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9

Introduction

Is art really important? If so, what are the evidence-

based facts, the “metrics,” that prove its importance?

Or, is the value of art fundamentally not quantifiable?¹

A premise of this book is that art is important because

art is part of that nebulous, unquantifiable dimension

of reality we sometimes call “the poetic.” Religion,

magic, and even love, beauty, and other forms of

non-rational understanding also fall into this category.

The poetic transcends the practical imperatives of life—

and yet it is a building-block of the identities we assign

to ourselves. The poetic is also (importantly) a well-

spring of joy, hope, pleasure, and wonder. . . . It is a

source of comfort and consolation when our fellow

humans beings let us down, and when we feel that the

universe really doesn’t care . . .