C.P. Snow — The Two Cultures, or: “Renaissance man is not possible”

Abstract

The concept o f the Two Cultures is based on the view that there is a lack of communication between scientists and literary men. Snow expresses the view that the intellectual life of the whole of western society is increasingly being split into two polar groups. Snow, although a novelist himself, seems to condemn the literary intellectuals in his advocacy of science as the most revolutionary force in the world today. He is convinced that, because science is essentially "progressive”, and the political views of the scientists are more tenable and workable, the scientists would possess the means - and the desire -to end want and disease in every corner of the world.