The Hedgehog, And The Magister's Pox Analysis

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If someone were to question the relationship between the fields of science and the humanities, a common answer would probably be that the two could not be farther apart. After all, while the former focuses on reason and what is observable, the latter abandons these principles for introspectiveness, and what we cannot observe. Yet, the gap that divides the two schools of thought is unnecessary. While society upholds science as the dominant method of inquiry, it could not survive without the humanities, and vice versa. In fact, their relationship is similar to that of a mutualistic symbiotic one. In his book, “The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister’s Pox”, Stephen Jay Gould presents an argument as to how the two split, but also how it is possible to close the rift between the studies and reach a point when they can be used together. He believes that this parochialistic viewpoint of science and the humanities stems from man’s instinct to dichotomize things, pitting the two studies against each other. While the two may seem far apart from each other, he hopes that the two can reach a consilience of sorts – a reunification to two longstanding forms of knowledge. As stated previously, Gould believed that a component of the splitting of science and the humanities was in part due to dichotomy. Gould traces the origins of splitting back into …show more content…
So, how do we go about repairing the supposed divide between science and the humanities? Gould, along with many other scholars, have attempted to quash the beliefs of the divide between the two studies. Victor Coutant, a former foreign-language instructor, believed in a bonding of science and humanities. He asserts, “… it is clear that there is a place for human studies in a more complete world view. The humanities do not conflict with science, they supplement it. They, too, are committed to trust in increasing knowledge” (Coutant,