The two cultures and scientific fundamentalism

C. P. Snow, in his famous essay on the two cultures, set comprehension of the second law of thermodynamics as the standard for scientific literacy. The essays in The Golem represent a body of writing emerging from the humanities and the social sciences in which the authors have understood the second law of thermodynamics or its equivalent. Far from applauding, however, many scientists have reacted as though they would rather the scholars had stayed on their own side of the cultural divide. For these ‘science warriors’ the only acceptable way to talk about science is the scientists’ way.

The Golem became caught up in the ‘science wars’ because its authors, and those they represent, do not share the divisive model of the two cultures. We see it as a matter of building an island between the two territories on which species from both can flourish. Visitors to this new land do not have to agree about everything, they just have to know how to talk to each other and how to learn the customs and habits of their neighbours. Perhaps they will come to enjoy the strange fruits of the new territory even if they never become dietary staples.