Problems and difficulties, and solutions...

This is a passage from Jacques Barzun's book of education essays, Begin Here, in an essay entitled "Television and the Child -- But Not What You Think" (p. 46). His essay was about how true-false/multiple choice exams are a poor tool to test learning, but this passage, from a discussion of John Dewey, goes a lot deeper than mere pegagogy:

...the greater part of thought does not deal with problems. We have all got into the habit of calling every purpose or difficulty a problem... A problem is a definable difficulty; it falls within certain limits and the right answer gets it. But the difficulty --not the problem-- the difficulty of making a living, finding a mate, keeping a friend who has a jealous, cantankerous disposition, cannot be dealt with in the same way -- it has no solution. It calls for endless improvisation, some would say "creativity." So we come to the conclusion that the mind at its best thinks not like (a) scientist, but like an artist. Art is achieved not by problem-solving, but by invention, trial and error, and compromise among desired ends."