[PREV - GOLDEN_SPIRIT]    [TOP]

TWOCULT

                                            January   21, 2003 
                                  Finished: September 15, 2004 


Of late I find myself making        GENTLY_SNORING_SNOW
frequent reference to "The Two                                
Cultures", a phrase                                         
introduced by C.P.Snow, in            I don't like to explain      
his essay lamenting the split         "basic" information like     
between the sciences and the          this these days.  A lot      
humanities.                           of educated people know      
                                      this kind of thing           
This was a common thread              already and the answer       
among intellectuals of                to this kind of question     
the fifties and sixties.              is only a web search away.   
I see it in Koestler's                                                   
"Sleepwalkers" (1959),                                                 
for example.                                   But maybe a brief       
                                               sketch of where I'm 
It's to this that we                           coming from now and 
owe the "interdisciplinary"                    then doesn't hurt.  
hacks in the modern educational
system.  
      
   Universities have                       
   distribution                                     
   requirements to force                            
   undergrads to take                Like many engineering    
   some classes in                   students, I took     
   subjects they're not              economics classes to    
   really interested in,             satisfy my "Social        My roommate 
   and puffed up/dumbed              Science" requirement,     was really 
   down classes have to              where the professors      annoyed to 
   be provided for people            would take pains not      realize that 
   to satisfy them                   to trouble us with        his Philosophy
   (e.g. "Physics for                "hard" math, like         class in 
   Poets").                          calculus.                 Logic wasn't 
                                                               going to count 
                                                               toward his 
The general thesis can be         AGAINST_STUPIDITY            Humanities 
argued with.                                                   score.  
                                                               
John McCarthy has remarked:                                    Gotta read the     
really there aren't two                                        fine print.
cultures, but that maybe         
their should be.  Really         
there are around 1.5             
cultures: When the                    Myself, I often find I'm 
humanities get sick, the              looking for artists with 
sciences start to sneeze.             some knowledge of what's 
                                      on the other side of that     
   His complaint is that              cultural barrier.            (barriers?)
   the pessimism about                                            
   the future of the                     I look at the vast array    
   human race had                        of small press zines full    
   leaked from the                       of random musings and    
   humanities to the                     poetry, and my sense of    
   sciences, even when                   excitement fades quickly    
   you might think that                  as I think "What are the 
   they would know better.               odds that any of these   
                                         people really *know*        
                                         something?"               
                                         
                                         
                                                     



--------
[NEXT - GENTLY_SNORING_SNOW]