The beginning

In my first paper as a master's student in English, I argued that Herman Melville's view of reality could be better understood by comparing it with the view implied by Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle—that is, absolute reality cannot be known. The professor found only one flaw with the paper: much of it discussed a subject that wasn’t literature. “Physics seems to interest you more than fiction,” he wrote. C.P. Snow was correct in bemoaning the gap between the two cultures: science and the humanities.

To bridge this gap, I turned to rhetoric. Rhetoric is often studied in humanities departments. Aristotle points out, however, that “it is not concerned with any special or definite class of subjects.” It relates to all fields of human endeavor. Even in science--an area once thought to be free from rhetoric--rhetorical criticism has been growing.

In this blog, I'll be sharing my thoughts on science, literature, history, rhetoric, and anything else that comes to mind. You're welcome to join me. It will be a fascinating ride.