The “Two Cultures” In Saturday

This essay is intended to explore in Saturday the traditional "Two Cultures"debate—the antagonism between science and literature,the danger of epistemological immodesty and the need for a“Third Culture"—consilience which unites the provability of science and the spiritual appeal of humanities.In Chapter One,this essay tries to explain that Perowne's belief in science has reached a point of religious faith and a kind of scientific reductionism,which leads him to see problems only from the biological formulations rather than the political or socioeconomic ones.Such epistemological immodesty reduces the impoverished and unlucky ones,like Baxter to merely genetically flawed patients and finally brings him big trouble in the representation of Baxter's violent home intrusion.In Chapter Two,this essay points out that it is literature with its power of bonding people together and inspiring moral empathy that saves the day.Literature,with its ability to focus on the particular and penetrate into people's consciousness,has a moral significance of developing imagination and empathy.What's more,by the mere act of shaping and sharing of stories,literature provides the chance of unmediated communication and bonds people together.Finally,in the last chapter,this essay explains that McEwan by criticizing the epistemological immodesty is,in fact,calling for“consilience"—the unity between the provability of science and the spiritual appeal of humanities,which will bring a new ethos to the world.