Week 1 | Two Cultures

        Charles Percy Snow says that there is a cultural difference between the humanities and social sciences and natural sciences; that is, he asserts that there is a cultural gap between people in the humanities and social science fields and people in the natural science fields. He asserts that this will worsen, resulting in more gap between. He mentions that if we can not resolve this gap then this will prevent us from producing creative ideas or thoughts which need knowledge from both fields. 

First of all, I am quite surprised by the phenomenon which Charles Percy Snow points out because this phenomenon can be clearly seen in Korea where I grew up; in Korea, definitely ‘two cultures’ exist; and there is too obvious reason behind this; In Korea, from sophomore in high school, students need to decide between two fields, that is, the ‘liberal arts’ and ‘natural sciences’. Then, they will be divided by this choice; from that point, they will take different classes, using different classrooms; they barely meet each other at school. Therefore, even though students hang out during their freshmen year, they feel like they are different from sophomore year if they choose different fields. After entering colleges and later, the discrepancies between these two groups get worsen. 

Visualization of structural chemistry is evolving.…With artistry.

To resolve the gap between these cultures, integration of academic disciplines is occurring in education even though students themselves do not have enough interest in this integration. As Charles mentions, I believe that, in order to produce a creative idea which can help our world as a whole, reducing the gap between two cultures is very critical. As a chemistry major, I also believe that we are living in the new era where arts and humanistic knowledge are essential even beyond just the required level at school to be a successful scientist. Nowadays, science and technology are not just technique; and these should create technology which includes humanistic values in it; that is, technology will be for people in a global community. For this, we should not only have expertise in specific area but also understand and include the ‘value’ and ‘human’ into the technology. In the future, I want to contribute to the world by combining the arts, humanities and science technology all together. Through this class, I would like to learn a lot so that I can be a chemistry student who has both arts knowledge and science. 

Approach to culture should be comprehensive. 

REFERENCES

“Approach to culture should be comprehensive”. Hangyeorye, n.d. Web. 3 April. 2016

Choi, Sungwoo. "The third culture and science technology." 2004. Print.

Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP,1961. Print.

Vesna, Victoria. "Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between." Leonardo. 34 (2001): 121-125. Print.

“Visualization of structural chemistry is evolving.…With artistry”. Hangyeorye, n.d. Web. 3 April. 2016