From the general to particulars. From particulars to the general.
Literature is a communicable vehicle of enjoyment in which thoughts, ideas and images are dressed up in pleasing combinations of words. It appears in a variety of forms: as essays, short stories, verses, epic poems, plays, biographies, hymns, histories; on occasions, even as sermons.
This definition of literature is inadequate for at least two reasons. First, by including only the necessary conditions, it tends to embrace much that may not deserve to be called literature. Many platitudes, perverseness, and plain nonsense may be word-wise pleasing, but not literature at all. Also, this definition ignores one of the fundamental attributes of all literature, viz. that it is a meaningful and insightful commentary on some aspect of truth. If one includes this intrinsic quality of literature, the definition should refer to a specific mode of perception of truth and reality.
When it comes to definition of science, an endless list emerges. Science has been defined as organized knowledge, trained and organized common sense, systematic classification of experience. Science is what scientists do. But science is more than a static storehouse of information. It is a vast repository of knowledge only to the degree that literature is the set of all pleasurable combinations of words and phrases. As literature offers joyful tickling from verbal permutations, science is more than the recognition of facts that the sun is some ninety-three million miles away, or that the benzene molecule has a hexagonal structure. Science and literature are both efforts to grasp profound truths on different aspects the experiences world. Where the two differ is in the aspects of the truth that interest each.
Early literary compositions often dealt with God and mythologies. Their practical aim was to plead with the Supernatural to protect humans. But as literature evolved, its goal turned to enjoyment rather than utility. With science, it was the opposite. Pure curiosity prompted early scientific inquiry. In its modern mode, science seeks practical applications too.
Science and literature seem contrasting endeavors. But the two have a few things in common: both are expressions of human creativity. Among a hundred versifiers there may be one good poet; likewise, routine scientific searchers are many, but truly great ones are few. In literature, as in science, the urge to create is stronger than the fruits of the urge.
To the poet, “poetry is truth dwelling in beauty.” To the scientist, science is truth dwelling in laws and principles. What differentiates them are their modes of perception and frameworks.
Spurts of Thought 