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THOUGH the best cartoonists think in fun, they often feel in earnest. James Thurber once depicted a man sitting by himself at a party with his head resting on his fist.
A guest at the party, pointing to this solitary brooder, was heard to say: “He does not know anything but scientific facts.” Now there is no doubt that scientific facts have been responsible for countless technological and medical advances, and a tremendous growth in human understanding. Scientific facts are so numerous, and often so beneficial, that many have come to believe that science is the final test of all truth, that it is the lens through which everything should be viewed. Having latched on to this one way of knowing facts, some claim it is the only way. But as Donald Lowrie reminds us in one of his poems, scientific facts are not the only path to knowledge and truth.