please explain : “Science gives an intellectual view of reality, and the arts try to make the emotions as precise and disciplined as sciences do the intellect. But of course it’s nonsense to think of the scientist as a cold, unemotional reasoner and the artist as somebody who’s in a perpetual emotional tizzy. You can’t distinguish the arts from the sciences by the mental processes the people in them use: they both operate on a mixture of hunch and common sense. A highly developed science and a highly developed art are very close together, psychologically and otherwise.”

Both artists and scientists use a mixture of hunch and common sense.

Note that the last sentence is the topic sentence of this paragraph.

This quote highlights the relationship between science and the arts and challenges the idea that they are fundamentally different or opposed to each other. It suggests that while science provides an intellectual understanding of reality, the arts aim to evoke and explore emotions in a way that is just as precise and disciplined as scientific inquiry. However, it also points out the fallacy in assuming that scientists are solely rational and unemotional, while artists are solely guided by their emotions.

To better understand this quote, let's break it down into a few key ideas:

1. Science and the Arts: Science and the arts are often seen as separate domains, but the quote argues that they are more closely connected than commonly thought. Both fields involve a mixture of hunches and common sense, suggesting that intuition and creativity play a role in scientific discovery just as they do in artistic creation.

2. Intellectual View of Reality: Science is said to provide an intellectual view of reality because it seeks to understand the world through observation, experimentation, and logical reasoning. It focuses on facts, evidence, and empirical data as the basis for knowledge.

3. Making Emotions Precise and Disciplined: The arts, on the other hand, are described as attempting to make emotions as precise and disciplined as sciences do with the intellect. This implies that artists aim to convey their emotions with clarity, intention, and skill, much like scientists strive for precision in their research and analysis.

4. Stereotypes of Scientists and Artists: The quote challenges the stereotypes of scientists as cold and unemotional and artists as constantly caught up in emotional turmoil. It suggests that both scientists and artists possess a range of emotions and that their work is influenced by both logic and emotion.

5. Psychological Proximity: The quote concludes by emphasizing the close psychological relationship between highly developed science and highly developed art. This implies that despite their differences in subject matter and methods, both disciplines can reach a level of sophistication and depth that brings them closer together in terms of their psychological processes.

In summary, this quote serves to bridge the perceived gap between science and the arts by highlighting similarities in the mental processes and acknowledging the importance of both reason and emotion in both fields. It challenges the notion that science and art are inherently separate or opposed to each other, suggesting that a highly developed science and a highly developed art converge in various ways.