Dipesh Chakrabarty

Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor in History, South Asian Languages & Civilizations and the College, University of Chicago, USA

Breaking the Wall of "Two Cultures". Science and Humanities After Climate Change.

 

How permeable are interpretations? Why are we certain that one plus one equals two but less certain what the most famous line of English literature – “To be or not to be” – means?

It is now fifty years since the British novelist and scientist C. P. Snow first described a chasm between literary intellectuals and scientists. Snow’s words touched off decades of debate on both the existence of the “Two Cultures” and the possibility of a “Third Culture” – a group that could bridge the gap between scientists and humanists.

Dipesh Chakrabarty (1948), historian and editor of “Critical Inquiry”, the leading journal within Literary Studies, has laid the first bricks for this bridge. Chakrabarty examines the scientific axiom that humans are now to be regarded as a major geological force on our planet. Analysing scientific theories of anthropogenic climate change can spur discussions about our conceptions of history, and thus end a period of unnecessary fence building between the disciplines. In a time of globalisation, isn’t it more important, while acknowledging differences, to pursue an orchestrated continuing effort to discover and increase human knowledge? “That is the question”.

http://history.uchicago.edu/faculty/chakrabarty.shtml