We live in a time when more scientists are being trained than ever before, yet scientists find themselves frustrated by inaccurate media coverage, poor science education, public science illiteracy, a resurgence of anti-evolutionism, and challenges to scientific expertise on issues like climate change. On May 9, 2009, visionaries, scientists, authors, and the media will join together in New York to explore the persistence of the “two cultures” gap—a serious divide between science and the humanities—and how it can be overcome.
In his seminal lecture, “The Two Cultures,” delivered on May 7, 1959, the British novelist, physicist, and government science adviser C.P. Snow decried a “gulf of mutual incomprehension between science and the humanities.” For Snow, this rift was “a sheer loss to us all.” As a researcher and creative writer he had a unique perspective on the problem and its impact on society at large.
Now, 50 years later, to celebrate Snow’s incisive challenge and to assess what—if anything—has changed, an exciting symposium will take place at the New York Academy of Sciences in downtown Manhattan. A wide array of experts will gather to discuss whether or not the divide still exists and how it affects contemporary society. The full-day symposium will feature keynotes by E.O. Wilson, Dean Kamen, and former Congressman John Edward Porter, as well as panel discussions on politics, education, and the history surrounding the two cultures debate.
If you live in or near New York City, this is a can’t-miss event. But if you’re not in the area or can’t be there, I will attend and will “live-blog” all day long.
If I interpret Snow correctly, his concern about what he called an “unscientific flavour to the whole ‘traditional’ culture” is not only apt, but even more urgent and acute now than it was 50 years ago. Whether politicians, bureaucrats, pundits, humanities educators, or the general public, the vast majority of all these continue to demonstrate an unscientific approach to understanding both the natural world and the human world.
The previous U.S. administration received—and deserved—a great deal of criticism for being anti-intellectual. But as author (and symposium co-organizer) Chris Mooney noted in The Republican War on Science, the anti-science attitude of conservatives goes back many years, to the mid 1960s if not earlier. Moreover, too many people on the left, especially those in the environmental movement, can be accused of similarly unproductive biases against science, or at least can be found guilty of painting all technologies with the same dirty brush.
Ultimately, then, we have witnessed an uncoordinated but nevertheless devastating assault on Enlightenment values of rational thinking over the last half century. Big business has stepped in and taken advantage, orchestrating the development of a monstrous consumer society despite all reasonable arguments against suburban sprawl, corporate farming, deforestation, etc.
I see the Two Cultures Symposium as a great opportunity to clarify and illuminate these issues, and ideally to invigorate those who would fight back on the side of science and reason in hopes of saving our planet and our civilization. If you can’t be there in person, I hope you’ll join me here this Saturday for live blogging and discussion.
IEET Blog