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Liberal Arts>STEM (self.Negareddit)

SavageHuxleyLevel 42069 Social Justice Necromancer が 投稿

Now I'm not saying STEM isn't valuable, we need people with those skills to make the world work. But having liberal arts knowledge is invaluable to understanding the complexities of society, history, and interrelations. I have STEM friends that have both of these qualities but I also know a lot that are hostile to the liberal arts and are very reactionary. Seeing everything from such a technical standpoint takes away your ability to see people as anything other than robots. People are emotional beings, guided by history, irrational, and complex. Much can be gained through appreciations of art, philosophy, and interdisciplinary education, especially when taken into account with economics. I greatly value my education about the human experience over knowing how to code or build a computer.

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[–]puhisurfer 16 ポイント17 ポイント  (0子コメント)

A real liberal arts education includes the humanities, but also Science and Mathematics. As well as Music and Art.

Folks who limit themselves to any one side of some arbitrary fence are not really educating themselves at all, I think.

[–]JaneBingham 7 ポイント8 ポイント  (3子コメント)

Math is a liberal art.

But most degree programs require you to take general classes to get exposure and become more well rounded overall. Engineering and science don't make interpreting nuance more difficult, maybe they just attract those personalities?

At the same note, much can be gained by the appreciation and understanding of science, mathematics, and technology. Humans are emotional and adaptive, why not have both as part of the curriculum?

[–]AngryDM 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (2子コメント)

Because right now the problem is STEMbro loathing of liberal arts, and for that matter, society in general's hostility and reduced funding and support of liberal arts.

Obviously not the same dire consequences, but saying that liberal arts people should also be nicer to STEM is like asking black people to start being really nice to cops.

[–]JaneBingham 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (1子コメント)

I didn't mean to imply that lib arts students should be nicer to STEM at all! I'm really sorry if it came off that way, but I'm not sure I read the above comment the same was as you do. The comment was just to say that having experience in arts, history, language, science, and math all contribute to being well rounded. It seems like colleges would be a good place for making anyone take coursework that doesn't exactly align with their beliefs or interests.

I'm not really sure why you think that not having both arts and stem as part of a curriculum is bad, though. Engineers should be exposed to history, music, and art, but at the same time, shouldn't someone studying journalism be exposed to the scientific method?

I'm a girl in engineering so I may be seeing this from a different perspective as you, but I loved my art history class, mathematics, philosophy, and my engineering classes. They all helped me to grow as a person and I believe made me better. I don't think the proper recourse is to say one is better than the other, but more that exposure to all forms of knowledge you can access is the way to learn more about yourself.

[–]AngryDM 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Ah, all right, fair enough.

Now that you explained yourself, I don't see anyplace that I disagree there.

[–]iseverythingok 6 ポイント7 ポイント  (3子コメント)

i'm a liberal arts person privileged enough to spend half a decade of my adult/professional life developing these kinds of skills in communication and societal analysis without developing a "hard" trade

i know perfectly well not everyone is wealthy enough in time and money to follow the same path as me

[–]MissLauralot 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (2子コメント)

i'm a liberal arts person

As someone who doesn't know what this term actually means (here in Aus it's simply called an Arts degree), could you please tell me what it is that you studied and what you are qualified to do? Science, education, engineering, hospitality, nursing, trades, economics - I can picture all of these but I can't picture "liberal arts" (it just makes me think of art, as in painting, sculptures etc.) Thanks in advance.

[–]iseverythingok 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (1子コメント)

studied history in uni, was a history and english teacher in asia for 2 years, then a legal/business journalist for 2 years, now back in america for a masters in business degree from a top ranked school (with a much different educational and professional background than my classmates)

[–]MissLauralot 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Wow, OK. No wonder I don't have a clear picture. That's a great variety. Thanks for the reply.

[–]Flamdar 5 ポイント6 ポイント  (0子コメント)

The real problem is that so many people make a straight line distinction between these things.

[–]dlgn13 5 ポイント6 ポイント  (0子コメント)

You do realize STEM isn't all about building computers, right? You're just buying into Reddit's bullshit. The idea that STEM is all about COMPUTERS and CAPITALISM and has nothing to do with art or creativity is complete nonsense. Hell, there are branches of science devoted to understanding human behavior! As a mathematics student, I'm incredibly weary of people viewing those in my field as either worthless tinkerers (from the STEM side) or emotionless robots (from the liberal arts side). All this post does is feed into that sort of misconception.

[–]lacedemonianWarning: Links posted by this user may lead to TV Tropes 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (1子コメント)

I leave this place for one day...

For real though you have a point, even if delivered a little.. flaimbaitingly. I personally value my robotics work far more than my understanding of politics. The former is helping me do far more for humanity than the latter ever could. Which one is 'better' for you can be a matter of what your interests and life goals are, really.

The only toxic idea is one at the full expense of the other.

[–]SavageHuxleyLevel 42069 Social Justice Necromancer[S] 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I wanted to be absolute in the title and nuanced in the message. You're absolutely right, both are important and one can value one side over the other but never at the others expense.

[–]AngryDM 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (1子コメント)

There's so many Heinlein fanboys in the Reddit STEMbro community, and they seem to ignore or dismiss that rather famous thing Heinlein said that human beings ought to be able to do many things well and that specialization was for insects.

[–]SavageHuxleyLevel 42069 Social Justice Necromancer[S] 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Yeah but Heinlein was all over the place. Sometimes he was a socialist and other times he was a goddamn Ayn Rand worshipping Libertarian. His writing is decent but I have little respect for his actual views on things.

[–]MyWifeShouldQuitLoL 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Not to mention, with all the technical knowledge in the world, you'll never apply your policies to real life without anyone telling you how to get people to actually listen and believe.

[–]stripeygreenhat 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Data is data is data. People life to refer to the soft sciences as unscientific, but fail to acknowledge that the scientific process is exactly the same. The only difference is that the results must be interpreted with nuance and social context.

[–]Abodyhun 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I think it mostly comes from the kinds of people you expect to see studying in each fields. At least where I'm from liberal arts and humanities are filled with people who are kinda interested in the subject, but are only studying it to buy some time before having to find a job and start working in an often unrelated field. Meanwhile people rarely do the same at STEM fields, especially because they cost a lot more. There are many people that party through it, but most of those people drop out early, since even the minimal expectations are often a lot higher or require more book crunching instead of homeworks (at least in the fields I study).

So in the end the reputation of humanities and liberal arts get ruined by the worst people that study them, because the same people barely exist in STEM fields.

[–]snotbowst 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

This feels like bait.