생태학적 사유 - (인)문학과 자연과학의 대화

Abstract

A number of social issues which have captured public attention and fissured public opinions in Korea for the past decade or so are related to environmental problems, and they epitomize in both approaches and solutions the general attitudes of Humanities and Science: Humanities' emphasis on intrinsic and aesthetic values and Science's on factual evaluation and objective data. Traditionally, Humanities and Science have remained separate disciplines and little efforts have been made to have dialogue, to say nothing of integration, between them even when societies are in need of their cooperative efforts. It is this encamped wall between them that C. P. Snow in "Two Cultures" lamented half century ago when the world faced dire problems of overpopulation, nuclear war, and disparity in wealth. Environmental destruction has now become the most serious problem across the world, and it is time that, in order to tackle this problem, the 'two cultures' required opening their camps for cooperative works but also they adopted each other's approach. Environmental issues demand both science's factual, objective discourse and Humanities' ethical, aesthetic discourse. Humanities' accommodation of scientific approach/knowledge promises a way out of its unfavorable situations and circumstances which are summed up as "Crisis in Humanities," which is largely attributed to its lack of factualness and actuality. The conglomeration of Humanities' approach with scientific knowledge and approach is apparent in some ecological literary works. It is Humanities', especially literary scholars' duty to bring into light such works and interpret them in everyday language for the general public so that they reach ecological awareness.