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<p>Seriously? Do you know how many sub-fields of linguistics there are? Computational linguistics, historical linguistics, forensic linguistics, cognitive linguistics. I can go on and on. It’s a huge field and dismissing them all out of hand is ridiculous. (As is dismissing any field out of hand like you are doing.)</p>
<p>@BillyMC</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s because it’s funny to see it on tv, we’re not supposed to take it seriously. Personally I love Sheldon as a character because of his neuroticism (bordering on Aspergers despite what the producers say) but if I met him in real life he’d be an insufferable jerk I’d probably want to shove down stairs, and I’m pretty much a token nerd myself!</p>
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<p>Let me see and make a quuiiiickkk list here and see if I can sum up just a bit of what the liberal arts have done, I’ll start with Socrates since you seem to have completely missed the point of The Apology, Crito & Phaedo:</p>
<p>Philosophy - This results in the foundation of all western thought… and eastern thought, a large number of scientific proofs have their foundation in the critical thinking/logic in Philosophy. Pretty much the foundation for a little subject called…LAW?! Perhaps you’ve heard of it?</p>
<p>Law - I’m gonna just throw out John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and the Structure of the Constitution. This one really shouldn’t need defending because anybody who hasn’t descended to the level of parody knows the value of Law. You understand the importance, right?</p>
<p>Psychology - The study of the mind has helped us identify and cure some of the worst diseases and mental illnesses out there. It allows us a firsthand look at how the mind works and how each brain region functions. This is just Neuropsychology, BASIC Neuropsychology, I haven’t even gotten into the good psych counselors can do for reduction in the rate of suicide, injury and general malise in the public and in private lives. That comment by Sheldon above about the laser? Yeah… Neuropsychologists could tell you WHY that one slip would result in him building doo-dads with Wolowitz. I reject your egoistic perspective that people aren’t interested in helping other people, only in making money. I know High School glamorizes that kind of thing but out here in the real world we’re not quite so cut-throat to one another. </p>
<p>History - Again I won’t spend too much time defending history, anybody who can’t see the value of studying and knowing history has no business whatsoever being in college, or school. You don’t have to like it, you don’t HAVE to know everything by heart. But acting like it’s “not important” is basically saying “You know we have about 8,000-10,000 years of history/ancient history recorded since Mesopotamia and a lot has happened over that time…but balls to it I’m just gonna wing it! Yeah, it’ll be fine, we’ll just slap something over the parts that don’t work.” </p>
<p>Languages: Important for international relations and keeping us competitive in the world market. You like economics so much, you would think Business Sense 101 is that you want to learn at LEAST one foreign language. But you know… America has existed in it’s current form with it’s current laws and government since the beginning of time and is responsible for every discovery everywhere throughout history for now and forever and what have foreigners ever done for us? You really don’t get how studying linguistics could contribute to society? I’m gonna bring up Linear A again, the untranslated Greek language. We have thousands of documents of Greek history just sitting right there, but nobody can read them because we haven’t cracked Linear A. Some linguist someday is going to figure it out and then we’ll have more to add to our rich history. And while I’m on that topic…</p>
<p>English/Lit - Since when has the study of literature been a bad thing? It’s the written word. Myths can sometimes shed light on why we do what we do (even if the explaination is supernatural but then it explains the ritual). It puts to paper our history. It expands the mind by forcing us to think creatively. It can have more than one right answer, maybe that’s why you’re scared of it?</p>
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Yeah man, why else would they call them the liberal arts?!</p>
<p>Damn Abraham Lincoln, so anti-white because he was willing to free the slaves to end the Civil War. Damn Congress is so anti-man because they think women should vote.</p>
<p>(By the way, do a Google search for “hypertransformationalist.” You will receive one result; yep, you guessed it…)</p>
<p>^lol, that is a funny google search</p>
<p>oh, and whether or not you are for or agains thte OP… Lincoln and women being able to vote? Really? Those were the two best most revelvent examples you could come up wiht?</p>
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I tried to use humor to point to the flaws of the argument, while using widely supported examples. Sure, I could have gone Civil Rights and Equal Work, and that pertains, too.</p>
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He should register it as a trademark.</p>
<p>I’m 50/50 that you’re a ■■■■■ since you seem almost too dumb to live, but I’ll bite since I never could turn down a good brawl.</p>
<p>1) they ARE “pseudo-knowledge,” as someone said in the other thread all you learn in liberal arts classes is what other people have done and thought, you don’t learn how to be an innovative thinker like in engineering related classes and some other (though not many other majors teach you to really think)</p>
<p>The standard format of a philosophy paper goes as such: State the claim of a certain philosopher. According to you, it would stop there. But you don’t know ****, so naturally that is not true. Actually, you then must come up with an original objection to the claim, respond to your own objection, and then search your own response for potential flaws. While it is true that engineering will teach you how to think, it will not teach you how to remain vigilant of your government, criticize unethical practices, or understand other people in the way that areas like history, philosophy, sociology, and psychology will. Science is very important to mankind, but we also need to be able to understand and care for one another. The world is severely lacking in empathy, and this is all fine until you’re the one getting crushed under the wheels.</p>
<p>2) liberal arts majors are selfish and short-sighted and just worthless in general. Other majors, not just engineers but physics, math, bio, even economics though not as much, are pursued with an eye on contributing to society - but what possible use could a “gender studies” major have to society? Especially since that person probably won’t get a job in that field,</p>
