[SIGCIS-Members] Science wars quote that scientists can teach English but not vice versa

Fri Oct 21 19:56:13 PDT 2016

Feynman was definitely dismissive of academic philosophy. There seems to be
somewhat of a tradition of famous physicists, whose work is "philosophical"
in obvious ways, schizophrenically beating up on philosophy. Lawrence
Krauss does it here
<http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/has-physics-made-philosophy-and-religion-obsolete/256203/>,
Neil deGrass Tyson here
<https://scientiasalon.wordpress.com/2014/05/12/neil-degrasse-tyson-and-the-value-of-philosophy/>,
Steven Weinberg in "Against Philosophy," etc.

Yarden

On Fri, Oct 21, 2016 at 10:31 PM, Allan Olley <allan.olley at utoronto.ca>
wrote:

> Hi,
>         Note that "Specialization is for insects." is a Robert A. Heinlein
> quote (from Time Enough for Love apparently). As Abraham Lincoln said
> "There are lots of poorly attributed quotes on the internet." ;) Feynman
> was notably dismissive of academic philosophy at least and so not
> necessarily one of the bridge builders.
>         I wanted to say the idea of an MIT humanities walk out puts me in
> mind of Douglas Adams idea of a philosophers threatening to strike ("Who
> would that inconvenience") in response to the construction of the super
> computer Deep Thought. Where the computer's intended use raises the specter
> of rendering philosophers obsolete by answering the ultimate question of
> life, the universe and everything.
>
> --
> Yours Truly,
> Allan Olley, PhD
>
> http://individual.utoronto.ca/fofound/
>
>
> On Fri, 21 Oct 2016, Dag Spicer wrote:
>
> … and let us not forget the many who straddle both disciplines: MDs with
>> art history degrees; historians who are also engineers, airline pilots with
>> MBAs…  perhaps the whole dichotomy needs a refresh?  Whatever line you’re
>> on ("techies" vs "fuzzies”), Feynam’s advice is best: “Specialization is
>> for insects.”
>>
>> :_)
>>
>> Dag
>>
>>
>> On Oct 21, 2016, at 2:07 PM, Alberts, Gerard <G.Alberts at uva.nl<mailto:
>> G.Alberts at uva.nl>> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Tom, why, no, your quote rests on an anti-Snow type of argument.
>> Snow's plea is for mutual understanding and dialogue. He tries to avert the
>> possible disdain for the humanities. His crucial point is that we should
>> all know the second law of thermodynamics as an assett of our cultural
>> baggage, just the same as we know quote from Shakespeare. Gerard
>> ________________________________
>> Van: Members [members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org<mailto:members-bounces at lis
>> ts.sigcis.org>] namens Thomas Haigh [thomas.haigh at gmail.com<mailto:
>> thomas.haigh at gmail.com>]
>> Verzonden: vrijdag 21 oktober 2016 22:08
>> Aan: 'Lee Vinsel'
>> CC: 'sigcis'
>> Onderwerp: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Science wars quote that scientists can
>> teach English but not vice versa
>>
>> It’s definitely a two cultures argument, but I think the quote was an
>> updated version and nastier. Though I could be conflating after all this
>> time.
>>
>> In the bigger picture I guess the difference between Snow and the 1990s
>> dialog was that Snow was bemoaning the separation of science and the
>> humanities and limited engagement with science by non-specialists. Whereas
>> in the science wars, scientists were complaining that humanities people
>> were pretending to engage with science but messing it up or challenging its
>> authority.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>> From: Lee Vinsel [mailto:lee.vinsel at gmail.com]
>> Sent: Friday, October 21, 2016 2:35 PM
>> To: Thomas Haigh <thomas.haigh at gmail.com<mailto:thomas.haigh at gmail.com>>
>> Cc: sigcis <members at sigcis.org<mailto:members at sigcis.org>>
>> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Science wars quote that scientists can
>> teach English but not vice versa
>>
>> Tom,
>> I'm fairly certain that you are paraphrasing ideas from C. P. Snow's The
>> Two Cultures, though the way I remember it is that scientists have some
>> knowledge of literature whereas people in the humanities can't tell you
>> what the laws of thermodynamics are.
>> But maybe you have something else in mind.
>> Best,
>> Lee
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 21, 2016 at 3:32 PM, Thomas Haigh <thomas.haigh at gmail.com
>> <mailto:thomas.haigh at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> Hello SIGCIS,
>>
>> I was looking for a quote I recall reading in the days of the “science
>> wars,” probably late-1990s, from a scientist saying something like: “If all
>> the English professors got sick and we were called in then we would so an
>> OK job teaching Shakespeare etc. based on what we know and the inherent
>> triviality of the humanities. Whereas if the physics professors got sick
>> then the humanities people would be completely unable to step in, because
>> science is hard.”
>>
>> I tried constructing Google searches and doing Amazon’s search inside the
>> book on Sokal & Bricmont’sFashionable Nonsense and similar targets, but
>> didn’t locate it.
>>
>> NB: I’m just looking for the source here, not for people eager to
>> reignite the science wars by arguing for or against the proposition.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Tom
>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Assistant Professor
>> Program on Science and Technology Studies
>> College of Arts and Letters
>> Stevens Institute of Technology
>> Hoboken, NJ 07030
>> leevinsel.com<http://leevinsel.com/>
>> Twitter: @STS_News
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>
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