The Arts & Humanities, and the Sciences: Music and the Mediation of Inter-Disciplinary Tensions

Abstract

The sciences, on one side, and the arts & humanities, on the other, seem committed to different ways of making, understanding and using knowledge. The role of authority or validity of knowledge in the sciences can be interpreted as externalized and generalized through the peer-review process, whilst knowledge in the arts & humanities is often validated through reputation, claims as to connoisseurship and direct influence. Historically, the two have co-existed in the academic ecosystem without, it seems, having to take too much account of each other to conduct their own business. I shall use my own institution - the Centre for Music & Science (CMS) in the University of Cambridge - to focus discussion of some of these issues and to suggest ways in which inter-disciplinary approaches can recognize the distinctiveness of the sciences, and the arts & humanities, while benefiting both sides.