Week 1: Two Cultures

Two Cultures

I'm a third year MCDB Major and Gender Studies Minor, which I picked to become a culturally informed future physician. Thus, undergraduate career exemplifies the experience of the seemingly isolated cultures of the arts and the science that C.P. Snow describes as "two groups- comparable in intelligence, identical in race, not grossly different in social origin... who had almost ceased to communicate at all," (2) in his lecture "Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution". 

In his paper "On Creativity", Bohm highlights that the two cultures are similarly motivated by the desire to create, "in this respect, the scientist is perhaps not basically different from the artist... who all want to create this sort of thing in their work," (138).

Much of this separation is artificially introduced by schools and reinforced as people grow older and must specialize their skills to their jobs, as is described in the video "Changing Education Paradigms".

Thus, to improve upon his previous idea, Snow later introduced the "Third Culture" that he suggested would emerge to bridge the gap between the arts and the sciences (53) in his essay "The Two Cultures: A Second Look", which he added to his previous "Two Cultures".

C.P. Snow and the Third Culture by the Scientific American.

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The dangers of a gap between the communities is highlighted in many ways. For example, there can be no effective science without public understanding, as was seen with the COVID vaccination response.

An illustration demonstrating a hydrostatic skeleton by the Smithsonian.

In her paper "Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between", Vesna expands on the idea of a third, bridging culture. She argues that each Culture reinforced the other and artists that use new technologies are in a unique position to communicate with both sides and form a "new, mutant third culture," (Vesna 122). Similarly, the essay "The Third Culture" by Kevin Kelly highlights technology itself as this culture, "its own culture, the third culture, the possibility culture,".

The importance of bridging the gap between the two cultures became evident to me when it took 4 months to declare my minor as a STEM major because the departments didn't typically communicate. It is seen when I walk from South to North campus and scientific jargon is replaced by fashion statements as a means of expression. As a student of both cultures, I am motivated to help them reconnect, by designing manifestos to discuss healthcare and by using scientific research to highlight sociocultural issues.

Works Cited

Bohm, D. “On Creativity.” Leonardo, vol. 1, no. 2, 1968, pp. 137–49. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1571951. Accessed 8 Apr. 2023.

Kelly, Kevin. “The Third Culture.” Edge.org, https://www.edge.org/conversation/kevin_kelly-the-third-culture.

Snow, Charles P. The Two Cultures a Second Look: An Expanded Version of the Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. Cambridge University Press, 1974.

Snow, C. P. (Charles Percy), 1905-1980. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York :Cambridge University Press, 1959.

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo, vol. 34, no. 2, 2001, pp. 121–125., https://doi.org/10.1162/002409401750184672.

Images/Videos

Robinson, Ken. “RSA Animate: Changing Education Paradigms.” YouTube, YouTube, 14 Oct. 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U.

Krauss, Lawrence M. “An Update on C. P. Snow's ‘Two Cultures.’” Scientific American, Scientific American, 1 Sept. 2009, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-update-on-cp-snows-two-cultures/.

Benko, Raven Capone. “Why Science Needs Art.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 15 Apr. 2020, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-of-natural-history/2020/04/15/why-science-needs-art/.