Liberal Arts Education Defense

[wuapinmon]

I didn't bother to read the original argument, but two weeks ago I golfed three great courses in Myrtle Beach...in January. Wuap has my full support.

Next time you're in la Playa Myrtle, let me know. I'll come down and take you down to Murrell's Inlet to Huntington Beach State Park to check out the wildlife, and then to get some great food. I can get down there in less than two hours, and Huntington Beach is Top 3 among birding sites on the east coast.

[Pelado]

Judging from a recent video in which Bill Nye, "the Science Guy," discussed the relation between science and philosophy, I can only tell you that he sure is not the "philosophy guy."

The physical sciences can reveal the chemical composition of ink and paper, but they cannot, even in principle, tell us anything about the meaning of Moby Dick or The Wasteland. Biology might inform us regarding the process by which nerves stimulate muscles in order to produce human action, but it could never tell us anything about whether a human act is morally right or wrong. Optics might disclose how light and color are processed by the eye, but it cannot possibly tell us what makes the Sistine Chapel's ceiling beautiful. Speculative astrophysics might tell us truths about the unfolding of the universe from the singularity of the Big Bang, but it cannot say a word about why there is something rather than nothing or how contingent being relates to non-contingent being.

How desperately sad if questions regarding truth, morality, beauty, and existence qua existence are dismissed as irrational or pre-scientific.

http://www.realclearreligion.org/art...sophy_guy.html

[Jeff Lebowski]

That's a great essay. Thanks.

[Pelado]

That's a great essay. Thanks.

You're welcome.

[Topper]

http://www.realclearreligion.org/art...sophy_guy.html

An interesting essay.

[Pelado]

That's a great essay. Thanks.

An interesting essay.

Interesting in a great way?

[Sleeping in EQ]

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...cation/489209/

[SeattleUte]

As well as separating humans from other animals, this ability to create intersubjective entities also separates the humanities from the life sciences. Historians seek to understand the development of intersubjective entities like gods and nations, whereas biologists hardly recognise the existence of such things. Some believe that if we could only crack the genetic code and map every neuron in the brain, we will know all of humanity’s secrets. After all, if humans have no soul, and if thoughts, emotions and sensations are just biochemical algorithms, why can’t biology account for all the vagaries of human societies? From this perspective, the crusades were territorial disputes shaped by evolutionary pressures, and English knights going to fight Saladin in the Holy Land were not that different from wolves trying to appropriate the territory of a neighbouring pack.

The humanities, in contrast, emphasise the crucial importance of intersubjective entities, which cannot be reduced to hormones and neurons. To think historically means to ascribe real power to the contents of our imaginary stories. Of course, historians don’t ignore objective factors such as climate changes and genetic mutations, but they give much greater importance to the stories people invent and believe. North Korea and South Korea are so different from one another not because people in Pyongyang have different genes to people in Seoul, or because the north is colder and more mountainous. It’s because the north is dominated by very different fictions.

Maybe someday breakthroughs in neurobiology will enable us to explain communism and the crusades in strictly biochemical terms. Yet we are very far from that point. During the twenty-first century the border between history and biology is likely to blur not because we will discover biological explanations for historical events, but rather because ideological fictions will rewrite DNA strands; political and economic interests will redesign the climate; and the geography of mountains and rivers will give way to cyberspace. As human fictions are translated into genetic and electronic codes, the intersubjective reality will swallow up the objective reality and biology will merge with history. In the twenty-first century fiction might thereby become the most potent force on earth, surpassing even wayward asteroids and natural selection. Hence if we want to understand our future, cracking genomes and crunching numbers is hardly enough. We must also decipher the fictions that give meaning to the world.

HOMO DEUS, by Yuval Noah Harari

[Topper]

HOMO DEUS, by Yuval Noah Harari

Great quote.

[SeattleUte]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/e...ore-ipad-share

[Topper]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/e...ore-ipad-share

Excellent discussion.

[tooblue]

Why Australia is doubling fees for arts degrees

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article...-study-history

"Australia’s government plans to increase university tuition fees for humanities subjects and reduce them for ‘job-relevant’ Stem courses. Is it a good idea?

... This, higher education professionals argue, means lower per-capita student funding that will not give universities the resources they need to produce more ‘job-ready’ graduates – and could even back-fire. Ian Jacobs, president and vice-chancellor of The University of New South Wales, said in a statement that training more scientists and engineers would cost universities more, creating “a perverse financial incentive” to reduce Stem-related courses and train more people in subjects commanding higher student fees."