So, all the natural sciences and math aren’t in the College of Liberal Arts, but in a separate College of Sciences? Even universities are confused.
This is a funny discussion.
Since we are quoting literature etc (always fun), for me and for what I hope my kids will understand wherever they may go, and frankly whatever they do in life, here are few of my faves. I hope that any institution they go to teaches them these basic things so that it is who they are:
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There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Wm. Shakespeare
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The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; it blesseth him that gives and him that takes:… It is an attribute to God himself. Wm. Shakespeare -
I began to realize more and more the infinite possibilities of universal love. M.K. Gandhi
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The farther one travels, the less one knows. The Beatles
Any place that teaches my kids these things in a way that they will remember throughout their lives is fine with me. I tend to think it is what is commonly referred to as an LAC or University on CC, but I really don’t care about the terminology.
Teach them to think expansively and with an open mind to everything, and feel free to call it a LAC, Vo-Tech, Pre-Professional, University or whatever. It would float my boat.
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I keep thinking about my friend the engineer who once asked me what I thought the best potting soil was and couldn’t accept “Miracle-Gro” as an answer.
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I find it interesting that 5 users contributed to 58% of 545 posts. I find it disturbing that some of these users who have been around for years are unable to conduct themselves appropriately even after being reminded. So on the basis of that, let’s wrap this up. There’s nothing, IMO, being added to this circular conversation that’s new.
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No one needs the help of literature - or, for that matter any other art or study - to live a moral life or even a happy one. I doubt anyone ever became better or more cheerful for having read “Hamlet.” And there is the notorious example of the guards at Auschwitz who loved their Beethoven. Some imaginative writers try to improve us, but they’re not the greatest ones. Most people today read “Pilgrim’s Progress” for its prose style, not its moral allegory. Milton famously portrayed Satan in “Paradise Lost” with such conviction and grandeur that William Blake concluded “Milton was of the Devil’s party and knew it not.” The good angels are the second bananas in that epic as often in life. Plato could see all this coming when he banned poets from his ideal Republic. Creative artists have always been distrusted by Establishments of every stripe. We see plenty of examples of this in the world today, and it was not so long ago that all independent artists in Russia wound up in the Gulag.
So, I say, read the great writers to expand your understanding of the human heart and mind and to escape the bubble of the present. We discover much in ourselves simply by living, but most of us who have lived since the Middle Ages long for something fuller and larger than we can find in our own selves, both for good and ill. See Goethe’s Faust for both sides of that coin.
If the motivation for this kind of study is a dutiful one, it will fail. One will quickly grow tired of making the effort of comprehending what the Prince of Denmark was saying about human life if it was sold as a way of getting a job or a girl-friend. But reading “Hamlet” is not for any other purpose than entering the rich and interesting mind of the Prince himself. You will discover something of his mind in your own, but you likely wouldn’t get there without Shakespeare’s help.
There are many such creations of the human mind, literary and otherwise. The liberal arts are the great storehouse of such creations, a banquet awaiting every young person newly awaking to the treasure troves of the past - in Matthew Arnold’s unbeatable formulation, “the best that has been thought and said.” It would be a pity if any such eager young person were pressed to hurry past the feast for fear of missing the next train for the world of gainful employment.
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Probably. But it was worth the effort, IMO 
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