Draft -~ New York Times Op-Ed Piece

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In recent years, there has been a great deal of
discussion about the need to reassess the role of the
humanities in higher education, Twenty-one years ago,

C. P. Snow suggested that scientists and humanists had in
fact become "two cultures", A recent report by the Commission

on the Humanities, entitled The Humanities in American Life,

 

Suggests that this issue is still far from resolved. In fact,
the role of the humanities in a society pervasively influenced

by science and technology remains problematical.

As university presidents, and as scientists, this issue
is of deep concern to us. Scientists and humanists seem to
have misguided notions of each other's goals. At worst, the
humanist regards the scientist as a Faustian devotee of the
technologically possible, while the scientist considers the
humanist to be overly concerned with the pretty conceits of
the imagination. Each appears, to the other, to explore the

world in fundamentally divergent ways.

How, then, can scientists and humanists be brought together

to bridge the gap between their separate visions of the world?

First, we must make a concerted attack on the problem
of basic literacy in both the sciences and the humanities. It
is the responsibility of college educators to demand as..a
prerequisite that primary and secondary schools: adequately
introduce students to the rudiments of both science and the
humanities. In turn, our graduate and professional schools

must require not only proficiency in a narrowly circumscribed
field of study, but must look for students who are truly

educated in the broadest and most fundamental sense,

Next, we must resist the notion that the role of the
humanities in higher education, and in society at large, is
to serve as the moral guardian and ethical watchdog for
scientific and technological enterprises. Indeed, lately
it has become increasingly common to justify the humanities
on the basis of their utility--an idea that undervalues
their intrinsic importance. Ethical inquiry is an important
concern for many humanists, but it would be misleading to
locate ethics at the heart of all humanistic study. Humanities
are concerned with interpreting the broadest aspects of human
experience, man's art, literature, music, philosophy, and
history. Ethics is only one important aspect of the multi-
faceted humanistic approach to understanding our world and

ourselves,

Another positive step we can take in expanding our under-
Standing and appreciation of each other, is to create channels
for on-going dialogue so that we can explore not only the
differences but also the deep affinities of our endeavors. If
we aS a society are to develop a unified vision of man's search
for knowledge, the rigidly dichotomous view of scientific
versus humanistic understanding must be countered. After all,
at their heart, both the sciences and the humanities seek to
better man's understanding of the complex universe, It has
been said that the creative humanist possesses two things: a
fresh idea and the ability to express it. Is this not true of

the creative scientist as well? And does anyone imagine that
we are searching for two different truths?

Recently, our institutions, New York University and

The Rockefeller University, established a joint program to
address these issues. Through lectures, seminars, and
colloquia, we are establishing a continuing dialogue. Our
program will explore the fundamental impulses and procedures
which inform the scientific and humanistic imaginations. By
providing opportunities for scientists to de-mystify their
activities for humanists, and vice versa, we hope that the

shared aspects of our work can be appreciated.

Science is a process by which we can explore the cosmos;
the humanities can help to set this enterprise in historical, .
philosophical, and social perspective. At the same time,
a clearer understanding of science will benefit the humanist.
Without a knowledge of the basic propositions of modern science,
the humanist is forced to settle for an incomplete and
inaccurate vision of the conditions of our age. It is hoped
that expanded and sustained dialogue will lead to a unified
vision of human knowledge, and begin to counteract the ignorance

born of isolation and mistrust.