Week 1: Two Cultures

The current state of academia is one of separation and disconnect. One seldom questions the reasons for why the humanities and sciences are so divided, but evidence of it is widespread. In our very own campus we see this separation by comparing North and South campus. Not only are the science and humanities buildings physically in differing locations, they are also of different architectural styles. Walking north from the physics and astronomy building, it almost feels like entering a different campus altogether.

A common oversimplification of the issue is people merely thinking some of us are "left brain" while others are "right brain."

In The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution C.P. Snow laments the division between the literary intellectuals and the scientists. Snow takes on the perspective of a middleman as his ultimate goal seems to be to rekindle a flame between the two sides and end the nasty segregation. He attributes this issue primarily to the education regime. Comparing the British system to the American and Russian systems, he delineates the problems present in all three, but notes that at the very least the Americans and Russians are more active in fixing their systems.

Victoria Vesna’s Toward and Third Culture: Being In Between, carries a similar tone to Snow’s writing in taking a non-inflammatory stance on the topic. Vesna, however, provides a bit more insight on the scientific perspective of the issue by providing the example of the Sokal Affair, which, while humorous, is both a sad and upsetting reflection of an academic journal’s (Social Text) irresponsible and careless handling of submitted content. Did the editors really read that “physical reality is at bottom a social and linguistic construct” and decided that it was anything other than nonsense? Sokal satirically invited those who were content with that statement to transgress the social conventions of physical reality from the windows of his apartment. While this hoax may not allow anyone to draw realistic conclusions about the current state of affairs, it does corroborate the idea that there is real divide and miscommunication between the scientific and literary community.

Finding the overlap between science and art is an important part of the Third Culture and bridging the gap between the two sides. 

As a physics student, this brought to my attention the reality of this division and the importance of playing a positive role in fixing it. Just as the editors of the journal cannot be blind to what’s happening in the scientific world, I cannot be blind to social realities, as both factions are intimately connected whether we accept it or not. 

Oppenheimer talking about the social consequences of scientific achievement, viz. the bombing of Hiroshima.







Sources:


Gross, John, The Oxford Book of Parodies, Oxford University Press, 2010, pg. 307

Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R Interactive Tel Aviv, Israel Mercedes Benz: Left Brain - Right Brain, Paint. 2011.

Snow, C.P. The Two Culture And The Scientific Revolution. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1961.

"Student Artwork Competition." Arts Education. Arizona Department of Education, 08 July 2014. Web. 05 Apr. 2015.

Vesna, Victoria Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between. Leonardo, Vol. 34, No. 2. (2001), pp. 121-125.