Humane Letters

A comment on a previous post asked me to explain the difference between human and animal nature. I replied that if you had to ask, then there was no point telling you. But I should add that the fact that you can ask that question answers it. There is no questioning by dogs. There is no debate among cats. There are no sculptures by spiders. There are no symphonies by starfish.

Scientists have always had a very good point about the two cultures, about the fact that people with arts and humanities backgrounds are allowed to get away with knowing little or nothing about science. But it cuts both ways, and increasingly so.

To scientists who had a proper general knowledge of the arts and humanities, the difference between animals and human beings would be as obvious as it is to me, and the desire to mix the two would simply never occur.