C P Snow and the Second Law of Thermodynamics Essay Example for Free

C P Snow and the Second Law of Thermodynamics Essay The scientist and the literary intellectual represent two cultures that are drifting apart from each other to such an extent that each is becoming increasing ignorant of and alien to the other, and because they must represent a body of knowledge as a whole, the consequence is that, though specialization, both the scientist and the intellectual are becoming effectively ignorant. Analysis: Though C P Snow claims to be speaking from a common ground between the two cultures that he envisages, I would argue that he is squarely placed in the scientific camp, and is by no means an intellectual. The manner in which he describes the rift between the two cultures has a distinct whiff of â€Å"shallow optimism† about it, which is the intellectual trait of the scientist. He advocates a simple dialogue between the two camps, which is very much reminiscent of Enlightenment thinking, which, before the advent of modern science, maintained that scientific education was the key to overcoming all social ills, and dialogue is but a means to educate each other. Snow is right in thinking that the two camps had grown apart unawares, and that at one time the cultured man endeavored to keep abreast of knowledge as a whole. But a fundamental point seems to escape him, and that is that modern science entails specialization, and neither does he suspect that it could be the root of the problem. While he acknowledges the existence of specialization in science, he tries to make out that it need not be divisive. His advocacy is of a holistic understanding, and on the strength of this plea he wants to effect a negotiation between the two camps. â€Å"Don’t carry your specializations too far,† he seems to be saying to both the scientists and the intellectuals, â€Å"because both the arts and the sciences are important, and one is in danger of becoming ignorant if one loses complete touch with any one of them. † The propositional content of his plea is correct, but the mistake is to sound it on the platform of modern science, which is divisive in its fundamental aspect. If one is committed to the scientific outlook one must live with specialization. We can take his example about the literary intellectual knowing the second law of thermodynamics as a testing point. He thinks that literary intellectual should at least know this law, which is accepted among physicists as being fundamentally significant. The equivalent feat of for a physicist would be of having read a play by Shakespeare, he suggests. But concentrating on the first point, why should one know the second law of thermodynamics if one will never question its validity? Science functions by constant questioning, and no scientist is ever trained to carry absolute dictates about with him. A literary intellectual may come to it in two ways. He may absorb it as in inviolable dictate, in which case it would not be science at all. Or he may come to it with the proper outlook of the scientist, which is the questioning one. If on the second trajectory, he may either be captivated by the question, or he may deem it not worth his while. If he is captivated, and he remains honest to his intellectual proclivities, then he cannot but pursue the question further, to the detriment of usual literary occupation. But it is more likely that he deems it not worth his while, in which case he returns to the field in which he is proficient and interested. And in due course, through neglect, he forgets how to state the scientific principle at all. If the last is the most natural and likeliest outcome, there is little point in pushing the second law of thermodynamics to the literary man. He has arrived at the status quo of not knowing the law at all, because that is the most natural state of affairs for him. In his situation he has better things to occupy himself with. For Snow to suggest that he ought to know the second law smacks of the arrogance of science, which is an arrogance rooted in naive optimism. Then again, a scientist should only be expected to enjoy a performance of Shakespeare, but certainly not to analyze it. Literary understanding calls for a profound understanding of human nature, which is certainly not part of the equipment of the scientist, who is trained to detect only empirical evidence. To tell a scientist to analyze King Lear would only confuse him, and if he tried too hard it would blunt his scientific perception. Snow would be better advised to consider the underlying philosophy of science, rather than external practice of the separate disciplines. It is a tacit understanding among members of the scientific society (of which literary intellectual are a part) that each practice his own specialization. Only the fruits are to be enjoyed by all, and this is the true egalitarian dimension of atomized science. The notion of â€Å"progress† comes from the understanding that the fruits of specialization confer on all, and it is this notion of progress that binds all members of scientific society. In its original conception modern science was defined as an egalitarianism of knowledge, and apparent loss of this is what Snow is lamenting. But such egalitarianism has not disappeared; it has only become impractical for a single person to keep up with the expanding body of knowledge. But more important than knowledge sharing is the philosophy that underpins it, and this philosophy still unites the particle physicist and the Shakespeare man. In calling for a new, and strained, egalitarianism of knowledge, Snow is only betraying his naivete of the world, which is the characteristic naivete of the scientist daring to speak on the humanities. Works Cited Snow, Charles Percy. The Two Cultures. Ed. Stefan Collini. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

