I'm very glad to have this online discussion to read as I was feeling more than a little disconnected after attending the New York Academy of Sciences day long conference last Saturday.
I'm not attacking the conference or its organizers as I have a great deal of respect for them. They focused, as one might think that a science program would do, on a position that they felt had the most resonance within the science community. But it only scratched the surface of the debate by the way it was framed. The selection of panelists and panel topics presented the perspective that in US society today, that the two cultures are really those who are science literate and the uneducated public. The suggestion was that even though folks from the humanities and those from the sciences may argue, the real problem exists between the educated and the uninformed. Although the conference was excellent and many worthy points were made, I feel that framing the debate in this way somewhat missed many larger truths embedded within Snow's lecture as well as possible solutions to the problem. Of the entire day only one person (perhaps two) addressed visual and performing culture. A great burden to place on the shoulders of one speaker? No one represented literature with the exception of those who are science writers (authors and journalists). An opportunity missed perhaps. I wonder if anyone else on this list attended and perhaps has a different view.
I was glad to hear Guy Ortolano speak about his book "The Two Cultures Controversy" as I think it provides a much needed and often overlooked historical context for the debate.
So thanks again Roger for this online discussion where I can regain my perspective.
JD Talasek
Director
Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences (CPNAS)
500 5th Street, NW Room NAS271
Washington DC 20001
(o) 202.334.3104 (f) 202.334.1690
jtalasek@nas.edu
www.cpnas.org
-----Original Message-----
From: yasmin_discussions-bounces@estia.media.uoa.gr [mailto:yasmin_discussions-bounces@estia.media.uoa.gr] On Behalf Of roger malina
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 8:02 AM
To: YASMIN DISCUSSIONS
Subject: [Yasmin_discussions] One Two Three More Cultures
Frieder
I enjoyed your story about random generators on computers
that in fact are pseudo random generators
the conclusion of your story was
¨""That's the story. Its point is that students usually have no way to
understand, let alone develop for themselves those transformations.
But they do need them now. C.P. Snow would treat this more or less as
a language problem. The two cultures cannot talk to each other. But I
have come to believe, it is a matter of attitude. What do you expect
and request from yourself!""
Frieder Nake
I think I agreee with your point= its what I call the burning issue problem.
When you really need to do something you dont ask the question what
university department teaches it, or which funding agency paid for it,
you work with the people who have the expertise you need whether they
have a phd or not or what profession they call themselves.
But the problem is quite deep, because depending on the way you
grow up, some things are natural and some things are really difficult;
I was just reading Alan Lightman's book of essays " a sense of the
mysterious" which is a great book on the two cultures debate
( there is an interesting interview of him on line
http://www.prx.org/pieces/10917)
Lightman re iterates a " wisdom" that i remember my father telling me
as a kid= Alan Lightman makes the generalisation that there are
a number of good examples of first rate scientists who went on to
do good work in the arts and humanities, but there are almost
no examples of people who started their careers as artists and then
went on to make important discoveries in the sciences or engineering
or mathematics
If he is right= there is not only a matter of the attitude as you argue,
or of language problems as you quote Snow, but that in fact the way
we are trained as kids and young people actually changes your brain
and the way that you perceive the world; Someone with a strong
mathematical training as a young person, actually sees the world differently and
thinks differently than a person trained and who worked as a poet or painter
in their youth.
Is this true ? is this "asymmetry" true between how the arts and the sciences
as training affect a brain structure/cognition/perception differerence ?
Roger
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