The Art of Science Learning Unites Two Cultures into One Creative Hub
New York City-based Harvey Seifter has built his career on his wide-ranging insights into the creative process and how the same frame of mind generates innovations in science and business. As the president of Seifter Associates, principal investigator and director of the National Science Foundation-supported The Art of Science Learning, and founder and managing director of Creating Futures That Work (www.futuresthatwork.com), Harvey Seifter of NY illuminates the interrelationships of two worlds that many people had seen as unconnected or even antithetical to one another.
In 2009, scholars in the history of ideas acknowledged the 50th anniversary of publication of C. P. Snow’s seminal lecture and essay The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution - now popularly known as The Two Cultures. A British scientist and a popular novelist, Snow had served as a government advisor during World War II.
His thesis was that, by the mid-20th century in the Western world, a dangerous gap had developed between people working in creative fields - like literature and the arts - and professionals working in science and technology. He believed that an almost all-encompassing lack of mutual understanding of the details of one another’s work had made communication and understanding from one sphere of knowledge to the other next to impossible.
Having drawn praise and condemnation, Snow’s premise was controversial in its time but, thanks to innovative early 21st-century efforts that include The Art of Science Learning, it is now widely accepted. Increasingly, Harvey Seifter's work and initiatives like Art of Science Learning are finding practical ways to bridge Snow’s gap, showing that creativity can promote innovation on multiple fronts.
In 2009, scholars in the history of ideas acknowledged the 50th anniversary of publication of C. P. Snow’s seminal lecture and essay The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution - now popularly known as The Two Cultures. A British scientist and a popular novelist, Snow had served as a government advisor during World War II.
His thesis was that, by the mid-20th century in the Western world, a dangerous gap had developed between people working in creative fields - like literature and the arts - and professionals working in science and technology. He believed that an almost all-encompassing lack of mutual understanding of the details of one another’s work had made communication and understanding from one sphere of knowledge to the other next to impossible.
Having drawn praise and condemnation, Snow’s premise was controversial in its time but, thanks to innovative early 21st-century efforts that include The Art of Science Learning, it is now widely accepted. Increasingly, Harvey Seifter's work and initiatives like Art of Science Learning are finding practical ways to bridge Snow’s gap, showing that creativity can promote innovation on multiple fronts.
