<p>
Then why read the book at all? Why not just study the context?
Why is mathematics mutually exclusive with personal enlightenment?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Most engineering and physics students don’t know what upper-division college math classes are like.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This isn’t true. Being excellent at math actually requires a strong ability to reason and a surprising amount of creativity. Doing upper-div math in college isn’t like doing times tables or memorizing formulas to calculate derivatives.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well you have to at least admit that studying literature is more conducive to ‘personal enlightenment’. Literature talks more about what it is like to be human, what is good & just, etc . . .</p>
<p>
No, I don’t have to admit that at all. What we personally find enlightening is totally subjective and I am just as entitled to my opinions as you are to yours.</p>
<p>If anything, I would actually argue that enlightenment is not found in any academic discipline but rather through fresh air and wide open spaces. But that’s just me.</p>
<p>english lit is probs harder.
math if you find the right teacher you can learn at any level. but english either you have the mind to be able to analyze and interpret and pick up the multiple meanings or you don’t. you can’t really learn that</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There are, in deed, easy humanities credits for science majors. </p>
<p>I think different things are harder for different people. It’s really that simple. I am getting a BS and a BA so I have experience from all over the spectrum. Personally, I just find math classes really easy. And I went fairly high in math. I also find humanities class fairly easy. And I’ve gone very high in humanities. The difference to me is that I can personally find ways to challenge myself more with humanities papers and such than I can with math. Math just isn’t a challenge to me at all. It’s very cut and dry. My personality just doesn’t mesh with that. </p>
<p>I know humanities majors who can’t pass basic math but can write a brilliant analysis piece of anything you put in front of them.
I know math majors who can’t string together a coherent sentence in a paper but can master any theorem you put in front of them. </p>
<p>The truth of the matter is- the answer to each of those questions entirely depends on the student you ask and how their brain is “wired” so to speak.</p>
<p>Honestly, I find math to be very enlightening - almost orgasmic. </p>
<p>“Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry.” – Bertrand Russell</p>
<p>
Just out of interest, what math courses did you take?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I suppose, but it is a unusual view. I’d be surprised if there were a lot of mathematicians who would disagree with me.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>haha my previous post was poor timing. Maybe I’m wrong about this, but Bertrand Russel’s fetish for reason isn’t something that all mathematicians share.</p>
<p>I agree with the people who say that math and english are on completely opposite sides of the spectrum. In turn, you can’t say that one is harder than the other from an objective point of view.</p>
<p>Personally, I believe that math is much more meaningful. college courses aside, math is a universal language. It can be used to explain anything from the subatomic world to the trends of our economy.</p>
<p>English, I can see how it can be an art for a lot of people. But for me, it’s just a big pain in the as5</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The math major inside me is wondering how we would could possibly know that there exists a “right teacher” for every person.</p>
<p>I actually had a TA that said he never took notes in lecture because it didn’t help him learn at all, and that he only ever made progress by reading the material himself. I’ve found that mostly to be true. Lectures are most useful as a review of the material, with the Professor hopefully clarifying points you may not have realized you didn’t fully understand. Of course in lower level classes where most of the material is a variety of problem solving methods, simply following the teacher is probably easier than learning out of the book.</p>
<p>“college courses aside, math is a universal language”</p>
<p>but dont you need actual language to teach/learn math? itd be hard to explain super complicated theorems otherwise…</p>
<p>I think we’re confusing the fields of English and mathematics with courses/majors/GPAs in those fields. I think the average student at any college or university could probably work hard and successfully complete a degree with a major in English or mathematics at that college or university. Of course, humanities classes have higher GPAs as a whole, but the fact that English departments give higher grade for a level of performance in English than the math department would give for that level of performance in math does not prove that one field is harder than the other… only that they grade differently.</p>
<p>Mathematics has rules, standard notations, etc.–these are akin to rules of grammar, mechanics, style, etc. in English. Undergraduate majors in these fields, in my opinion, merely aim to provide competence. Sometimes, you those in math who can’t string a coherent sentence together or those in English who seem to lack the capacity to perform multiplication… but I have a hard time believing that anyone in either of these groups–unless they have some sort of disability–ever becomes a master of either field. One needs both logic and creativity.</p>