Science vs. Romanticism

Science/technology and Romanticism

I believe that there is a balance that exists between science and romanticism because everybody will eventually have to view something in a scientific way, whether it is a particular profession or simply an activity which they are in contact with every day. That being said, one particular occupation is not all inclusive, so not everybody will see scientifically or technologically about the same items or activities. For example, Mark Twain said, “No, the romance and beauty were all gone from the river,” to show that what he once felt about the glorious river had now vanished due to his job as a riverboat pilot, where he trades the knowledge of the river for its beauty. In the same way he talked about a doctor; “what does a lovely flush in a beauty’s cheeks mean to a doctor but a “break” that ripples above some deadly disease?” The doctor trades the beauty of the girl for the knowledge that he uses in his medical practice. There is a balance between Mark Twain and the doctor because Twain still sees the beauty in the girl, and the doctor continues to see and understand the “romance and beauty” of the river. Though each perceives their respective activities in a scientific way, they can offset each other because neither sees the technological side of everything. In a way, a person in our society takes a certain career pathway or a specific job for the exact purpose of allowing others to observe the beauty of these areas of life through their ignorance, while the person taking the job sacrifices their ignorance for knowledge which, in effect, sucks the beauty out of the profession. The balance that exists between science and romanticism remains because we all see beauty in some things that others see the science in, while others see the beauty that inhabits the things that we can only distinguish the technology and science in.