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2024 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

3. The ‘Two Cultures’ Debate and the Logic of Scientific Revolutions

Author : Stefan Brunnhuber

Published in: The Third Culture

Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland

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Abstract

This third chapter presents two major arguments. First, it discusses C. P. Snow’s ‘two cultures’ view. Throughout modern times, our culture has been divided into two spheres: science and the humanities. The wisdoms that these two cultures offer are separated from each other, with little to no interaction or mutual understanding. Second, I explore Thomas Kuhn’s theory of the ‘structure of scientific revolutions’. According to Kuhn, phases of ‘normal science’, when experiments provide findings within the framework of existing, approved rules for problem-solving, are interrupted by ‘paradigm shifts’, when methodologies, worldviews and the rules of the game are questioned. The chapter introduces the concepts of ‘complexity’, ‘risk’ and ‘uncertainty’.

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previous chapter Finding Potential Integrators
next chapter Towards Three Cultures
Footnotes
1
Snow (2001 [1959]).
 
2
Even if these two cultures have been further differentiated into sociobiology, genetic engineering, comparative anthropology, integral psychology, philosophy of mind, psychoneuroimmunology, psychosomatics, statistical linguistics, etc., the split between the two remains present.
 
3
Kuhn (1970).
 
4
Feynman (2001) argues that science is cumulative: it always adds and never subtracts something from the world. Each answer that is given raises dozens of new questions, so that the scientific process is never-ending.
 
5
Leibniz identified the binary of 0 and 1 as a way to explain the world as a whole, and called for ‘calculemus’—which means, roughly speaking, ‘let’s calculate, and then we can stop fighting and arguing’. This binary coding allows us to link everything to an overall oneness (omnia unum). New numbers will create new narratives and these new narratives, such as those of AI and datafication, will then in turn create new numbers. This circular hermeneutic process is infinite and never-ending (see Gadamer 1975; Dilthey 1922).
 
6
Soros (2015), Fama and MacBeth (1973).
 
7
The vast majority of potential events we are facing have the character of uncertainties rather than risks. Hedging and managing these uncertainties will require an emphasis on: (1) resilience over efficiency; (2) regional over global; (3) preventive measures over managing damage; (4) collective over individual actions; (5) modular and parallel over linear and cause-and-effect processing; and (6) simple heuristic rules of thumb over endless checklists and Excel spreadsheets that we use in an attempt to pretend we can control such uncertainties.
 
8
A vicious circle: inherent uncertainty in the financial sector translates into inherent instability in the political and corporate sector, which further translates into fear and irrational choices that can be measured in rises on volatility indexes in the stock, bond and currency markets. Major signs of this inherent uncertainty include the shadow banking system (worth over 180 trillion USD in 2021), the short-term repo market, soaring private debt, high-frequency trading and multiple rehypothecations (multiple reuse of collaterals).
 
9
This is why public choice and rational choice theory, microeconomic analysis and experimental approaches in economics are fundamentally flawed. Outside of global pandemics, the ‘aggregation flaw’ between subject and system, between micro and macro, will still remain.
 
10
In future, it will be possible to use big data correlations to analyse real-time events captured by sensors and cameras, based on simultaneous localisation and mapping algorithms (SLAMs), lidar scanners and generative AI. This will allow us to build two- or three-dimensional maps, enable better forecasting and predictive coding, reduce the subjectivity bias in data analysis and drive down costs.
 
Literature
Dilthey W (1922) Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften: Versuch einer Grundlegung für das Studium der Gesellschaft und der Geschichte. Teubner, Stuttgart
Fama EF, MacBeth JD (1973) Risk, return, and equilibrium: empirical tests. J Polit Econ 81(3):607–636CrossRef
Gadamer HG (1975) Wahrheit und Methode: Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik, reprint of 3rd expanded edn. Mohr, Tübingen
Kuhn T (1970) The structure of scientific revolutions, enlarged 2nd edn. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Snow CP (2001 [1959]) The two cultures. Cambridge University Press, London
Soros G (2015) The alchemy of finance. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Metadata
Title
The ‘Two Cultures’ Debate and the Logic of Scientific Revolutions
Author
Stefan Brunnhuber
Copyright Year
2024
Book
The Third Culture

Print ISBN: 978-3-031-48112-3

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-48113-0

Copyright Year: 2024

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48113-0_3

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