3 ms·
But engineering is an art that makes extensive use of science.
by zb 16y ago
But engineering is an art that makes extensive use of science.
- spot 16y agoSounds like you're using the "anything done well is an art" definition of art which is... uhh... bull. it just dilutes the term. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art. "programming" doesn't even make it as a "disputed category". sorry.
- spot 16y agoAnd to be really clear, programming can be art. You can make art out of anything: paint, metal, plumbing, and yes code. But that doesn't mean that programming in general is art, like a beautifully coded sort function.
- shaunxcode 16y agoRather, it should strive to be "art" by means of elegance, purpose, originality and in general an aesthetic which speaks of form and function joined appropriately. Anything less is merely "kitsch code" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsch. Most of us spend our days programming the equivalent of replicated garden gnomes each with a slightly different expression and perhaps a different hat.
- zb 16y agoActually, if you want my personal definition of art in one word it is this: art is life. Whether it is done "well" doesn't really come into it. In fact if there is an objective way of determining if something is done "well", it's probably not art. I'm prepared to agree to disagree on this, but I'm not prepared to agree that Wikipedia has the last word on the subject. Sorry.
- spot 16y agoSpoken like Humpty Dumpty.
- zb 16y agoFair enough. But you haven't given us your definition of engineering yet. According to your wiki page: Traditionally, the term art was used to refer to any skill or mastery. This conception changed during the Romantic period, when art came to be seen as "a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science". You evidently subscribe to this Romantic definition of art, but claim that engineering is neither art nor science. So that makes it... religion?
- arbitraryperson 16y agoWhy even have a word for it? I understand the emotional idea that programming can be an art, but it doesn't change the generally understood definition of art. I could just as well be melodramatic like that kid in American Beauty and go on about how a plastic bag being blown about by the wind is the most beautiful thing ever. I could suggest the same about the way some skillful janitor moves his mop about the floor. Just because I get emotional about it doesn't change the definition of art.
- jemfinch 16y agoArt is anything that's not done for survival or sex.
- jacabado 16y agoFor me is the opposite, Art is the group of the most elaborated things we do for sex. Evolutionary psichology 101.