The Underground Railroad in North Carolina Essay -- Slavery American H

The Underground Railroad in North Carolina The Underground Railroad was perhaps the most active and dramatic protest action against slavery in United States history and as we look at the Underground Railroad in North Carolina we will focus on the Quakers, Levi Coffin’s early years, and the accounts of escaped slaves from North Carolina. The unique blend of southern slave holder and northern abolitionist influences in the formation of North Carolina served to make the state an important link in the efforts to end slavery inside and outside of North Carolina borders. Although not "underground" nor a "railroad," this informal system became a loosely constructed network of escape routes that originated in the South, intertwined throughout the North, and eventually ended in Canada and other places where runaways were safe from being recaptured. From 1830 to 1865, the Underground Railroad reached its peak as abolitionists who condemned human bondage aided large numbers of slaves to freedom. They not only called for an end to slavery, but acted to assist its victims in securing freedom. Unlike other organized activities of the abolition movement that primarily denounced human bondage, the Underground Railroad secretly resisted slavery by aiding runaways. Because the Underground Railroad had a lack of formal organization, its existence often relied on the efforts of many people from many different aspects of life in North Carolina who helped slaves to escape. Accounts are limited of individuals who actually participated in its activities. Usually conductors hid or destroyed their personal journals to protect themselves and the runaways. However some first hand accounts from runaway slaves were recorded. The shortage of evid... ...nd courage of the black North Carolinians that had to flee along the Underground Railroad for their lives and freedom. Bibliography Levi Coffin(1789-1877) , Reminiscences of Levi Coffin (New York: Arno Press, 1968) Curtis, Anna Louise (1882-) Stories of the underground railroad, by Anna L. Curtis; foreword [by] Rufus M. Jones, illustrated by William Brooks Publisher New York, The Island Workshop Press Co-op, 1941 The Underground railroad, official map and guide [Washington, D.C.?] : National Park Service, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, [1996] William Still(1821-1902) , The Underground Railroad (New York, Arno Press, 1968) The Fugitive Slave Law ,US Congress, 1793 US Historical Documents Archive, http://w3.one.net/~mweiler/ushda/fugslave.htm Fugitive Slave Act 1850 ,The Avalon Project, Yale Law School http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/fugitive.htm

