[College] There Is No Case for the Humanities

[Mlz]

Is that an american thing? Having to take courses unrelated to your degree?

Cause i have a bachelors in Archaeology and i dont recall taking courses unrelated to that theme

Yeah, weird. But then again, I watched the intro course to psych by Yale and they had to dedicate almost a whole lecture to the very simple concepts of evolution. I don't know much about the education in the US but if they miss such principal theories throughout their primary and secondary education then maybe it is only logical that they have to take 'intros' to very general subjects.

But yeah, when I started a STEM-degree I only had to take lectures that were directly tied to my discipline from the very beginning and exactly the same applied to my full-humanities degree. Although, depending on the uni/country, I could take electives from a very wide range of subjects.


More on topic (or well, after reading some of the replies here): I have two thoughts about the subject at the moment (barring the general notion that it's a very stupid idea to get rid of something that is the very basis of any human society).

First, funding in humanities is so rare and competition is ridiculously fierce - people who are being funded more often than not have gone through hell to get where they are. It's really not like countries are throwing money at 'gender studies' or whatever some people think they are doing. My point being: humanities and STEM are not on equal terms so why would anyone want to further hinder those people who wish to go the humanities road? If we are talking about paid undergraduate degrees then who cares - if they pay for their education they can study whatever they like, no?

Second, humanities, especially disciplines like history, are increasingly relevant in today's world as so many ignorant people wish to use our past to drive their own agendas and the world needs experts who can still call them out on their bullshit. Look at mmo-champion - people fiercely hating mixing and immigration of cultures, borderline advocating genocides, while thinking that their culture has been static for the past 1-2k years and, unbeknownst to them, most likely being ~5th generation immigrants themselves.

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Social sciences like women studies, african studies? yes. thats where the snowflakes are.

How many 'african studies' courses do you see for every history course that is being offered? But more importantly, barring your presumptuous and baseless remark about snowflakes, what are your actual objections to such courses?

[Linkedblade]

Yeah, weird. But then again, I watched the intro course to psych by Yale and they had to dedicate almost a whole lecture to the very simple concepts of evolution. I don't know much about the education in the US but if they miss such principal theories throughout their primary and secondary education then maybe it is only logical that they have to take 'intros' to very general subjects.

But yeah, when I started a STEM-degree, I only had to take lectures that were directly tied to my discipline from the very beginning and exactly the same applied to my full-humanities degree. Although, depending on the uni/country, I could take electives from a very wide range of subjects.


More on topic: I have two thoughts about the subject at the moment (barring the general notion that it's a very stupid idea to get rid of something that is the very basis of any human society).

First, funding in humanities is so rare and competition is ridiculously fierce - people who are being funded more often than not have gone through hell to get where they are. It's really not like countries are throwing money at 'gender studies' or whatever some people think they are doing. My point being: humanities and STEM are not on equal terms so why would anyone want to further hinder those people who wish to go the humanities road? If we are talking about paid undergraduate degrees then who cares - if they pay for their education they can study whatever they like, no?

Second, humanities, especially disciplines like history, are increasingly relevant in nowadays climate as so many ignorant people wish to use our past to drive their own agendas and the world needs experts who can still call them out on their bullshit. Look at mmo-champion - people fiercely hating mixing and immigration of cultures, borderline advocating genocides, while thinking that their culture has been static for the past 1-2k years and, unbeknownst to them, most likely being ~5th generation immigrants themselves.

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How many 'african studies' courses do you see for every history course that is being offered? But more importantly, barring your presumptuous and baseless remark about snowflakes, what are your actual objections to such courses?

Those degree programs serve absolutely no purpose. There are no jobs for people with them. Except maybe to teach or in college.

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Most of those seem pretty important besides anthropology.

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Because learning languages becomes optional right after the best possible time to learn languages, aka, childhood.

Anthropology is just about dead. I doubt there are any unknown groups of humans left.

