Science and Literature: Bridging the Two Cultures

In this lively & provocative book, a scientist & a humanities scholar attempt to build a bridge between the two cultures in which they work. Addressing fundamental issues of human nature & the ability of science to understand it, & using texts from the biblical Genesis to Brave New World, they explore topics from ethics & social values to chaos theory. With an eye on keeping the science accessible to all, the book contains background chapters on concepts in science that feed into the analysis of literature. That discussion leads to expanded consideration of some of the most compelling contemporary issues, from new developments in the science of the brain & the nature of the mind to possible limitations on scientific knowledge in the natural & social sciences. The authors then explore the use of scientific concepts & ideas in particular literary works: they use Darwinian theories to extract insights from John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman; they use entropy, Maxwell's demon, & chaos theory to study Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49; & they confront the notion of scientific progress with artistic notions of patterns & cycles in W. B. Yeats's poetry. Supplementing the basic discussion, dialogues between the authors range over more controversial areas, such as the question of free will & postmodern views of power, knowledge, & language. Never allowing either of them to escape with trite or trivial statements, the debates illustrate the extent to which commonalities & differences exist between their fields. This entertaining & exceptionally timely book will enlighten both student & scholar, no matter what their discipline.Zack Bowen is the author of 'Science and Literature: Bridging the Two Cultures', published 2001 under ISBN 9780813022833 and ISBN 0813022835.