Few literary phrases are as enduring as “two cultures”, coined by C P Snow to describe what he saw as a dangerous schism between science and literary life.
“The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution” presented the contrast between the responses of scientific and literary cultures to the industrial and technological revolutions. Academic and intellectual specialization had proceeded to the point that the sciences and humanities had become mutually incomprehensible.
“The intellectual life of the whole of western society is increasingly being split into two polar groups; literary intellectuals at one pole, at the other scientists. Between the two a gulf of incomprehension.”
This gulf between two cultures was not merely an obstacle to scientific progress, but even represented a threat to the survival of western civilisation.
Snow suggested humanities graduates, who ruled western societies, did not appreciate what science had to offer.
Snow identified three pressing issues, where “literary intellectuals” failed to see that solutions might come from “natural scientists”; the existence of nuclear weapons, over-population, and the gap between rich and poor nations.
Sources:
C. P. Snow – The Two Cultures debate controversy Rede Lecture 1959
Our Two Cultures
The Two Cultures, Then and Now
The Two Cultures, Then and Now