Jerome Kagan. The Three Cultures: Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and the Humanities in the 21st Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 324 pp. $21.99 (paperback). ISBN-13: 978-0521732307. Nancy J. Nersessian. Creating Scientific Concepts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008. 272 pp. $32.00 (hardcover). ISBN-13: 978-0262141055. Ute Schönpflug (Ed.). Cultural Transmission: Psychological, Developmental, Social, and Methodological Aspects. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 510 pp. $36.99 (paperback). ISBN-13: 978-0521706575. Edward Shorter. Before Prozac: The Troubled History of Mood Disorders in Psychiatry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. 320 pp. $29.95 (hardcover). ISBN-13: 978-0195368741. Gabriel Tarde. Sur le sommeil ou plutôt sur les rêves: Et autres textes inédits [On sleep, or rather on dreams: And other unpublished texts] (Jacqueline Carroy and Louise Salmon, Eds.). Lausanne, France: BHMS, 2009. viii, 227 pp. $25.00. (paperback). ISBN-13: 978-2-9700536-8-2

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 39 KB
• Volume: 46
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5061
• DOI: 10.1002/jhbs.20453

✦ Synopsis

Sparked by his rereading of C. P. Snow's (1959) The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, Kagan's new book surveys the current status of the "two cultures" Snow described-the arts and humanities, on the one hand, and the natural sciences, on the otheras well as a third, the social sciences, which have grown in importance over the last halfcentury. Kagan also examines changes in each of the three cultures during this time and discusses both accomplishments and limitations of each, as well as changes in public attitudes toward these cultures. A central focus of the book is the lack of communication and comprehension among the three cultures, in part as a result of their different assumptions, vocabularies, and values. Kagan compares the three cultures' stances on each of nine dimensions, the first three of which he considers "the most important nodes of difference" (p. 2)-primary interests, primary sources of evidence and control of conditions, primary vocabulary, influence of historical conditions on the questions asked, ethical influence, dependence on external financial support from government or industry, whether scholars work alone or collaborate with others, the contribution of their work to the national economy, and the criteria used to judge work as elegant or beautiful. He notes that the three cultures not only have different specialized vocabularies but also that they often define the same word in very different ways-a source of conceptual confusion when scholars fail to recognize the different meanings. After characterizing the three cultures in his first chapter, Kagan examines each culture in turn, devoting one chapter to the natural sciences, two longer chapters to the social sciences, and one suprisingly brief chapter to the humanities. Each of these chapters includes material of considerable historical interest, for example Kagan's observations on the rapid transformation (in "less than sixty years") of "some domains of natural science from a solitary effort to a corporate activity" (p. 103). The final chapter discusses "current tensions" among the three cultures, noting the persistence of the "status hierarchy" among the disciplines that Snow observed, despite public skepticism regarding "the rationally based conclusions of natural scientists as the soundest bases for all decisions" (p. 245). Noting the potential contributions of each of the three cultures to an understanding of contemporary problems, Kagan urges members of all disciplines "to adopt a posture of greater humility" (p. 275). REFERENCE Snow, C. P.