Week 1: Two Cultures

C.P. Snow depicts the difference in two cultures as the limited communication between those with a humanities background and one of a scientific background. This kind of divided as described is most prominently emphasized on the U.C.L.A. campus by the labels of North Campus and South Campus. The North Campus label details the northern part of the university that houses the humanity departments such as geography and history. The South Campus label depicts the southern part of campus that is home to programs like chemistry and engineering.

            Courtesy of U.C.L.A. : http://www.ucla.edu/pdf/ucla-campus-map.pdf

Salim Zymet from the Daily Bruin claimed “[l]ighter workload for North Campus students provides flexibility to explore, critically think about real-world issues.” Although this statement is true at its core, it does not provide justice to the technical knowledge that South Campus majors develop. In any real world issue, an individual needs to both be able to come up with a plan to solve an issue, and then have the knowledge to carry out that plan. With regards to different education focuses, both kinds of knowledge, humanities and sciences are required to discover, evaluate and solve real world issues. A cross education between humanity intellects and scientific academics would greatly be beneficial in developing mutual understanding of each other’s specialization and their abilities to contribute to the betterment of society.

Courtesy of Scientificamerican

            David Bohm stated that “ [c]ertain kinds of things can be achieved by techniques and formulate, but originality and creativity are not among these.” Bohm, a scientist by occupation, believes that many empirical things can be done by proven methods, but exercising creativity means stepping into new grounds never before seen. As applied to real world problems, creativity is necessary for both humanity intellects and scientific academics to find creative solutions to new and growing issues that currently plague people.

Courtesy of 3ammagazine: http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/the-new-paideia/

Reference

Bohm, David. "On Creativity." Leonardo 1.2 (1968): 137-49. JSTOR. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.

Krauss, Lawernce M. "An Update on C. P. Snow's "Two Cultures"" Scientific American Global RSS. N.p., 17 Apr. 2009. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.

Snow, Charles P. "The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution." The Rede Lecture (1959): n. pag. Web.

"University of California, Los Angeles." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.

Zymet, Salim. "Lighter Workload for North Campus Students Provides Flexibility to Explore, Critically Think about Real-world Issues." Daily Bruin. N.p., 3 Mar. 2011. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.