ThoughtGallery.org > The Two Cultures Reading Group: C.P. Snow and Scientific Fraud

The Two Cultures Reading Group: C.P. Snow and Scientific Fraud

Fabian Kramer, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, History

As many of you already know, we are fortunate to have Fabian Krämer of LMU Munich as a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Science and Society this semester. During his time here, Fabian is developing a new project on the origins of the “two cultures” of arts and sciences, researching how the sciences and the humanities grew apart at institutions of higher learning in the U.S. and Germany in the nineteenth century. We hope that you will join us for a reading group hosted by Fabian to discuss the fiction of C.P. Snow, the British chemist and novelist who popularized the “two cultures” concept:

Have you ever wondered what the inventor of the phrase “two cultures,” Charles Percey Snow, was really up to? Today, C.P. Snow is mostly remembered, if at all, for his 1959 Rede lecture “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution” and the intense debate that ensued about the rightful status of “scientific culture” as opposed to “traditional” or “literary culture” in Cold War Britain. Back in the fifties, however, Snow was also considered an important novelist. His novels, too, shed some light on the status of the sciences in Britain in the mid-twentieth century – and on Snow’s views of what their status should have been, and why.

The second meeting of the reading group will take place on May 11 at 4 pm in 513 Fayerweather. We will be discussing “The Affair” (1960), a novel that centers around a case of scientific fraud. Newcomers are most welcome!

Please RSVP here to receive the reading.











When: Thu., May. 11, 2017 at 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Where: Columbia University
116th St. & Broadway
212-854-1754
Price: Free
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Fabian Kramer, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, History

As many of you already know, we are fortunate to have Fabian Krämer of LMU Munich as a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Science and Society this semester. During his time here, Fabian is developing a new project on the origins of the “two cultures” of arts and sciences, researching how the sciences and the humanities grew apart at institutions of higher learning in the U.S. and Germany in the nineteenth century. We hope that you will join us for a reading group hosted by Fabian to discuss the fiction of C.P. Snow, the British chemist and novelist who popularized the “two cultures” concept:

Have you ever wondered what the inventor of the phrase “two cultures,” Charles Percey Snow, was really up to? Today, C.P. Snow is mostly remembered, if at all, for his 1959 Rede lecture “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution” and the intense debate that ensued about the rightful status of “scientific culture” as opposed to “traditional” or “literary culture” in Cold War Britain. Back in the fifties, however, Snow was also considered an important novelist. His novels, too, shed some light on the status of the sciences in Britain in the mid-twentieth century – and on Snow’s views of what their status should have been, and why.

The second meeting of the reading group will take place on May 11 at 4 pm in 513 Fayerweather. We will be discussing “The Affair” (1960), a novel that centers around a case of scientific fraud. Newcomers are most welcome!

Please RSVP here to receive the reading.

Buy tickets/get more info now