From the OED:
two cultures n. (in the terminology of C.
P. Snow) science and the arts,
considered as being in opposition to
each other.
1959 Rede Lecture: “The Two Cultures”
I believe the intellectual life of the whole of
western society is increasingly being split into
two polar groups. …Literary intellectuals at one
pole—at the other scientists, and as the most
representative, the physical scientists. Between
the two a gulf of mutual incomprehension—
sometimes (particularly among the young)
hostility and dislike, but most of all lack of
understanding.
Once or twice I have been
provoked and have asked the
company how many of them
could describe the Second Law
of Thermodynamics. The
response was cold: it was also
negative. Yet I was asking
something which is about the
scientific equivalent of: Have you
read a work of Shakespeare's?
[The literary culture] still like(s) to pretend that
the traditional culture is the whole of ‘culture’,
as though the natural order did not exist. As
though the exploration of the natural order
was of no interest either in its own value or its
consequences. As though the scientific edifice
of the physical world was not, in its intellectual
depth, complexity and articulation, the most
beautiful and wonderful collective work of the
mind of man.
1962 Richmond Lecture: “The Two Cultures”
The callously ugly
insensitiveness of the
mode of expression is
wholly significant. It
gives us Snow, who
is wholly
representative of the
world, or culture, to
which it belongs….
Huxley’s 1880 “Science and Culture”
For culture certainly means something
quite different from learning or technical
skill. It implies the possession of an ideal,
and the habit of critically estimating the
value of things by comparison with a
theoretic standard. Perfect culture should
supply a complete theory of life… But we
may agree to all this, and yet strongly
dissent from the assumption that
literature alone is competent to supply
this knowledge.
Arnold’s 1882 Rede Lecture:
“Literature and Science”
The ‘hairy quadruped furnished
with a tail and pointed ears,
probably arboreal in his habits,’ this
good fellow carried hidden in his
nature something destined to
develop into a necessity for
humane letters. Nay, more; we
seem to be even led to the further
conclusion that our hairy ancestor
carried in his nature, also, a
necessity for Greek.
“Two cultures” stalemate
Proust Was a Neuroscientist (2007)
There is still no
dialogue of equals.
Scientists and artists
continue to describe
the world in
incommensurate
languages.
Questions for Discussion:
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If the “two cultures” still exist today, is that a
problem? Why or why not?
If so, what do we do about it? I.e., we can’t
go back to a time when everyone was a
generalist, so now what?
As a student, have you felt torn between
the two cultures, forced to declare yourself
a “numbers person” or a “word person”?