science as the investigation
of ‘truths’ that people hold at a particular time, on
the one hand, and art as carrier of these truths into
the ‘emotional’ realm of the people, on the other.
The goal is simple; as is the method. The goal is to
provide a way of teaching the humanities based
on the aesthetic.[1] The method uses the figures
chosen to act as a foil to each other, so that what
seems to be a parallel of contrasts between
Darwin and Gauguin, is, in fact, an equilibrium of
the sensual and the rational. [2] The specific point
that the paper argues is this: if teaching the humanities
is tied pedagogically to art, then science, as
well as the other disciplines, will join the curriculum
in an integral way so as to contribute to the
complete education of the student: physical, intellectual,
moral, and spiritual.
The first section of the paper develops the
education of reason or mind in the life and thoughts
of Charles Darwin. My remarks here will be limited
primarily, but not exclusively, to his autobiography.
The second part clarifies the education of the
senses in the thoughts of Paul Gauguin.
Science and art are as closely bound together as
lungs and the heart, so that if one organ is vitiated
the other cannot act rightly. True science investigates
and brings to human perception such truths
and such knowledge as the people of a given
time and society consider most important. Art
transmits those truths from the region of perception
to the region of emotion.
Leo Tolstoy, What is Art? [3]