[Deleted]

Focus education on future employability, everything else people can learn in their own time.

[Mlz]

Those degree programs serve absolutely no purpose. There are no jobs for people with them. Except maybe to teach or in college.

Your argument makes no sense. If there are no jobs for people with them then how come people study them? Do you actually know what such degrees teach or you just have your own prejudices made up in your head?

Take a look at this, for example, and I dare you to say that every single one of their graduates has been useless, has not contributed anything to any of the societies and has not found work outside of academia.

[downnola]

I'm not a fan of how the Humanities are being run these days, but removing them from education would be a crime against our youth. If anything, I think there should be more emphasis on reading the "great books," writing, and learning history than there is now.

[Mlz]

Anthropology is just about dead. I doubt there are any unknown groups of humans left.

'... it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles [of Physical Science] have been firmly established ...' - Albert A. Michelson (received a Nobel Prize in Physics), Annual Register of the University of Chicago, 1895/96, p. 159.

[unbound]

Why copy and psste such a large article?

TBH, I question whether the OP actually read it as opposed to just being enamored with the title. I'm guessing the OP misunderstood what the article is about.

Here are 2 important paragraphs that get to the crux of the matter:

That is the current state of the humanities: derided by the public, an easy target for lazy attacks by politicians, a scapegoat and straw man for left and right alike, considered useless by industry, divorced from its historic patrons in the church. Platitudes will offer no shelter for the coming storm.

The humanities and the university do need defenders, and the way to defend the humanities is to practice them. Vast expanses of humanistic inquiry are still in need of scholars and scholarship. Whole fields remain untilled. We do not need to spend our time justifying our existence. All we need to do is put our hand to the plow. Scholarship has built institutions before and will do so again. Universities have declined and come to flourish once more. The humanities, which predate the university and may well survive it, will endure — even if there is no case to defend them.

The author isn't arguing that humanities have no value. He's stating that there is no case to support it, and there probably never will. Regardless, its value is actually important.

I view as similar to the early tinkerers of electricity. There was no business case with them playing around with electricity in the early days. It was just a curiosity back then, lacking any (at that time) imaginable value. Yet, here we are today utterly dependent upon what we do with electricity.

[bladeXcrasher]

TBH, I question whether the OP actually read it as opposed to just being enamored with the title. I'm guessing the OP misunderstood what the article is about.

Here are 2 important paragraphs that get to the crux of the matter:





The author isn't arguing that humanities have no value. He's stating that there is no case to support it, and there probably never will. Regardless, its value is actually important.

I view as similar to the early tinkerers of electricity. There was no business case with them playing around with electricity in the early days. It was just a curiosity back then, lacking any (at that time) imaginable value. Yet, here we are today utterly dependent upon what we do with electricity.

I think the lack of any input from Hubcap at all answered that question easily, of course they didn't read the thing. They left off half the title anyway, because it defeats their click bait.

[Linkedblade]

Your argument makes no sense. If there are no jobs for people with them then how come people study them? Do you actually know what such degrees teach or you just have your own prejudices made up in your head?

Take a look at this, for example, and I dare you to say that every single one of their graduates has been useless, has not contributed anything to any of the societies and has not found work outside of academia.

Well, for one women studies, african studies, any other studies programs are a waste of time and money. They offer no real use in the real world outside of academia.

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'... it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles [of Physical Science] have been firmly established ...' - Albert A. Michelson (received a Nobel Prize in Physics), Annual Register of the University of Chicago, 1895/96, p. 159.

Yeah the basics are laid down well, but you have to teach them in order to instruct new students. But that leads to many things. In academia you can continue to advance as innovate. In practice construct and invent.

As opposed to the "studies" where nothing comes from it.

[Crissi]

Learning even commonly spoken languages in school is a waste of time for the vast majority of people.

Its better if it starts earlier, like elementary. The later you start, the less likely you will keep at it. Starting at high school is already late. College is just pointless unless you're truely motivated.