PC Unit 5.1

The aims of Science and Humanities - Mody E. prior

Q.1 Write the summery of the essay. “The aims of Science and Humanities - Mody E. prior”.
Related Questions -
Q. Illustrate Moody E.Prior’s view that the products of scientific genius are quite impersonal in nature whereas the products of artistic genius are personal and unique in many respects.                                                                                                              (2012 - 13)
Ans. There are certain difference between the methods and aims of science and those of the humanities. One of the most conspicuous difference is that, unlike the sciences, the humanities are concerned with emotional responses. Another difference is that the scientific generalization, concepts and theories are neutral to their moral and social implication i.e. the scientific findings do not suggest any human uses to which they may be put or how they can be used for human happiness or self-fulfilment. The humanities, on the contrary, are concerned with human meaning and response of all humanistic products. Another thing which differentiates science from the humanities is that a scientific product can be defined without any reference to aesthetic response whereas the products of the humanities such as a work of music or a poem cannot be defined without any reference to aesthetic responses. Besides, scientific generalizations make accurate prediction which may be applicable to all future events. Humanistic works, on the contrary, are concerned with individual experiences and are thus unique. They hint to the diversity of human experience. In other words, one single humanistic work may evoke various emotional responses, depending on individual experience. Lastly, the products of scientific genius are in their final form impersonal while the products of artistic genius are inseparable from the special powers of the mind which produced them.

Q.2.  What are scientific approaches to human activity as laid down by Moody E. Prior in his essay?                                                                                  (2013 - 14)
Ans. The effect of scientific ordering to a human activity is to produce detachment from the individual experience. The incident of March 1951 illustrates it. The prediction of the National Safety Council of America that the one millionth traffic fatality since the first recorded automobile death in 1899 would occur on december 22, 1951. The public response to this tragedy was lost where people were busy in counting the dead bodies on the highway and paying tribute to human genius for accurate measurement. The creations of science are always neutral or indifferent to their human meaning. 
Science only can adopt the methodological product to reach to some scientific generalization.

Q.3     How does science fail to appreciate unique individual experience and search for meaning and goal of life? Answer the question in the light of Moody E. Prior’s views in his essay.
Related Questions -
Q.   How does science remain neutral to emotional responses and value system of human beings as expounded by Moody E. Prior in his essay? Discuss the relevance of Science and Humanities in the light of above features in Contemporary milieu.         (2011 - 12)
Ans.   Science and humanities differ from each other in their ways to know the world. It’s true that science fails to appreciate unique individual experience and search for meaning and goal of life because first science like humanities is not concerned with emotional responses to experience nor it aims at evaluating human goals and their meanings. A scientific generalization has nothing to do with the relevance of its theory to human uses nor to human happiness. The scientific generalization simply points to the possibility of further scientific activity.

Q.4        Write a short paragraph bringing out the similarities between the creative products of the humanities and science, with special reference to the role of the poet and the scientist.
Related Questions - 
Q.        What is the common trait among humanities and science ?
Ans. The creative products of the humanities and science are similar in certain respects. The creative products of art and science tend to a particular form of aesthetic responses which culminate in pleasure. The poet and the scientist achieve it by a series of imaginative leaps. They both store experiences in the unconscious and after sometime suddenly those experiences and emotions emerge and the result is a creative product. The poets as well as the scientists take pride in beauty of form and thus the product is in form and beautiful. Another factor which makes a creative product beautiful is the use of adequate language whether it is a work of science or of art. Moreover, both the humanities and science find unity in a variety of experience.

Q.5 What is the most conspicous difference between science and the humanities ?
Related Questions - 
Q. What are the differences between science and the humanities?
Q. How do the goals of humanities differ from those of science?
Q. Compare and contrast between humanistic and scientific approaches to human activity as propounded by M.E. Prior in his essay.                                         (2013 - 14)
Ans. The most conspicuous difference between science and the humanities –
Among these differences, one of the most conspicuous is that, unlike the sciences, the humanities are concerned with emotional responses to experience and they evoke these responses.
Another difference is that the humanities address themselves to an understanding and an evaluation of human goals, and this while less apparent with the most abstract arts like music is especially apparent in all forms of humanistic discourse.
By comparison, a scientific generalization, whether a mathematical formulation or a theory or a concept, carries no implication within itself of its relevance to any human uses to which it may be put to the human choices which may be governed by it.
The creation of science – its mathematical synthesis, its fruitful concepts and theories – are neutral with reference to their moral and social implications. But with the humanities, the involvement in both the human meaning and response to the experiences in all typical humanistic products.

