Two Cultures
Web sites relating to the Snow-Leavis
Controversy
"The Two
Cultures" Today by Roger Kimball
An article from the journal The New Criterion, Vol. 12, No. 6, February
1994.
C.P. Snow and the
Struggle of Modernity by John de la Mothe
A description of de la Mothe's book provided by the publisher, McGill-Queen's University
Press.
The
Importance of Understanding Science
An interview with David Balamuth. "As a freshman at Harvard College, physicist David
Balamuth read C.P. Snow's famous Rede lecture, The Two Cultures, and was
intrigued. . . . After reading about these concerns, the Harvard freshman class went to hear a
distinguished poet and an equally distinguished biologist discuss them. Balamuth listened
carefully and came away with the 'dead sure certainty that C.P. Snow had it right.' The poet and
the scientist had spent the entire evening talking past each other. 'I don't think either one heard a
word the other said.'"
"C.P. Snow's Two
Cultures: Hardware and Software, Discovery and Creation" by MIT research scientist Dan
Dewey (July 1999)
"In his recent work Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, E.O. Wilson notes
that not only does the gap between the two cultures of the Sciences and the Humanities described
by C.P. Snow in 1959 continue to exist today, but that its very origin is unexplained. In this essay
I describe a possible (scientific!) explanation for the existence of these two cultures."
"George Derfer on Charles Hartshorne's Contribution to the Two Cultures Debate" by Paul
Christianssen
Reprinted from The Center for Process Studies Newsletter, vol. 21, issue
3 [Fall/Winter 1998-99], this is a summary of a conversation with Derfer, Professor of
Philosophy Emeritus at Cal. Poly Pomona.
WAIS - World Affairs
Report--Two Cultures by Ronald Hinton
A brief posting, rather hostile towards the culture of non-scientists, to an online forum
conducted by the World Association of International Studies (WAIS), "a fellowship of scholars,
scientists, and others active in international affairs."
Links for the Sokal
Hoax Controversy
In 1996, physicist Alan Sokal of NYU published an article entitled "Transgressing the
Boundaries" in the journal Social Text, edited by leading cultural theorist
Stanley Fish: ". . . to test the prevailing intellectual standards, I decided to try a modest (though
admittedly uncontrolled) experiment: Would a leading North American journal of cultural
studies whose editorial collective includes such luminaries as Fredric Jameson and Andrew Ross
publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the
editors' ideological preconceptions?" The resulting furor in academia highlighted the rift
between the attitudes of natural scientists and cultural theorists.
"Two Cultures or
One?" by Paul Grobstein and Eleanor A. Bliss, Bryn Mawr College.
"Among the publications triggered by Sokal was "Sokal's Hoax", an article by the
physicist Steven Weinberg which appeared in the New York Review of Books
(8 August 1996). Weinberg seems to share with Sokal a belief that science needs to defend a
claim to primacy of intellectual rigor over that of other forms of intellectual activity. The
following letter, sent to the editors of the New York Review for possible
publication, suggests that a less exclusive and more realistic conception of the scientific
enterprise would not only better help to bridge the two cultures gap, but better serve as well to
defend science and assure its important contribution to human culture generally."
"Is the Separation of Culures Natural?"
by Benjamin Luberoff
The second section of a column of musings written for Chemistry and Industry
, the journal of the Society of Chemical Industry, Luberoff considers the reason for the
split Snow describes and also refers to an article by Bryan Reuben on "The Limitations of Science".
Letter--Crossing the Culture Divide
by William Fairbright (18 May 1998)
This letter is a response to Luberoff's column above.
Two relatively current book reviews of C. P. Snow's The Two Cultures,
both of which were published on the Web by writers who have no particular expertise in the
fields Snow addresses but, nevertheless, make thoughtful observations:
Danny Yee (1993) and Patrick D.
Wilz (1998)
"Casting the Lure of the Nuclear Age"
by Randy Mills (1997)
An undergraduate essay written for San Francisco State University's interdisciplinary
NEXA program.
Rep. Vernon Ehlers
(R-Michigan) on Science Policy: The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy
News
A report on the Congressman's address on November 21, 1997, by Richard M. Jones,
Public Information Division, American Institute of Physics.
Geology and Engineering: Two
Cultures Separated by a Gulf of Mutual Incomprehensibility by Martin Kennedy, Enterprise
Oil
Another twist on the theme.
Bibliography of Works Relating to the Two
Cultures Controversy Available in Preston Library [VMI], Leyburn Library [W&L], and
Alderman Library [UVA]
Bantock, G.H. "A Scream of Horror." The Listener (17 Sept. 1959):
427-8. [UVA]
Beer, Gillian. "Translation or Transformation? The Relations of Literature and Science."
Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 44 (1990): 81-99.
[UVA]
Burnett, D. Graham. "A View from the Bridge: The Two Cultures Debate, Its Legacy, and
the History of Science." Daedalus Spr/1999 Vol. 128 No. 2 Pg. 193 [VMI]
Cornelius, David K. and Edwin St. Vincent, eds. Cultures in Conflict: Perspectives
on the Snow-Leavis Controversy. Chicago: Scott, Foresman, 1964. [UVA]
Green, Martin. "Lionel Trilling and the Two Cultures." Essays in
Criticism 13 (1963): 375-85. [W&L]
Leavis, F.R. "Two Cultures? The Significance of Lord Snow" in Nor Shall My
Sword: Discourses on Pluralism, Compassion and Social Hope. New York: Barnes and
Noble, 1972. [W&L]
Levine, George, ed. One Culture: Essays in Science and Literature.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987. [UVA]
Levine, George, and Owen Thomas, eds. The Scientist vs. the Humanist.
New York: Norton, 1963. [VMI]
Plumb, J.H., ed. Crisis in the Humanities. Baltimore: Penguin Books,
1964. [UVA]
Trilling, Lionel. "The Leavis-Snow Controversy," in Beyond Culture: Essays on
Literature and Learning. New York: Viking Press, 1965. [VMI]
"The Two Cultures Re-visited." The Cambridge Review 108 (1987).
[UVA]
Bibliography of Works Relating to the Two Cultures
Controversy Available for Purchase Online
The Radio 4 Archive Hour: the Two Cultures Debate The Observer
Forty years after C.P. Snow's `Two Cultures' lecture, are science and the arts any closer to
ending their intellectual war? Article in The Observer
Forty Years Later: C.P. Snow's Two Cultures Revisited Article in
The European Journal of Engineering Education
The Saturday Essay; Will the Sectarian War of Arts and Science Ever End?
Article in The Independent--London
Letter To The Editor: C P Snow Would Be Baffled Letter in The
Daily Telegraph London
Are Science and the Arts Still at War? Graham Farmelo Re-Examines the Two Cultures
Debate Article in The Daily Telegraph London
Last modified December 31, 1999