science vs. art

Thought for the day, via the astonishingly excellent radio program Radio Lab from WNYC:

The job of art is to show us how special we are.
The job of science is to show us how insignificant we are.

One could belabor the points and semantics phrasing this idea (the job? why, the job is something else, and even their relation to these points are not necessarily fulfillment of their jobs, etc.), but the idea itself is one neat axis to adjust perspective around. What rushes to mind are examples of art celebrating a specific element - a photo of a daffodil, when there are countless such photos of countless daffodils possible; a song of a lover's yearning, when there are countless such songs of this common experience; etc., as well as examples of science illustrating the commonalities of individual elements - the laws of physics, organizing the dynamics of every movement on earth; molecular modeling, placing all matter and energy into the same building structure; etc. Now, I am sure that with even a little bit of thought, one could conjure examples of art illustrating insignificance (divisionism, perhaps; and the study of mutation, and there are surely arguments to be had within various theories behind both art and science applications) and science illustrating singularity So while it is possible to think away from the idea, it is certainly easy to think within it and entertain it, and in doing so, obtain value from it.

So: Is this what drives some personalities toward either art or science, and others away? Is one's perspective on the issue of one's own specialness vs. insignificance one of the basic keys to one's paradigm for world view, for life, for all things great and small, from which one's character and personality spring? If so, does this address the issue of a person changing, whether a person does actually change in character through his lifetime; in other words, if one's perspective on his significance changes, does this set off a fundamental change of himself? Perhaps psychology considers this issue in theories of development through the ego and id. If so, this would lend credence to the basic idea.

It is an interesting exercise to examine the history of one's personal development through the art vs. science filter...