Research Paper of Eileen Chang

Eileen Chang’s life and the Influence of Chinese Literature Eileen Chang, or Chang Ailing, (1920 – 1995)  is one of the best novelists in Chinese modem literature history. Her work is known for its unique feminine elegance and classic beauty. She became famous and popular by the readers at that time when she published her first novel in 1943. Her amazing grasp of people’s psychology and her particular attitude toward life were seldom seen at the time. Her most famous works include Lust, Caution and Love in a Fallen City.The portrayal of her life in 1940s Shanghai and Japanese-occupied Hong Kong is remarkable in its focus on everyday life and the absence of the political subtext which characterized many other writers of the period. Poet and University of Southern California professor Dominic Cheung commented â€Å"had it not been for the political division between the Nationalist and Communist Chinese, she would have almost certainly won a Nobel Prize†. ( Wikipedia,org) Chang was born in Shanghai to a renowned family. Her parents divorced when Chang was five.In 1939, she was accepted into the University of  Hong Kong  to study literature. After two years, she also got an opportunity to study in the University of London; however, she had to give up while Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese and then she went back to Shanghai. (China culture, â€Å"Eileen Chang's life in brief†) Chang was introduced to a famous editor, Shoujuan Chou in 1943. She gave him a few pieces of her writing and with his help, Chang soon became the most popular new writer in Shanghai.Within the next two years, she wrote Love in a Fallen City and The Golden Cangue. Her literary maturity was said to be beyond her age. The Golden Cangue has been regarded as one of the best novels in Chinese modern literature. In the early days of her career, Chang was famously associated with this comment: To be famous, I must hurry. If it comes too late, it will not bring me so much happiness †¦ Hurry, hurry, or it will be too late, too late! (  Lust, Caution,Penguin Classics.Retrieved April 26, 2011) After 1949, Chang’s literature was different from the mainstream literature; it became the greatest difficulty for her to be accepted, so she migrated to Hong Kong in 1952, where she worked as a translator for the American News Agency for three years. Then she left for the United States in the fall in 1955, never return to the mainland again. (China culture, â€Å"Eileen Chang's life in brief†) The Golden Cangue was popular short novel in America when it was published while Chang was not satisfied about the reputation in America.Her ambition led her to expend The Golden Cangue into a long novel. (Fujian translator association, â€Å" —- The Rouge of the North†) The Golden Cangue was adapted into Yuan Nu in 1967. Yuan Nu has been translated into The Rouge of the North in 1971 by herself. The Rouge of the North tel ls of the melancholy life of a lower-class woman trapped within the confines of an unhappy arranged marriage. Taking the reader through the stages of this woman's gradual descent into madness, it contains some of the most notable novelistic features of Chang's work. University of California, Irvine) She wrote about broken marriages in many of her books and most of her works were pessimistic overtones because of her unhappy childhood in a broken family. With the development of economic revolution in mainland China in the 1980’s, Chang was gradually accepted in China. Her works frequently deal with the tensions in love between men and women. Chang’s literature is a milestone of feminist consciousness and also reflects the Chinese feminism  literature after the May Fourth Movement. Chixui Chu, â€Å"On the Cultural Creativity in Fictions by Zhang-Ailing†) She was the first writer who gathered woman literature on politics and turbulence. In her novels there were d etailed descriptions on authentic thoughts and survival of middle-aged women in that particular generation. (Dongxia Cheng, â€Å"Analysis about Eiling Chang, the Gift Female Writer in Turbulent Days†) (www. studa. net) With the number of her fans increasing; she was accepted by mainland’s literature field and known as the greatest popular novelist with modern character in Chinese literature’s history. Works cited 1) Wikipedia, â€Å"Eileen Chang† 2) China culture, â€Å"Eileen Chang's life in brief† ;http://www. chinaculture. org/gb/en_artqa/2005-09/02/content_72379. htm; 3) —- The Rouge of the North < http://www. fjfyxh. com/article. php? id=23116> 4) Chixui Chu, â€Å"On the Cultural Creativity in Fictions by Zhang-Ailing† 5) Dongxia Cheng, â€Å"Analysis about Eiling Chang, the Gift Female Writer in Turbulent Days† 6) www. studa. net

How to Install Ruby on the Linux Operating System

Ruby is installed on most Linux distributions by default. However, you can follow the steps below to determine if Ruby is installed and, if not,  install the Ruby interpreter on your Linux computer. How to Install Ruby on Linux For an Ubuntu-based distribution, follow the following procedure to verify whether you have Ruby installed, and if not, to install it. Open a terminal window. One way open the terminal window (sometimes called a shell or bash shell) is to select Applications Accessories Terminal.Run the command which ruby.  If you see a path such as /usr/bin/ruby, Ruby is installed. If you dont see any response or get an error message, Ruby is not installed.To verify that you have a current version of Ruby, run the command ruby -v.Compare the version number returned with the version number on the Ruby download page.These numbers dont have to be exact, but if you are running a version thats too old, some of the features may not work correctly.Install appropriate Ruby packages.  This process differs between distributions, but on Ubuntu run the following command:sudo apt-get install ruby-full Verify That Ruby Works Correctly Open a text editor and save the following as test.rb. #!/usr/bin/env rubyputs Hello world! In the terminal window, change directory to the directory where you saved test.rb.  Run the commandchmod x test.rb, then run the command ./test.rb. You should see the message Hello world! displayed if Ruby is installed correctly. Tips: Every distribution is different. Refer to your distributions documentation and community forums for help installing Ruby on distributions other than Ubuntu or its variants.For distributions other than Ubuntu, if your distribution doesnt provide a tool like apt-get then you can use a site such as RPMFind to find Ruby packages. Look for the irb, ri and rdoc packages as well, but depending on how the RPM package was built, it may already include these programs.