by In the book, The Two Cultures, by C. P. Snow, the author explores the existence and difference between those within the scientific world and the literary one. These two cultures, as according to him, have become solidly distanced, with either side proclaiming their superiority over the other while renouncing the other for failing their own values, and in this way, their differences become irreconcilable. Each culture has those who have dedicated their lives in pursuit of a series of values and truths that they have let guide their entire lives, dictating and guiding their beliefs, and for this reason, there is no way for the other to be judged by their values, as they have lived different lives.
Take a physicist, for example. They have spent their lives studying and theorizing over the nature and behavior of the world around us, and while they might possess a knowledge of other subjects, it will always be secondary to their field of expertise which they have studied for the majority of their scholarly existence. They were trained and taught using experimentation and repetition, using the tools at their disposal to better understand the world within their view. While this can be described as a very narrow focus, excluding the other intricacies of the world in the exploration of the sole field which they wish to understand. Of course, while it might seem closed-off, it could also be described as devoted, with this pursuit of theirs seen as an admirable and almost romantic fascination with the mechanics that they truly wish to understand. In their profession, experience is accumulated and thus does not translate well in other fields, which only lends to their dedication to their one focus.
For a literary-minded individual, their worth is placed in their conceptualization of a reading, as well as their ability to infer and dissect a work. To them, each work of literature could be a piece of art yet to be understood or in possession of characteristics that remain unexplored. They might be described as broad-minded, and lackadaisical, choosing to read and extrapolate data from the minds of others through texts. Their work is done through extensive research and reading, poring over page after page as their minds drive them towards recognizing the work of others. In this way, they are explorers and intellects, who derieve enjoyment from the written word.
Comparing these two caricatures of professionals within their entirely distinct realms results in a simple mistranslation of data. The differences between them exist within the aforementioned values of their own professions, and so asking them to pass judgement on one of the opposing culture would be like asking a CD player to describe the taste of a cookie. While there is information existing within the request, the one meant to unpack it would be left with an entirely different and unrecognizable set of data. A physicist is not as well equipped as another writer to describe the work of Shakespeare, to unpack his witticisms and critiques, just as an English teacher would be confounded by an experimental report on the nature of relativity. Each is different, and they are unlikely to possess the tools and knowledge to give a satisfactory answer on the contents of something outside their domain of expertise, and as such, they exist in incomperable professions. It is this very difference that brings value to their presence in any situation, as their trained response will differ based on their learned experience, with either one providing information that is just as valid as the other.