Aristotle first divided the arts from the sciences and, on balance, I think he got it right (“Two tribes? Look for similarities instead of spotting differences”, Opinion, 19 March). Works of art are unique and stand for ever. However, scientific discoveries are always in danger of becoming obsolete – for example, Newton’s laws of motion were blown out of the water by general relativity and quantum field theory.
History, however, is an interesting case – it is clearly part of the arts and humanities, but historical theories can often be rendered obsolete with further research.
Mencius
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