Hello everyone, my name is
Leah Nelson and I’m a second year, Undeclared Life Sciences major. I’m
interested in this class and the idea of two cultures because I’ve always
thought of myself as “middle brained” or as being equally artsy as I am
science-y. I’m torn between north
and south campus and am still searching for a major that doesn’t limit me to
just one interest. Currently, I’m looking into a BA in Human Biology and
Society because it explores both sides of the dichotomous “two cultures” that
appear on our campus. It can be seen though the architecture of our buildings, the clothes we wear, and the geographical location of our classes. We are asked to chose a school and major that is either
north or south campus and then customarily join the student rivalry between the two sides.
It’s in our nature to be prideful and competitive, and to be social within our
own circles; that’s why these tees are such a hit.
----“The North and South Campus debate is a part of life here,” Leggett said.
“It’s awesome to be able to physically wear a piece of my UCLA life.”----
Even some teachers on campus
perpetuate the two cultures, limiting our education and full understanding of
curriculum. In the video, Stephen Pinker mentions that in order to appreciate
either the arts or sciences, one must understand the other. (The arts can be
illuminated by psychology, evolution, and brain science; music/art can be
heightened by our auditory perception and analysis of motion, optics, depth,
and color; film studies can benefit from understanding visual cognition and attention,
etc.) There is a strong correlation between the arts and sciences, which enhances
our understanding of them, so I hope more classes will have integrated material
from the two cultures.
C. P. Snow and professor
Victoria Vesna relate a “Third Culture” to increasing “triangulation of the
arts, sciences and humanities.”
I find Vesna’s article, “Toward
a Third Culture: Being in Between,” very relatable because I’m somewhat in
between the two cultures myself. Our Westernized views are very black and white
and economically driven (lecture on changing paradigms), and there is not much
gray area. C. P. Snow’s “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution”
highlights these distinctions that separate people (i.e. rich or poor) and predicts
that the third culture will arise. These resources all helped me understand
that both artsy and science-y people share commonalities, creativity and
goals, and that there are not two distinct, separate categories of people.
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