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In the introduction to this week's material, Professor Vesna describes the divide between art and science.

 In the article written by Charles P. Snow (The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution), it is argued that people need both literacy and science in order to solve important issues in the world, such as the wealth gap. C.P. Snow is discussing more than just the separation of literary and scientific peoples. C. P. Snow uses the disparity between the rich and the poor when describing the two cultures as a way for people to better understand his concept. C.P. Snow suggests the emergence of a “third culture”, which is discussed in the article, Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between. In the article, professor Vesnas discusses that the third culture is not only made up of the scientific elites but a combination of members from both the arts and sciences. By minimizing the divide, the forces become even stronger.  

As pointed out in lecture 3, on our campus the two diciplines are clearly divided. The northern side of campus is entirely the arts, including the School of Music, Broad Art Center, and even the sculpture garden. Whereas the south side of the campus is made up of the scientific culture, with buildings such as math and sciences and Engineering. 

I have personally never put much thought into this divide not only on our campus but also all around the world. Now that I have learned these perspectives, I believe that if the cultures were able to narrow the divide, as a society we could become much stronger. 

I feel that these perspectives will benefit my interactions with fellow students around campus. As a psych major, I feel like most of the people I interact with are other students in the psychology department. In terms of psychology, I believe that it can be seen as an in-between, containing aspects of both disciplines. 

Now that this divide has been brought to my attention, I am interested to see how people apart of different disciplines can influence my perspectives.

Citations

Snow, C.P. 'The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.’ The Syndics of University of Cambridge Press, 1959, 1-32.

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo, Vol. 34, No. 2. (2001), pp. 121-125, http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0024-094X%282001%2934%3A2%3C121%3ATATCBI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-3&origin=JSTOR-pdf 

Vesna, Victoria. “Twocultures part1.” YouTube, YouTube, 30 Mar. 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNI7dF3DIAM&ab_channel=UCOnline.

Vesna, Victoria. “TwoCultures PT2.” YouTube, YouTube, 31 Mar. 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUr4xxZ_0gw&t=2s&ab_channel=UCOnline.

Vesna, Victoria. “TwoCultures PT3.” YouTube, YouTube, 2 Apr. 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FOEuxrwxd0&ab_channel=UCOnline.