What Would C.P. Snow Have To Say About Service Learning In Engineering?

In his famous 1956 essay, “The Two Cultures” [1], C.P. Snow lamented at the state of contact and dialogue between scholars in the “traditional” culture of literature and the humanities, and the “scientific” culture of scientists, mathematicians and engineers. “The separation between the two cultures has been getting deeper under our eyes; there is now precious little communication between them, little but different kinds of incomprehension and dislike.” Snow, who was a mathematician and a writer, stated that “[N]either culture knows the virtues of the other; often it seems they deliberately do not want to know.” As a result, Snow thinks society and the public, as well as the scientists and humanists themselves, were deprived of the fruits of discussions and collaborations between “The Two Cultures.” Snow stated: “On their side the scientists are losing a great deal...On the other side, how much does the traditional culture lose by the separation? I am inclined to think, even more.”