Why Engineering Freshmen Should Take Humanities Courses 564
Lasrick sends in an article from John Horgan at Scientific American explaining why he thinks engineering freshmen should make a bit of space in their course-load for the humanities. Quoting:
"But it is precisely because science is so powerful that we need the humanities now more than ever. In your science, mathematics and engineering classes, you're given facts, answers, knowledge, truth. Your professors say, 'This is how things are.' They give you certainty. The humanities, at least the way I teach them, give you uncertainty, doubt and skepticism. The humanities are subversive. They undermine the claims of all authorities, whether political, religious or scientific. This skepticism is especially important when it comes to claims about humanity, about what we are, where we came from, and even what we can be and should be. Science has replaced religion as our main source of answers to these questions. Science has told us a lot about ourselves, and we’re learning more every day. But the humanities remind us that we have an enormous capacity for deluding ourselves."
Should take law (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, it could give us some lawyers who actually know what they are talking about.
Humanities can't explain the need for humanities (Score:5, Interesting)
In general, advocates of the humanities have done a poor job of explaining why they are necessary. Which is problematic given that one of the things one would hope that someone in the humanities could do was come up with excellent persuasive arguments about things.
Same everywhere (Score:2, Interesting)
As someone with an engineering and philosophy degree, I found the humanities are just as deluded if not more so. Sure there is room for interpretation in a way that isn't possible with a science that has a greater likelihood of having a verifiable subject matter. But too often that interpretation is a narrow path. Don't believe me. Try supporting something outside the canon of though in humanities and you will face just as much dogma as anywhere else. The Humanities have their idols too, and they don't want to change them like either.
Complete BULL SHIT (Score:3, Interesting)
Learning Science/Engineering **should** teach logic and an understanding of fallacies. These are the most subversive skills one can have because few things in society measure up when you can see why they are incomplete or just plain wrong.
Re:Should take law (Score:5, Interesting)
Law students should take courses in statistics, statistical modelling, and applied statistics in the social sciences. So that they avoid elementary mistakes like the prosecutor's fallacy [wikipedia.org], and so they could systematically identify biases in their own profession.
The humanities can be too hard (Score:4, Interesting)
I almost flunked out of college in computer science because I couldn't pass my humanities classes. I had to take writing 5 times in order to finally pass--and I mean literally 5.
American English is my native language, and I'm much better at spelling and grammar than most people I know. I just can't think of things to say about literature and history for which I care nothing. In other words, my computer science brain is not well-versed in the ancient art that they eloquently call "bullshit".
Re:Oh, gag me. (Score:5, Interesting)
"We live in a world increasingly dominated by science. "
That's like saying "We live in a world increasingly dominated by reality".
If science doesn't match reality, than it's not science (or atleast the specific scientific theory is broken).
Humanities is religion for people who don't believe in a deity.
Re:Oh, gag me. (Score:5, Interesting)
"Humanities is religion for people who don't believe in a deity."
I think it's the other way around. I think majors in the humanities should take some engineering courses... like some basic math, and formal logic.
Then maybe "the common man" would have a little bit better basis to assess what effect "science" issues are having on them, on society, on government.
GP brings up the subject of AGW, and that's a great example. A great many folks have no way of evaluating what's being said, so they just pick a source to go with, whether that's Scientific American (just for example) or Fox News, or (far worse than Fox, according to a recent Pew study) MSNBC.
I'm not taking sides here. I'm just saying that's not informed decision making.
Re:Oh, gag me. (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree engineering students should get some basic classes on economy and maybe one on communication so they stop making awful presentations. But psychology, sociology, etc., hell no! First of all, it should be the other way around. I have yet to meet a research psychologist that actually uses statistics correctly. And political science and philosophy majors tend to lose flat-out in debates against engineering students, simply because the latter knows how to analyse the situation correctly. Engineering is more about analysing problems, seeing the possible solutions for said problems and then implementing them. Arguing and being sceptic is based on the same premises. So in fact it should be the other way around.
If it's the other way around it might also make more of them fail, reducing the over-supply of humanities majors.
Re:Oh, gag me. (Score:5, Interesting)
Did you ever take a humanities class?
I realize there are good humanities classes and bad humanities classes, like everything else in the world, but you don't have any idea of what humanities is all about.
In my freshman humanities class, the first thing they gave us to read was the Apology of Socrates. Out of respect for the short attention span of people today, I'll refer you to the Wikipedia article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apology_Of_Socrates [wikipedia.org]
Bottom line: Socrates disagreed with most of the other citizens of Athens. He was right. They were wrong.
Re:Oh, gag me. (Score:5, Interesting)
I think majors in the humanities should take some engineering courses... like some basic math, and formal logic.
The most clued-up logicians I have ever met are graduates in philosophy. Logic is a seriously hard course of study, and I haven't met many engineers who are up to the challenge. (It's just a pity that philosophers are doomed to unemployment.)
On the other hand, I don't know if the universities I have attended are typical, but I have noticed an extreme level of erudition with regard to humanities in a majority of the most brilliant mathematics professors I have known. It seems to come with the territory, for some reason. I have not noticed any such broad-mindedness among engineers.