The Antagonism And Integration Of Scientism And Humanism

Since the advent of human beings and our civilization, the origin of the universe has been the public focus. The philosophical ideas have transformed from being"people-centered"to"nature-centered"for several times. As a matter of a fact, the start of humanism and scientism was prior to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. At all times and on all lands, the argumentation has never stopped. They have their own conspicuous characteristics, but whatever the philosophical idea is, it aims at benefiting human beings.Charles Percy Snow, a scientist and a writer, addressed a speech named Two Cultures (also named"Snow Proposition") at Cambridge in 1959, which includes humanistic culture and scientific culture. Although Snow was not the first person who proposed it, he aroused a violent stir. The public have responded to it by means of scolding and praising his proposition. The public praise is not going to be mentioned here, while the majority of scholars would like to criticize Snow's preference towards scientism instead of treating the two cultures equally. Levis was the typical representative who scolded Snow. Some of the Chinese scholars also share the same idea with Levis.The paper aims to defend for Snow via reviewing and analyzing one of his novels The New Men, illustrating that when he paid attention to science and scientists; he never ignored the development of the humanistic culture. Far from despising the latter, he positively put forward solutions to bridge the gap between the two cultures. In The New Men he endowed the humanists with scientific spirit, simultaneously the scientists with humanistic spirit. The dual identification of Snow's proves that he is a perfect incarnation of the combination of humanism and scientism.Of all the great events under heaven, when united for long, there must be separation; when separated for long, there must be unification. According to the scholars home and abroad, scientism and humanism have gone from unconscious unification to conscious separation, while when it comes to the new century, the two must enter the new stage of being conscious unification. Only when the two cultures are unified and cooperate with each other, it could bring happiness to all mankind to its utmost extent.