Humanities and the Scientific Image of Man, Today (original) (raw)

2019, A. Allegra-F. F. Calemi-M. Moschini (a cura di), Alla fontana di Silöe, Orthotes, Napoli-Salerno, pp. 251-264

Humanities and the scientific image of man, today 1. From an epistemological point of view 1.1. From "two cultures" to "two images": Snow and Sellars About 60 years ago, Charles Percy Snow (1905-1980) famously analysed the relationship between the so called «two cultures»: that of «literary intellectuals», on the one hand, and that of «scientists, and as the most representative, the physical scientists», on the other. 1 Snow was extremely worried about the existence of «two polar groups», separated by «a gulf of mutual incomprehension -sometimes (particularly among the young) hostility and dislike, but most of all lack of understanding» and his concern mainly reflected his own personal history, because, as he himself declared: «by training I was a scientist: by vocation I was a writer». 2 While Snow's analysis was extremely successful and vivid in identifying a distinctive feature of our times, his explanation of it and his suggestions for overcoming the divide are widely regarded as somewhat unsatisfactory. I argue that one reason for this inadequacy is the fact that Snow's analysis essentially concentrates on sociological, historical and pedagogical factors, rather than on the epistemological ones. This produces a discourse which, while effectively (and ironically) describing some effects of the split at issue, leaves us, nevertheless, without much insight into his deep causes.