<p>You don’t know what use gender studies is because you are a privileged white male (and a very juvenile one, at that) who lives in Apple-Pie-America where all kinds of discrimination are ancient history. I’m sure you also haven’t noticed the absence of women in STEM fields? But we both know that that must be because women are just not as smart or practical as men, right?</p>
<p>3) Liberal arts majors and their professors notoriously espouse liberal views, so liberal arts colleges and school with large liberal arts departments are mainly just incubators of a hypertransformationalist liberal, anti-man and anti-white viewpoint.</p>
<p>You’re a twit.</p>
<p>4) Liberal arts majors don’t get jobs, my brother was one and literally he worked in the food industry for 3 years after getting his degree.</p>
<p>My mother has a B.A. in English literature and a Masters in Social Work. She now works in theater, has an amazing work ethic, and miraculously my family is able to live comfortably. There, my anecdotal evidence matches yours. Now what? Your brother probably did badly because he comes from the same gene pool as you, and is therefore most likely an idiot.</p>
<p>5) We are entering a STEM century and need as many people proficient in the hard sciences/maths as possible, plus the US has terrible science and math skills.</p>
<p>We have all of the people who think like you for that. In the STEM century, we will also need people like bioethicists and cognitive scientists. Not to mention members of government and people with communication skills.</p>
<p>6) Liberal arts majors take away from the learning environment of real students. most of them aren’t serious and are just in college to party so they make life difficult for the rest of us STEM majors. </p>
<p>We get high in our rooms. You guys are the ones out partying.</p>
<p>Here’s a proposal. How about you shut the **** up and accept that people might do things differently from what you would do. Instead of suggesting the liberal arts should be BANNED, just chuckle to yourself about how much smarter and happier you will be not studying them (if that is what you really think). If you are so productive, go work on your math instead of wanking around here. We wouldn’t want to deprive the world any longer of the blessing that is you.</p>
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You know, I may not live in “Apple-Pie-America,” but I do live in America, and I would quite like some apple pie. But Dutch apple pie. Oh, the irony.</p>
<p>And otherwise, nice post.</p>
<p>Liberal Arts students make life more interesting.</p>
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<p>I laughed. Beautiful.</p>
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<p>To add to this: OP, you should be glad we’re not clogging up your STEM fields with competition. Think about the job-market right now. Even for engineers, it’s quite horrid, so you should perhaps be thankful that we’re wasting our lives on our pansy liberal arts degrees instead. ;)</p>
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<p>I think the OP went a little too far and unwisely did not qualify his statements that he made enough (or he might just be stupid). In my belief, liberal arts are great (e.g. where would science be without the early state of it in philosophy); however, there are some majors with “the attitude of a daydreamer,” which I do not share the most positive view on.</p>
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<p>You clearly do not live in Sarah Palin’s America… muslim commy ■■■■■■■</p>
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I will admit to commie, but nothing else!</p>
<p>The best part about all of these arguments? It doesn’t really matter after college.</p>
<p>Remember folks: the smaller the stakes, the bigger the fights.</p>
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It doesn’t really matter during college, either. So yep, you’re right.</p>
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Yep, like the Civil War. Or WWII. Or the Taiping Rebellion*.</p>
<p>*Damn it, just revealed myself as a history major.</p>
<p>BillyMc,</p>
<p>It’s a turn of phrase-- of course major wars are the greatest battles. But generally, we find in these sorts of situations that people get more incensed over the small stuff than the big picture. </p>
<p>Also, one doesn’t need to be a history major to know about the Taiping Rebellion.</p>
<p>True, but I’ve never heard anyone else refer to it in casual conversation.</p>
<p>Plus, the wars thing was a joke. I largely agreed with your post.</p>
<p>Well, after this heated pseudo-witty exchange, I fear CC has been hit by a ■■■■■ or spammer who writes in anywhere he/she can to tantrum against the word “liberal”!
Or is it just a virus that the far conservatives have created to do this? That might explain the nonsensical words, language and arguments made by OP and Woody.
We have hit a real low here.
“Liberal” arts are not necessarily liberal. And, no more political rants here, please.
Even those disguised as a discussion about colleges or academics.
I admit it, I got sucked in, at first.
The discussion is now just a serious of flames, the type seen on almost every comment board on the web. Going nowhere fast. Let it die.</p>
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<p>Wow, that’s quite a claim. You know the motives of every single person that ever lived? Here is where the liberal arts would come in and show you the proof that it’s impossible to prove a negative.</p>
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<p>Math and science are subjects. Hippies were youth living in the fifties, sixties, and early seventies that had a specific set of political beliefs and other cultural things in common. Not sure how you could compare these two. Isn’t that rather like comparing statistics to Jupiter?</p>
<p>The logic in this thread is appalling. Oh, the irony…</p>
<p>Here’s a question for you. Engineers know how to build a bridge. But who decides whether it’s worth it? I’ve seen organizations run by engineers–unbridled engineers, let’s say, who didn’t know how to manage, but who got promoted for some totally irrelevant reason. It wasn’t pretty. Engineering everywhere, expenditures up the hoo-hah, but little benefit to anybody.</p>
<p>I’m assuming economists decided if it was worth it. Or hoping at least</p>
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<p>Tell me about it. You know what would be even more ironic? If somebody took an obviously sarcastic post seriously and then referred to the lack of logic as “ironic.”</p>