3 ms·

liberal arts may include parts of stem, but stem and humanities are pretty much disjoint, which is probably a better way to have this discussion. I think there'

liberal arts may include parts of stem, but stem and humanities are pretty much disjoint, which is probably a better way to have this discussion. I think there's an argument for not forcing people who are interested/capable in stem to suffer through perfunctory humanities courses (and vice versa). is something lost when someone learns about propositional logic and set theory without learning about the vienna circle and logical positivism? yes. does it matter very much practically? probably not, and stem people who are interested in that kind of thing can probably pick it up on their own.

sokoloff 5y ago
> not forcing people who are interested/capable in stem to suffer through perfunctory humanities courses I hated my humanities courses all through middle and high school and college. I took as many advanced math/science courses as my high school had. I graduated from a well-regarded technical university. My humanities courses have probably had more positive impact on my career earnings than my tech courses. I feel like I should find my old English teachers and apologize to them.
- panzagl 5y ago
  You hated them for the reason most STEM track students do- because they're hard.
NoSorryCannot 5y ago
They're not disjoint. At an advanced level, subjects like linguistics and psychology heavily cross displines with mathematics, logic, and neuroscience at least. Students probably shouldn't be falling hard on one side or the other any earlier than they already do lest even more of them believe they are completely unrelated.
jimbokun 5y ago
My take on the core skills for any educated individual: Be able to write well to communicate your ideas clearly and persuade people to your position. Be able to apply math to a variety of practical problems. I think that prepares you to specialize in any field later.

sokoloff 5y ago

> not forcing people who are interested/capable in stem to suffer through perfunctory humanities courses I hated my humanities courses all through middle and high school and college. I took as many advanced math/science courses as my high school had. I graduated from a well-regarded technical university. My humanities courses have probably had more positive impact on my career earnings than my tech courses. I feel like I should find my old English teachers and apologize to them.

panzagl 5y ago
You hated them for the reason most STEM track students do- because they're hard.

NoSorryCannot 5y ago

They're not disjoint. At an advanced level, subjects like linguistics and psychology heavily cross displines with mathematics, logic, and neuroscience at least. Students probably shouldn't be falling hard on one side or the other any earlier than they already do lest even more of them believe they are completely unrelated.

jimbokun 5y ago

My take on the core skills for any educated individual: Be able to write well to communicate your ideas clearly and persuade people to your position. Be able to apply math to a variety of practical problems. I think that prepares you to specialize in any field later.