Progress in science and in art

pp. 260-269

in: Joseph Agassi, Science and culture, Berlin, Springer, 2003

Abstract

The view that there is no progress in the arts the way there is in science rests on the observation that whereas newer scientific theories are better approximations to the ideal truth, newer works of art are not necessarily nearer to the ideal beauty. Nonetheless, there is progress in the arts in other respects, relative to other ends that art seeks, both as techniques and as explorations of human inner life — perhaps also as a mode of expression.