Arts or Science, Commerce first!

Arts or Science? Commerce first!

As man tried to unfold the secrets of nature, eternal laws like the law of gravity or laws of motion were established. The world continued to evolve and every theory was put to test.  As ideas keep boiling, new thoughts are churned;. e.g critics like Socrates had pointed out that the study of physics was purely speculative, and lacking in self-criticism. He was particularly concerned that some of the early physicists treated nature as if it could be assumed that it had no intelligent order, explaining things merely in terms of motion and matter.

Modern thinking in fact accepts the intelligent order in everything around us. The mango seed has in it the wisdom or knowledge of sprouting into a mango tree and bearing mangoes, which just can’t be replicated by any other seed, mutant or otherwise.

Coming back to the  laws of gravitation, they  were further explored and  Einstein’s   theory of relativity , e = mc²  , that underscored that the speed of light as the fastest, became the basis of physics only after being tested repeatedly over and over again. The speed of light — 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second) — has long been considered a cosmic speed limit. And while the world moved on, there is now a breakaway discovery that could wipe out the earlier thinking. There is an astonishing uncovering by one of the leading laboratories of the world , CERN, based at Geneva,  that there have been particles named neurotics,  existing for billions of years that actually moved faster than light which in a way questions the Einstein equation. While further research would corroborate the findings, one thing remains certain  - ‘change’ is the only constant.

Here is a suggestion for a similar ‘change’ in the modern day textbooks. When we start studying a new subject  - be it physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy, economics, accountancy, management science, political science, liberal arts, life science etc., before delving on the definitions and other minutiae, there is invariably a chapter on discussing whether the subject is an art or a science?

Let us take the example of a surgeon. No doubt that he has qualified himself through a structured study in theory and practice. Yet there is an art of handling the scalpel that ultimately, distinguishes the skill of the surgeon. Thus every chapter delves whether the subject is an art or science and concludes that almost every subject is an art as well as a science. And yet no book ever deals with the fact whether the subject is ‘commerce’?

The material world that we live in, recognition mostly comes in the guise of wealth and unless the art or the science has the ability of being exploited commercially, its opulence is not valued .Take the example of the author JK Rowling, who was a pauper before Harry Potter was a runaway hit. Was she not talented before Harry Potter? Yes she was, albeit, the world took note of her only when success made her the pillion rider.

In the world of Indian music , Shankar Mahadevan could establish himself , through ‘Breathless’ a genre that was different from the contemporary. Recently Dhanush came out with the Tamlish song – Kolaveri di, a runaway hit, again for being different. In fact going further, the entire exercise of ‘branding’ is in fact being distinct and yet the irony is no actor or artist wants to be ‘branded’

So the order of the day is ‘paradigm shift’ in doing things that has the potential to generate commercial success. Hence the effort   should be to create awareness of ‘commerce’ and while a subject is being evaluated on the yardstick of science or art, it should also delve on the locus whether it is ‘Commerce’. Would surely make life easy…what say?

Anagha Hunnurkar

25^th December 2011