"Computer science is the metaphor for the third culture" (John Brockman).
"The greatest enterprise of the mind has been and always will be the attempt to connect the sciences with the humanities" (Edward O. Wilson).
The Two Cultures
The impact of one book
In a famous book entitled "The two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution", published in 1959, the British scientist and novelist Charles Percy Snow drew attention to the problem of the dichotomy, polarization or social schizophrenia existing between the humanistic culture and the scientific culture, of a cultural tension, even of a "culture war". Some of the problems that had been detected were:
Mutual ignorance between humanists and scientists. Humanists were ignorant of basic concepts of science, such as the second law of thermodynamics (the law of entropy). And the scientists had not read Shakespeare.
The existence of different languages, concepts and attitudes in both cultures, with the consequent difficulty of communication.
The dehumanization of scientific progress.
The word "intellectual," surprisingly, seemed to exclude scientists.
Some factors that had led to this situation, according to Snow, were:
The decline of education.
The poor popularization of science.
The crypticity of science, where the abstruse mathematical notation stands out.
The fragmentation (with the consequent specialization) and complexity of science.
In a second edition of his book (1963), Snow added an essay, entitled "A Second Look," in which he hoped (with some optimism) that a "third culture" would emerge, a culture that would serve as a common understanding between the two traditional cultures and even serve to solve the world's problems.
History: from unified to fragmented
Architecture is the best example of the union between the two cultures. For Vitruvius, "architecture is and must be a discipline adorned with infinite sciences."
From antiquity to the 18th century, from Plato to Leibniz, humanism and science were considered two complementary sides of the same coin.
Historically, science (especially physics) had been considered "natural philosophy". For example, Newton's famous book entitled "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy".
Leonardo, one of the great figures of the Renaissance, is considered the paradigm of the union between science and humanism, as he united art and science. His "Vitruvian Man" can be considered a good representation of the union between science (geometry) and humanism.
The Viruvian Man (Leonardo da Vinci).
But in the post-Renaissance, figures such as Newton, Galileo, and Descartes contributed greatly to the split between science and humanism. Descartes, in particular, is considered the initiator of the science-humanism duality when he divided reality between mind (domain of humanism) and matter (domain of the sciences).
The two cultures and dual consciousness.
Actually, the two traditional cultures constitute one more aspect of the dichotomous or dual characteristic of human consciousness, associated with the two cerebral hemispheres:
The humanistic, which is associated with the subjective, the imaginative, the relative, the flexible, the interpretable, the assessable (which is a subjective measure) and intuition.
The scientific, which is associated with the objective, the real, the absolute, the absolute, the fixed, the universal, the truth, and reason.
To speak of "two cultures" is, however, paradoxical, for two reasons:
The main characteristic of culture is supposed to be precisely the capacity to develop links between all facets of human activity.
The word "science" comes from the Latin "scientia", meaning "knowledge". And science and humanities are supposed to be forms of knowledge. Although, in the case of humanists they are not only trying to understand the world, but to transcend it with imagination.
Computer science, cognitive science and the third culture.
Computer science represents the paradigm of the third culture, as it has its roots in many disciplines, both scientific and humanistic: electronics, logic, linguistics, mathematics, psychology, philosophy of mind, etc.
But computer science has been replaced as the paradigm of the third culture by what is now called "cognitive science", a science that brings together six sciences (the so-called "cognitive hexagon"): linguistics, psychology, neurology, philosophy (including philosophy of mind, epistemology and logic), anthropology and artificial intelligence. Its objective is the study of the functioning of the human mind. The union of these six sciences was necessary, as none of them was self-sufficient to study something so complex.
Terry Winograd and Fernando Flores are considered the pioneers in this subject of the relationship between computer science and cognition. Their joint work "Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design" <1987> involved a philosophical reinterpretation of computing and software design by relating them to the philosophy of language and psychology:
Software design is an activity related to design in general. To design is, in fact, to design new ways of being.
What is important is not the technology, but the understanding of our environment and ourselves. With the environment we interact, the environment conditions us and, in turn, we modify the environment.
Computing must be reoriented, rather than to the mere aspects of data processing, towards the issues of communication and coordination in the environment of an organization, where there is a series of collective activities. This is what we call today "workflow" (network of workflows). An organization can be considered as a network of workflows.
Human language is social action, not description. Through actions we create the world.
The rationalist tradition of artificial intelligence −building a human-like artificial mind− must be replaced by a different, more humanistic approach: building a prosthesis that amplifies the mind.
Integration vs. unification of the two cultures.
To bring the two cultures closer together, there are two ways: integrating and unifying.
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For the integrative (or bottom-up) strategy, the two cultures must be brought closer together, for example:
That humanist culture should adopt scientific methodology, in an attempt to clarify human nature and our role in the universe. That is, to give priority to intellectual rigor over other forms of thought.
That scientific culture provide us with new ways of understanding or contemplating things.
For the unifying (or top-down) strategy, it would be a matter of creating a new culture (a true third culture), from which the two traditional cultures could be contemplated, but as two points of view of the same culture. This second strategy would be the most desirable.
However, true unification will come with the conception of a science and humanities based on universal archetypes and, therefore, common to both domains.
