Subluminal

I OCRed the manuscript of the famous “The Two Cultures”  lecture by R.C. Snow.
You can find an html version, or read the original version in a poorly-scanned pdf.

I like this text, because it gives an overview of the consequences of the forced choice you have to make, at some point, between hard (scientific) and soft (humanities) knowledge.
I don’t want to choose. I guess I’m a bit oldschool.

I think that one possible definition of our modern culture is that it is one in which nine-tenths of our intellectuals can’t read any poetry.  – Randall Jarrell

Here’s an extract of “The two cultures” :

The non-scientists have a rooted impression that the scientists are shallowly optimistic, unaware of man’s condition. On the other hand, the scientists believe that the literary intellectuals are totally lacking in foresight, peculiarly unconcerned with their brother men, in a deep sense anti-intellectual, anxious to restrict both art and thought to the existential moment. And so on.

Anyone with a mild talent for invective could produce plenty of this kind of subterranean back-chat. On each side there is some of it which is not entirely baseless. It is all destructive. Much of it rests on misinterpretations which are dangerous. I should like to deal with two of the most profound of these now, one on each side.