Week 1: Two Cultures
After reading articles and watching videos about two
cultures, I noticed that I was always influenced by those two cultures. CP Snow
first emphasized that our society is divided in two main categories such as the
rich or the poor. This make sense to me because centuries ago, the wealth and
the poor life style was very distinguished. When I look at the history textbook
or look at lifestyle of historical society, I can tell if they are the poor or
the rich group. Also, the world today we can somewhat tell the difference
between the poor and the rich but it is hard to distinguish them by sight right
away.
I was little fascinated that there was no example of
word “science” in the Oxford Dictionary before 1860s. Because I major
Electrical Engineering, I have always thought that between art and science,
science is more important. Not having the word science in the dictionary states
that back in 1860s, science was not considered as important, and there were not
many examples of science related. This somewhat makes sense to be because art
can be done by one person with one’s perspective of anything, but science need
lots of trials and resources to build up the idea and theory.
These days I think science and art are not two isolated
categories but can be one hybrid collaborated category. Unless you are
scientist or just a painter, I can confirm that everything else is art and
science collaborated work. Nowadays designs matter in the technologies and
people do arts and designs with technology.
References:
Kelly, Kevin. "The third culture." Science
279.5353 (1998): 992-993. Web.
Snow, C.P. The Two Cultures: And a Second Look. N.p.:
n.p., 1963. Print.
Snow, C.P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific
Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. Print.
Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in
Between.” Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-25. Web.
Wilson, Stephen. “Myths and Confusion in Thinking
About Art/Science/Technology.” Reading. 2000. San Francisco State University,
Print
I realized that I also have been influenced by two cultures as you noticed. And it is the interesting point that the Oxford Dictionary doesn't have the word "science" before 1860s.
답글삭제I totally agree that these days as an engineering major student since the science emerged into our life. As you mentioned on the blog, the one hybrid collaborated category can make the positive effect and also creative thinking on both field where are science and art.
Interesting ideas! I think this week's main concept mainly focuses on the divide between Science and Art, and I'm sure Snow will agree with you on the idea that science is the dominant category. I also found it surprising that back in the days (and even during the time when Snow wrote the book), there was a lot of focus on arts rather than the sciences, especially in the Great Britain region. Now, science seems to be incorporated into all our fields!
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