Session Information
13 SES 02, Long Paper Session
Long Paper Session
Contribution
Part 1 consists of a cursory glance at a number of perspectives on the concept of ‘culture’. It continues by addressing C.P. Snow’s “two cultures” thesis, a representation of the two deep-rooted and dominant, yet opposing intellectual cultures within the precincts of his Alma Mater. In all probability, at the time he delivered, and published his Rede Lecture, Cambridge University best epitomized the reciprocal disdain nurtured by ‘pure’ scientists and ‘literary’ scholars. F.R. Leavis’ hostile response in 1962 to the implications of Snow’s Rede Lecture concludes this first part of the inquiry.
Part 2, draws on C.P. Snow’s 1959 central claim that “re-thinking our education” was the way out of the vacuum that had been subsisting between what he identified as the “two cultures”: the natural scientists, and the “literary intellectuals”. Two other controversial points raised by Snow are discussed. The first is his strong conviction that science would deliver humankind from poverty and disease. The second, is his assertion that the churning out of “thousands upon thousands” (Snow, 1959, p.40) of engineers and technicians, trained in universities (Snow, 1959, p. 58, footnote 22,) was the topmost priority.
The inquiry proceeds by focusing on the topical importance of M. Nussbaum’s “Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities” (2010). Nussbaum warns of an impending “educational crisis”, a particular kind of conspiracy targeting the epistemological, moral and aesthetic pillars on which the humanities have stood steadfast throughout centuries. Perceiving the purposeful neglect of the different disciplines which make up the humanities, she emphasizes that they develop abilities such as creativity, critical thinking and empathy.
Concluding Remarks raise the question of how far it may be argued that the debate provoked by Snow’s “two cultures” remains valid today, whether the predominance of any one of the “two cultures” may, or may not, have been supplanted by, for example, the concept of interdisciplinarity. To make this point, particular reference will be made to R.S. Peters’s “Ethics and Education” where analytical philosophy is combined with cognitive psychology. In failing to mention the importance of the humanities, Snow secured a steady flow of criticism (ex. Leavis & Yudkin, 1963, Trilling, 1965, Collini, 1993, 1998, Furedi et al., 2009). So what is it about his “two cultures” that still fires debate and provokes criticism? Some reflections from Collini (2012) shed light on how this may be answered, followed by some observation on the mistaken assumptions that creative and critical thinking are applicable to the arts but not to the sciences, and that science and scientific methods have no purchase in the humanities.
This inquiry concludes with the suggestion that the risk of creative thought in educational research, and innovative educational systems, in becoming increasingly affiliated to two different “cultures”, the academic and the political, has turned into a threat for the future of democratic education. Interdisciplinarity, shared conversation, constructive critique and professional camaraderie have enriched educational theory and practice, cultivating the growing wealth of creativity and innovation in educational research, in Europe, as much as elsewhere.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bloom, A. (1988) The Closing of the American Mind- How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy And Impoverished The Souls of Today’s Students. (London, Penguin Books) Bauman, Z. (2012) On Education – Conversations with Riccardo Mazzeo (Cambridge, UK and Malden USA, Polity). De La Mothe, J. (1992) C.P. Snow and the Struggle of Modernity (University of Texas Press, Austin). Collini, S. (© 1998, 2012) C.P. Snow - The Two Cultures, with Introduction by Stefan Collini (Cambridge University Press). Kagan, J. (2009) The Threee Cultures – Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and the Humanities in the 21st Century: Revisitng C.P. Snow, New York, Cambridge University Press. Leavis, F.R. & Yudkin, M. (1962) Two Cultures? The Significance of C.P. Snow (London, Chatto & Windus). Furedi, F. , Kimball, R. , Tallis, R. Whelan, R. (ed.) (2009) From Two Cultures to No Culture: C. P. Snow’s Two Cultures Lecture Fifty Years On. Civitas Publication. Nussbaum, M.C. (2010) Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities. (Princeton and Oxford, Princeton University Press). Snow, CP. (© 1959, 1961) The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution – The Rede Lecture 1959 (New York, Cambridge University Press). Trilling, L. (1973) Mind in the Modern World. The 1972 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities (New York, The Viking Press).
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