Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution by John Brockman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The preface of this book sets out to debunk the place of literary intellectuals with the very heavy hand that such intellectuals are jargonistic, anti-realist, arrogant pricks who would usurp the place of the real intellectuals, humble scientists whose work has been long misunderstood. Or something like that. The introduction is kind of off putting, with the claim that literature isn’t applicable to anything whereas science is. This position isn’t very interesting, although it’s been present as a debate between these two sides for too long.
The essays in this book however, are far more interesting and don’t have anything to do with the frame of the introduction. Much of the work of these scientists is theoretical, yet they speak in clear mostly unambiguous terms. Brockman seeks to create an intercourse with the public and these scientists who work, often, in the fringes of their communities. That’s what he means by third culture. And to some extent it’s kind of successful, I think. There’s plenty to pick from, and lots of different ideas to choose from. Frankly, it’s a little overwhelming. But this is a good introductory text. It’s difficult sometimes to make the claim that science is only useful if it yields a useful application. But useful is such a subjective term. And theoretical works are more about reframing issues so as to create new relationships in familiar areas which may be dismissed by traditional methods of inquiry.
So really, this book is exploratory, as theorists tend to be. Interesting reading but it’s truly undecidable. Food for thought, really.
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