The Three Cultures
Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and the Humanities in the 21st Century

Jerome Kagan examines the basic goals, vocabulary, and assumptions of the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, summarizing their unique contributions to our understanding of human nature.

Jerome Kagan (Author)

9780521732307, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 27 April 2009

324 pages, 1 table
22.7 x 15 x 2.1 cm, 0.45 kg

"The knowledge demonstrated by the author, with the enumerable demonstrations (instructive and at times funny, as they are) of all three scientific cultures is very impressive and admirable...As Kagan concludes: "It is time for the members of the three cultures to adopt a posture of greater humility" [275]. Just for this reason alone this book should be widely read by scholars, but especially by students of every possible discipline."
--Kristoph K.P. Vanhoutte, metapsychology.net

In 1959 C. P. Snow delivered his now-famous Rede Lecture, 'The Two Cultures,' a reflection on the academy based on the premise that intellectual life was divided into two cultures: the arts and humanities on one side and science on the other. Since then, a third culture, generally termed 'social science' and comprised of fields such as sociology, political science, economics, and psychology, has emerged. Jerome Kagan's book describes the assumptions, vocabulary, and contributions of each of these cultures and argues that the meanings of many of the concepts used by each culture are unique to it and do not apply to the others because the source of evidence for the term is special. The text summarizes the contributions of the social sciences and humanities to our understanding of human nature and questions the popular belief that biological processes are the main determinant of variation in human behavior.

1. Characterizing the three cultures
2. The natural sciences
3. Social sciences 1
4. Social sciences 2
5. The humanities
6. Current tensions.

Subject Areas: Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Behavioural theory [Behaviourism JMAL], Sociology [JHB], Philosophy [HP]