The Two Cultures in Education and Society

Science/Technology and Arts/Humanities have been diverging for all of recent history.  While at one point in time, during Da Vinci’s age, there was such a thing as a renaissance man, who was as expert in the arts as the sciences, recent societal structures and concepts have led to two complete disparate cultures. 

These two cultures are outlined in C.P. Snow’s The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution and I feel can be summed up in the following statement,

“I now believe that if I had asked an even simpler question— such as, What do you mean by mass, or acceleration, which is the scientific equivalent of saying, Can you read?— not more than one in ten of the highly educated would have felt that I was speaking the same language”.

In this simple anecdote, C.P. Snow shows that the problem isn’t even so much as a lack of in depth understanding within both spheres of knowledge, but rather that there is almost not even a shared basic understanding within both spheres of knowledge.  This incredible lacking in the knowledge and abilities of the “higher educated” resonates with me heavily; I personally am a chemical engineer who is going to attend a biomedical engineering doctoral program next fall. In my major, I often run into students who go through the motions of general electives but vocally express their belief that these courses provide no relevant information.  Similarly, I have friends within the arts and humanities area who haven’t taken a single calculus course, much less physical chemistry.  Of course, while each student has his/her own intellectual fate in his/her own hands, I believe that educational systems like UCLA are to blame for this sense of complete disparity between the “two cultures”.  While general electives are mandatory, they are taken as medicine and not emphasized as relevant to every intellectual. 

Even when technology and art become relevant to each other, they are used more as tools to further each separate sphere, not necessarily develop with each other.  In the paper Myths and Confusions in Thinking about Art/Science/Technology, Stephen Wilson points out that often “artists are ideally suited to function as commentators” and therefore are constraining themselves “from the possibilities of helping to shape research agendas”.  This leads to general commentary being prevalent, as seen tin the following image, rather than actual constructive synergy.

 It is this general idea that Snow believes hinders our society’s progress; in this course, I hope to further my understanding of why this divide plagues the minds of my peers and I as well as gain insight onto how the arts and sciences can be integrated to provide a fully informed perspective for future scientific research.

References: 

Artsci.ucla.edu,. 'About | UCLA Art | Sci Center + Lab'. N.p., 2015. Web. 3 Apr. 2015.

Ganapati, Priya. 'April 15, 1452: It's The Renaissance, Man! | WIRED'. WIRED. N.p., 2015. Web. 3 Apr. 2015.

Purplepatch13.wordpress.com,. 'Science Vs Humanities | The Superstitious Atheist'. N.p., 2012. Web. 3 Apr. 2015.

Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Cambridge UP, 1959. Print.

Wilson, Steven. Myths and Confusions in Thinking about Art/Science/Technology. Paper presented at College Art Association Meetings, NYC, 2000. Print.