brightMystery: The latest on liberal bias in the university

The idea of "knowledge and art" for it's own sake struck me. Art used to be exclusively used to communicate. In it's broadest use, art includes writing (including plays), movies/video, music, in addition to painting and sculpture. All art used to be used to communicate an idea, not just a feeling. Now many ideas, maybe the best ideas, have lots of feelings wrapped up in them (the Crucifixion for example, or John-Paul's recent death), but it is the idea that is important.

Now we seem to have much art just for its own sake, and I don't think that we're better for it. Can the same be said about science? Perhaps. Your recent article on computer generated conference papers may prove the point. For example, computer programs can (and do) derive mathematical theorems. They can derive lot's of them. The problem is, they are usually uninteresting. Why? Because they aren't useful to us.

So, it seems, science, for its own sake, is useless. Unless we can harness it do good.

There's the rub with the liberals. They don't believe in a definition of good (or truth) that is universal.