Two Cultures

Art and science have always been two co-existing factors in my life with noticeable differences. I recognized these distinctions starting in middle school where we were still required to take general education science and elective art classes. Those who were good at constructing shapes with paint brushes received higher grades and those who could memorize the chemical equation for photosynthesis tended to do better. This has stuck with me since then because although I do not consider myself an artist I really tend to think more creatively and open-minded as people would see from a right-minded thinker. However, I am a woman of to-do lists and organization which would be expected of a left minder thinker. Thus, I have never really identified with the whole specific left/right outlook! Maybe this isn't a good thing as I am still undeclared here at UCLA and not exactly sure what academic path I am most interested in :/. I am steering towards communication studies in which I believe successfully intertwines science to life and humanity. 

Left/Right Brained

The lecture videos discussed how we all have prejudice and unconscious stereotypes (mostly prevailing through education systems). We are taught what signifies as a mad scientist (Einstein) and all "Picasso-esque" artists or Marilyn Monroe's of their time. These two different images increased the gap between the arts and the sciences and permitted the use of right and left brained. Reducing the idea that there is a possibility to have both strengths. Snow in his “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolutions talks about "the intellectual life of the whole of Western society is increasingly being split into two polar groups,” consisting of scientists on the one hand and literary scholars on the other". However I do not know if I entirely agree with him that science will keep us prosperous and secure because how are we to continually invent and imagine a new medicine, machines, and ideas that will benefit society without the "out of the box thinking" of an artist?

Mad Scientist

Marilyn Monroe

"Changing Education Paradigms" was the most interesting assignment to watch for me personally. How we are shifting into an era where having a degree is beneficial but no longer necessary. How public education used to be this "revolutionary idea" and unattainable. Come along the enlightenment era when there became an intellectual person and a not intellectual person being judged against their mind just like the mad scientist and the Picasso artist it is common for humanity to organize people into categories...maybe it is so people feel like they belong to a specific group or maybe it is easier to manage society when it has a collection inbox. I thought it was super intriguing with the effect this has had on ADHD diagnosis. We live in a time with extreme stimulation coming from TV's, phones, computers, advertisements thus when it comes to a child having to sit down in the same spot for a few hours and listen to a teacher talk without bings, bops, graphics, and flashing images, they might find it hard to retain information and stay engaged.

Here at UCLA, it is very obvious of the divide between North and South campus. However, I have observed some crossing over between the two divides with majors. A psych major is required to take chemistry and a physics class and sociology majors have to take a mathematics class at some point along their course. Although these are small overlaps it nonetheless is branching outside this science vs. art divide into science and art and they can cohesively exist and allow us to enhance what we already know. "The Third Culture" really emphasizes the importance of the cohesion explaining, "The purpose of science is to pursue the truth of the universe. Likewise, the aim of the arts is to express the human condition.". In order to understand the universe, we must understand people and in order to analyze people, we must analyze our world!

References:

ABC News, ABC News Network, abcnews.go.com/Technology/steve-jobs-successful/story?id=11890666.

Bluth, Rachel. “ADHD Numbers Are Rising, and Scientists Are Trying to Understand Why.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 10 Sept. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/adhd-numbers-are-rising-and-scientists-are-trying-to-understand-why/2018/09/07/a918d0f4-b07e-11e8-a20b-5f4f84429666_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7f8fec3489be.

Kelly, Kevin. "The third culture." Science 279.5353 (1998): 992-993.

Snow, Charles Percy. The two cultures and the scientific revolution: The Rede Lecture, 1959.

University Press, 1959.