The Two Countercultures

In 1959 the British novelist C.P. Snow delivered a lecture at the University of Cambridge entitled "The Two Cultures." Snow’s topic was the gradual separation of scientific knowledge from humanistic knowledge, and the dangers of educational specialization and technical illiteracy. Snow was not a disinterested observer: Trained as a chemist, he had a foot in both cultures. He argued that educated citizens once understood reality through shared vocabulary, symbols, and concepts, but the common culture of the past had diverged into competing intellectual tribes. The separation harmed not only the individual intelligence, but also our collective ability to survive the nuclear age. His talk, later published as a book, became the standard text in debates over the relation between science and literature, and between technology and morality. Read Full Article »