Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts
The introductory essay: "The History of Art as a Humanistic Discipline" gives one of the best brief definitions of Humanism I've ever read: as the dual awareness of our capacity for reason and unreason. And his description of the relations of the humanities to the sciences, unified in the Middle Ages, separate spheres in the Renaissance, reminded me again of the Medieval origins of contemporary rationalism, popularized in "geek" culture. From "science geeks" and technology geeks, we now have humanities geeks, carpentry geeks and cooking geeks, and of course journalism geeks (see previous post).
The inability to accept contradictory thoughts and the need to will them away, or encapsulate them in a fetish

The man on the left is James Watson

An article from Natural History.
"In awe of science" as opposed to being in awe of god. The need to be a servant is the need to have a master: a simple dichotomy of power and powerlessness; to no longer be willing or able to face moral responsibility.
I may transcribe some passages from Panofsky and post them.
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jumping ahead. see also