Two forms of blindness: On the need for both cultures

摘要

C.P. Snow's famous lecture was concerned with a problem he perceived in post-war British education. I focus on what relevance Snow's worries might have to contemporary American education and contemporary American culture. My central thesis is that the United States, and other affluent democracies, are often prey to two forms of short-sightedness, one that embodies attitudes of distrust (or worse) toward the consensus views of natural scientists, and another that dismisses the potential contributions that the humanistic disciplines might make.