The current situation
Today, there are several trends (integrating and unifying) between science and humanism:
The so-called "modernity" is characterized by the encroaching role of science and technology on the humanities. We are increasingly dependent on science and technology, which impact our daily lives. And this "threat" is advancing in many forms: genetic engineering, robotics, xenotransplantation, etc.
Several particular bridges appear that attempt to connect issues from both sides. A representative example is that of information philosophy.
Science has totally opened the door to philosophy with new worldviews: the "scientific paradigms". Kuhn, in his book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" (1962) showed that scientific knowledge depends on our view of the world, and that this view changes with time, opening the door to new conceptions of science. The "new physics", in particular, is applying imaginative solutions that help to understand the true nature of reality.
Among the new paradigms, we can cite:
The philosophy of possible, parallel and imaginary worlds.
The intelligent universe, the universe as a "great mind", the universe as a computer, the multiverse, the metaverse.
Fractal philosophy: the fractal mind, the fractal universe, fractal time.
The holographic paradigm.
The physics of immortality.
MENTAL and the Third Culture
MENTAL is a language that can be framed within the philosophy of the third culture:
For its humanistic and scientific-technical characteristics.
Because it fits perfectly into cognitive science, since MENTAL is −among other things− a psychological language, a philosophical language, a model of the mind, a computer language, a mathematical language and a language for artificial intelligence. MENTAL unifies and does not need to "integrate" different domains or disciplines.
Because it is based on archetypes of consciousness, which are at the same time philosophical categories.
Because it allows transcending the real world and the possible worlds towards possible and imaginary worlds.
Addendum
Story of Snow's book
Snow coined the term "the two cultures" in an article of the same title published in 1956 in The New Statesman magazine. This article was the germ of his 1959 lecture at Cambridge University (Rede Lecture). The book also appeared the same year. The second edition of 1963 includes an extensive introduction (64 pages) by Stefan Collini.
Snow's book produced a great impact in its time, generated much interest and provoked a multitude of debates on the subject. Its fame increased when the literary critic F.R. Leavis lambasted Snow and his thesis in The Spectator. Leavis denied that there was a scientific culture and that one should speak only of the cultural impact of the scientific revolution.
Postmodernism
"Postmodern" thought or philosophy questions scientific thought:
Our knowledge of the world is based on sociocultural beliefs, including our thinking, which is conditioned by language. Scientific theories are reflections of this environment and do not represent any real knowledge.
Objective reality is a myth. The reality we perceive is a social and linguistic construct.
There are as many realities as there are cultures (multiculturalism).
Language is powerless to capture the essence of reality.
Science is a self-referential system, without any solid foundation.
Rejection of structural theories. Jacques Derrida (the father of postmodernism) speaks of deconstructivism, the end of structuralism.
It is impossible to achieve a complete, unique and closed explanatory system, relying on dichotomous thinking (good-bad, true-false, etc.).
There is no clear difference between reality and fiction.
For Gerald Holton <1993>, postmodernist thought is irrationalism and anti-science, since it questions the role of scientific knowledge in our culture.
The Sokal scandal.
In order to ridicule postmodernist thinking about science, physicist Alan Sokal submitted a pseudo-scientific article to the postmodernist cultural journal Social Texts. The article, entitled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towars a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity," although with true quotes, parodied postmodernist thought. It dealt with the philosophical and political implications of quantum physics. It included absurd analogies, nonsense phrases, mixed truths with falsehoods, and claimed that science should free itself from absolute truth and objective reality. The journal's management did not notice the mockery and the article was published in 1996. In another publication (Lingua Franca), Sokal admitted that it was a parody. The "Sokal hoax" (Sokal hoax) was reported in the press, was heavily debated and helped to amplify the controversy between the two cultures. In 1998, Sokal published a book (in collaboration) denouncing the attitude of postmodernist intellectuals towards science.
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In any case, Sokal's reflections could be perfectly applicable to many scientists who use pompous and unintelligible language.
Bibliography
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Brown, Mandy. The Two Cultures Revisited. Debate Between the Disciplines. Internet, 2000.
De la Mothe, John. C.P. Snow and the Struggle of Modernity. McGill-Queen´s University Press, 1992.
Delgado González, José Antonio. El Retorno al Paraíso Perdido. La renovación de una cultura. Sotabur, 2004.
Gross, Paul R. & Levitt, Norman. Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and its Quarrels with Science. Baltimore, John Hopkins, 1998.
Holton, Gerald James. Ciencia y anticiencia. Nivola, 2003.
Kimball, Roger. The two cultures today. Internet.
Laudan, Larry. Science and Relativism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
Lingua Franca (editores). The Sokal Hoax: The Sham That Shook the Academy. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
Sánchez Ron, José Manuel. La Nueva Ilustración. Ciencia, Tecnología y Humanidades en un mundo interdisciplinar. Ediciones Nobel, 2011.
Schrödinger, Erwin. Ciencia y humanismo. Tusquets Editores, 1985.
Snow, Charles Percy. The two cultures. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1963. Versión española: Las dos culturas. Nueva Visión, 2000.
Snow, Charles Percy. Las dos culturas y un segundo enfoque. Alianza, Madrid, 1977.
