Just Finished Reading: The Two Cultures by C P Snow (FP: 1959/1964/1993)

In 1959 C P Snow gave the Rede Lecture at Cambridge University. In it he stated that there are two cultures within the academy who not only barely communicate with each other but look on the other with hostility and derision. Those cultures are Science and what is known today as the Humanities. Snow contended that in recent years – from the 1930’s to the late 50’s in England in particular – the two main braches of knowledge and intellectual exploration had begun talking past each other with both sides increasingly ignoring the advances or pronouncements of its counterpart. Such things could be forgiven, or even ignored, if they had no effect. But such a divorce, and especially an acrimonious one, has consequences and potentially serious ones at that. From the 30’s onwards both science and technology had been advancing at increasing speed with each passing year having a greater impact on the world around us. This was never truer than after 1945 with the detonation of the first atomic bomb. It became obvious that every educated person should have at least an appreciation of science and technology – if not any great knowledge – but that politicians and world leaders should have much more. Without such a basic knowledge ill-educated electorates cannot vote sensibly on important issues of the day and national leaders cannot tell when scientific advisors are giving poor advice – which it must be appreciated is a possibility. Likewise the scientific community needs to resist an ‘ivory tower’ temptation to hold themselves above the fray and to look on the world dispassionately in other to make rational decisions that could lead to the deaths of millions. Without fellow feeling, without a connection to the human condition, without an understanding of life from the level of the street it is all too easy to make wrong and dangerous decisions far too casually. This is the danger of the split Snow recognised in 1959.

He had no idea that the publication of his lecture would have the effect it did. He received letters from across the world, many positive but a few critical and occasionally with much vitriol, so quickly realised he had touched a rather raw nerve. After much thought and reflection he gave a second lecture in 1963 to address some of the issues raised, to explain some of the misunderstandings and to modify his views where needed. This made up the second part of this slim volume. Preceding the whole thing – in my 1993 Canto Classics edition – was a long, detaile4d and very interesting introduction by Stefan Collini who set the context of both talks and critiqued some of Snow’s ideas and assertions.

Overall this was a very interesting (and seminal) discussion of what education is for, who the dominance of one school or culture over the other works to the detriment of both, and how important it is for everyone – not just the ultimate decision makers – to have at least a basic understanding of scientific fundamentals. As Collini says this has yet to happen fully but, largely because of television, is a great deal better than during the 1960’s. So, there is hope but as always it seems more, much more, needs to be done. The rise of technical education and the higher profile of science is helping but general scientific ignorance can no longer be shrugged off. With technology becoming daily more important it is vital that we understand what we have in our hands, where it’s going and what we can do to channel technological advances in a way that serves humanity. It’s time we all became more educated.