We live in times when civil discourse is seriously threatened by bigotry and tribal entrenchment.The purpose of the different activities related to the institute and the conversations was to show how people can engage in a fruitful exchange of ideas, even when there is disagreement.

Promoting a Civil Discourse

<ul><li>As influential thinkers promoted science as the sole source of "truth," the humanities lost some of their clout.</li><li>The relentless ascent of scientific thinking brought the contempt of many humanists who considered themselves the only worthy intellectuals.</li><li>Most scientists returned the disdain, considering the humanities to be worthless for their intellectual pursuits.</li><li>Frontiers of knowledge broadened and academic departments multiplied.</li></ul>

Hard-Selling Facts

The two-culture split has come to symbolize a wider and growing gulf in academia between the sciences and humanities.It cuts directly to the heart of the liberal arts curricula of schools across the globe and to the widespread yet markedly wrong perception that the humanities are an anachronism in a world driven by technology.

The Two Culture Divide

<ul><li>What we now call the sciences started to chart their own path away from the Greek philosophical tradition.</li><li>The 17th century marked a turning point in human intellectual history when this divergence started.</li><li>Direct experimentation and data analysis empowered them to describe a variety of terrestrial and celestial phenomena with mathematical precision.</li><li>Their spectacular success changed the way we understand the cosmos and our place in it.</li></ul>

Science Emerged from Philosophy

<ul><li>Many of the big questions of our time require them to work closer than ever.</li><li>There is a new culture emerging, inspired by questions old and new.</li><li>Intellectuals of all disciplines are needed to guide this culture.</li><li>The aim is to bring scientists and humanists together in constructive engagement.</li></ul>

Science and The Humanities Have Been Antagonistic for Too Long

<ul><li>We must reach beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries and create truly cross-disciplinary ways of thinking.</li><li>Who we are and what we are, form an irreducible whole.</li><li>It is more than just academic questions that call for the sciences and humanities to come together.</li></ul>

We Are One

<ul><li>There is a new culture emerging, inspired by questions old and new that reside at the very core of our pursuit of knowledge.</li><li>The choices we make now as we shape our curricula, create academic departments and institutes, and engage in discussions with the general public, will shape the nature of intellectual cooperation for decades to come.</li></ul>

The Bottom Line

<ul><li>The split between the sciences and humanities is largely illusory and unnecessary.</li><li>Developments in the physical, biological, and neurosciences now leave such narrow-minded antagonism looking problematic and corrosive.</li><li>Many of the key issues of our times call for constructive engagement between the two cultures.</li></ul>

No More Turf Wars

Science and the humanities have been antagonistic for too long. Many of the big questions of our time require them to work closer than ever.