Zones of Inhibition and the CP Snow two cultures debate: art vs science
Keith Davies
- Region:
- England
- Notice Period:
- Regular (more than one month's notice)
- Type:
- Professional
- Fee:
- Expensed: Travel
- Category:
- Uncategorised
- Updated:
- 11th July 2024
- Tagged:
- Art | Science | Philosophy | William Blake
In 1959 CP Snow delivered The Rede Lecture at Cambridge entitled "The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution" in which he explores the rift between the arts and the sciences. Interestingly, on this SpeakerNet web site, my talk was uncharacterizable as I was only allowed to tick either science or humanities and not both. Some sixty years later, it is clear that the problem has not gone away and that we are all living in silos that are a product of our educational system. I believe this to be an issue around the nature of knowledge. In this talk I will explore these issues by focusing on a line from William Blake who, in November 1802 wrote in a letter to his patron Thomas Butts, "May God us keep From Single vision and Newtons sleep."
Views: 167 | Enquiries: 0About Keith Davies
I was born in the mid-1950s at Rochdale on the edge of Manchester. As a teenager I had to opt to follow either the sciences or the arts. I ended up a biologist working in agricultural research, firstly in Africa, and then at the oldest agricultural research station in the world, Rothamsted Research. I currently teach at the University of Hertfordshire but have an abiding interest in reconciling the division between art and science. I recently published a book entitled, "William Blake, the Single Vision and Newton's Sleep: A History of Science, Poetry and Progress"
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