Ayn Rand on natural sciences vs humanities

This is just a short note or reminder to myself, and to anyone who might be interested, since I find the following very interesting. At OCON some of us discussed whether it is legitimate to split human knowledge into the natural sciences on the one hand and the humanities or Geisteswissenschaften on the other hand, especially in the way which it is done – because it usually comes down to denying that the humanities are sciences.

Now, I found a very brief statement by Ayn Rand on this issue, which I want to put here without further comment:

“Growing from a common root, which is philosophy, man’s knowledge branches out in two directions. One branch studies the physical world or the phenomena pertaining to man’s physical existence; the other studies man or the phenomena of his consciousness. The first leads to abstract science, which leads to applied sience or engineering, which leads to technology–to the actual production of material values. The second leads to art.
Art is the technology of the soul.”

(Ayn Rand: The Romantic Manifesto, p. 169.)

At the Ballet: Polina Semionova

Polina Semionova is a Russian ballet dancer at the Berliner Staatsoper. A few years ago she recorded a video of her dancing which let me to discover ballet as the great form of art it is, and as something I very much want to learn more about in the future.

When watching the video, please of observe the following items. For me, they are very striking and admirable: the subtly defined musculature; the utter and seemingly effortless control over every movement of her body; the incredible grace and naturalness she is moving with despite that total conscious control; the powerful expression of her body language, of her gestures and facial expressions; the literal unfolding of all that beauty during the whole video, and her smile at 1:55.

This is celebrating the human body.