Q.6          Why do you think humanistic works don’t attempt to provide general principles?
Ans. Science tries to give general principles which are applicable everywhere unless some new events contradict these principles, and the scientific products also tend to be impersonal. But Humanitistic works don’t attempt to provide general principles because Humanities attempt to work at the uniqueness of each individual and try to draw attention to diversity of human experiences through its generalizations, humanistic products reflect this uniqueness.

The Language of Literature and Science - Aldous Huxley

Q.7         Why does the author compare scientific language, at its purest to mathematics?
Ans. The author compares scientific language at its purest to mathematics because scientific language specifically, designed to express the limited meaning with which it is professionally concerned. It cases to be a matter of words and turns into mathematics.

Q.8 'The purity of scientific language is not the same as the purity of literary language.'
                                                                                                                                             (2008-09)
Related Questions - 
Q. According to Aldous Huxley what is the way a scientist communicates to the masses as contrary to Literorry artist ? Elucidate.                                                                      (2008-09)
Q. Drawing your information from Aldous Huxley’s essay. Compare the language of literature with the language of science.                                                                  (2009-10)
Q. Discuss the nuances of language of literature with the language of Science as enunciated by Aldous Huxley in his essay.                                                                                 (2011 - 12)
Q. Differentiate between language of literature and that of science as described by Aldous Huxley in his essay. ‘The Language of Literature and Science’.                 (2012 - 13)
Ans. Poets and scientists find it necessary to give a pure sense to the word. But the purity of scientific language is not the same as the purity of literary language. Scientist says only one thing at a time with the greatest possible clarity. He uses new technical words or jargons to achieve his purpose. Literature is advice for reporting the multifarious facts and expressing their various significance. The literary artist creates a language capable of conveying multiple significance of human experience on private and public levels. The scientist interprets the natural objects while the literary artist enjoys their beauty.

Q.9 What is a rose? Answer the question from the point of view of
(i) a scientist, and (ii) a literary artist
(take clues from aldous Huxley’s 'The language of literature and science').        (2008-09)
Ans. (i) A rose from the point of view of a scientist is a rose and the questions related to it can be answered in the language of biochemistry, genetics and so on.
(ii) A rose to a literary artist is an object or a symbol of bliss having multiple meanings and significance.

Q.10 What is the language created by a literary artist to convey meaning of human experience at all levels? Illustrate.                                                          (2008-09)
Related Questions -
Q. What is the aim of literary language.                                               (2010 - 11)  
Ans. The literary artist purifies the language of the tribe in a thoroughly different way. The purpose of the artist is to convey meanings of human life lived on various levels. He invents the language to express human experience on private as well as on public levels. For example, the literary artist uses language to express his own private experience in relation to flowers and also other people’s experiences. He uses it to express multifold meanings he finds in them.

Q.11 Why does the author compare scientific language, at the purest, to mathematics?
Ans. The scientific language at the purest turns into mathematics since it becomes accurate and precise, purged of all ambiguity. Moreover, the scientist’s aim is to say one thing and only one thing at a time so it is a scientific language like mathematics having one interpretation.

Q.12 Complete the following statements so that they accord with author’s viewpoint.
(a) The aim of scientific language is
Ans. To say only one thing at a time, and to say it unambiguously and with the greatest possible clarity.
(b) The aim of literary language is
Ans. To convey the multiple significance of human experience, on its most private as well as on its more public levels.
(c) The scientist uses jargon to
Ans. Express the limited meaning with which he is professionally concerned.
(d) Human life has many meaning and is lived
Ans. Simultaneously on many levels and has many meanings.

Q.13 What does the author mean by ‘purified language’?
Ans. The author mean by ‘purified language’ that the express purpose of creating a language capable of conveying, not the single meaning of some particular science, but the multiple significance of human experience.