Week 1 Blog: Two Cultures

    Hi, I'm Raya Sanikhatam! I am a Psychology major with a love for art and design. I am really interested in how science and creativity can work together, and I see psychology as a bridge between those two cultures. I hope to build a life and career that blends both, where I can explore the human mind through research while also expressing ideas visually and emotionally through art. 

To start our quarter, we've dived into understanding the idea of the Two Cultures as labeled by C.P. Snow.
We see that traditionally theres these two cultures:

1. The sciences (physicists, biologists, etc.)
2. The humanities (authors, philosophers, etc.)
   

The two sides of campus, from Two Cultures part 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FOEuxrwxd0&t=28s

All throughout my life it seems I've always been taught to separate art and science, as if they were two opposites of a spectrum, and being from immigrant parents it was always emphasized to me the importance of pursuing STEM for a career, as it was seen as more successful or prestigious. At UCLA we can see how these two spectrums are separated on campus having different areas and specialized buildings. I've also noticed that most universities focus more on STEM (The Sciences) building new facilities and putting money towards STEM compared to the humanities.

www.pinakoteka.zascianek.pl muzea.malopolska.pl
Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God

With this understanding of these two cultures we now come to the idea of a third culture....

Brookman's idea of the third culture caught my attentions as it doesn't align completely with Snow's, He states that the third culture are scientists and other intellectuals who:

• Communicate directly with the public.
• Write books and essays in accessible language.
• Tackle big philosophical questions about human life, consciousness, the universe, etc.
• Don’t wait for approval from traditional literary or academic circles.

With examples like Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, and Daniel Dennett—He paints a picture of scientists who corporate both sides of the "two cultures", scientists who themselves write popular books and tackle questions of evolution, the mind, and human behavior. It made me think of minds of the scientific revolution like Newton, and Coppernicus. I've come to see this "Third Culture" as a sort of intellectual pursuit that pushes the boundaries of both spectrums.

Where can we go forward with this...

Perhaps this third culture is more relevant to today’s world than traditional literary critics or even philosophers. We're seeing how science is reshaping how we see ourselves and our place in the world. Using data and evidence to try and answer our deepest questions and in a way bridging the gap between science and the general public.

https://jcom.sissa.it/article/pubid/JCOM_2004_2021_N02/ 

Training to support scientists to engage with the public in non-traditional venues

These new ideas help me see connections between science and creativity, showing me that I don’t have to choose one over the other. As a student and in life, I can use this perspective to approach problems more holistically and bring both analytical and artistic thinking to whatever I do.

Sources/Resources

Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. Cambridge University Press, 1959. 

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between.” Leonardo, vol. 34, no. 2, 2001, pp. 121-125. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1577014. 

Brockman, John. The Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1995.- 

Lecture Part 3(https://youtu.be/VNI7dF3DIAM?si=RczJJU7ssFXnBP7F)  

Wilson, Stephen. 'Myths and Confusion in Thinking About Art/Science/Technology