The Two Cultures
Fifty years ago, the British writer and scientist C.P. Snow delivered his influential and controversial lecture ‘The Two Cultures’ at Cambridge University. Snow’s argument was that a rift had developed between the sciences and the humanities – the ‘two cultures’ – resulting in an increasing ignorance of each other’s activities that was holding back society’s ability to tackle the world’s problems. ‘A good many times I have been present at gatherings of people who, by the standards of the traditional culture, are thought highly educated and who have with considerable gusto been expressing their incredulity at the illiteracy of scientists’ wrote Snow. ‘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 the scientific equivalent of: Have you read a work of Shakespeare’s?’
To mark the anniversary of Snow’s lecture, the Royal Society is holding a public debate ‘to revisit the two cultures argument and assess its applicability to our situation today’. The debate will be at 6.30pm, Tuesday 5 May, webcast live at royalsociety.org/live and available to view on demand 48 hours after the event.
Fifty years ago, the British writer and scientist C.P. Snow delivered his influential and controversial lecture ‘The Two Cultures’ at Cambridge University. Snow’s argument was that a rift had developed between the sciences and the humanities – the ‘two cultures’ – resulting in an increasing ignorance of each other’s activities that was holding back society’s ability to tackle the world’s problems. ‘A good many times I have been present at gatherings of people who, by the standards of the traditional culture, are thought highly educated and who have with considerable gusto been expressing their incredulity at the illiteracy of scientists’ wrote Snow. ‘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 the scientific equivalent of: Have you read a work of Shakespeare’s?’
To mark the anniversary of Snow’s lecture, the Royal Society is holding a public debate ‘to revisit the two cultures argument and assess its applicability to our situation today’. The debate will be at 6.30pm, Tuesday 5 May, webcast live at royalsociety.org/live and available to view on demand 48 hours after the event.
