Two cultures
The term Two cultures (English Two Cultures ) is originally by CP Snow of 1959 made analysis of the interaction humanities - literary culture on the one hand and scientific - technical understood culture other.
According to Snow, the two intellectual worlds of thought are so diametrically opposed that an understanding is no longer possible. Snow ascribes a pessimistic , past-facing and “in the deeper sense anti-intellectual” mentality to the humanities scholars , which is opposed to a forward-looking, optimistic natural science. This dichotomy between natural science (explaining) and humanities (understanding) also plays a role in the dispute over methods . In his work The Third Culture (1995) John Brockman denies Snow's optimism that effective communication between the two cultures is in sight.
“The point at which two subject areas, two disciplines, two cultures - two galaxies , you could say - collide should create creative opportunities. In the history of intellectual activity this was always the place where one of the breakthroughs occurred. Now there are such opportunities. But they exist in a vacuum , so to speak , because members of the two cultures cannot speak to one another. "
Web links
- Magazine article on Snow's "The Two Cultures"
- Richard David Precht : Natural Sciences and Humanities: Genesis of Two Worlds , web video, ZAKlessons 2013
Individual evidence
- ^ CP Snow: The Two Cultures. 1959. In: Helmut Kreuzer (Ed.): The two cultures. Literary and scientific intelligence. CP Snow's thesis under discussion. dtv, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-423-04454-3
- ↑ John Brockman: The Third Culture. The worldview of modern natural science. Goldmann, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-442-72035-4