What Liberal Arts Education Is for (2024)

▲ What Liberal Arts Education Is for (2024)(innig.net)

27 points by mr_wiglaf 2 hours ago | 18 comments

▲ CobaltFire an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I had an extremely focused career, but am by nature a curious individual who craved the type of discussions the article talks about. They were closed to me because I came from poverty and had to focus to move myself up the ladder.

Much like the author however, I found that my natural curiosity, and specifically that desire to ask what the words being used MEANT, to serve me extremely well. When I was a PM for a billion dollar plus project (military can hit that easily) that attitude is what got me the job.

The constant push back from those who seem to value only their, and your, positions as cogs in a machine was exhausting. I really agree with this entire article. Thanks for posting it.

▲ Animats 35 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> The class turned out to be more or less “A Letter (singular) of Paul:” we spent the semester reading Paul’s letter to the Romans, at a rate of about 3 sentences per week. Per week!

That's not a liberal education. That's religious brainwashing. It's the kind of thing madrassas and yeshivas do - obsessively school students on a very few texts said to be sacred.

Liberal education was traditionally broad. There are curricula based on the Great Books. [1] They can be criticized for being retro, but they are not narrow.

[1] https://www.sjc.edu/academic-programs/undergraduate/great-bo...

	▲	photios 18 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		St. Paul's writing has this effect on people. It's either a burst of love and joy or seething hatred. Never in the middle. :D > There are curricula based on the Great Books. List not including the greatest book of them all... What did they mean by this?
	▲	aruss 17 minutes ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		This is one class to deeply understand one of the most politically impactful texts in history. What about that is religious brainwashing? Do you even know the professor’s religious beliefs? Because they’re not obvious to me simply from the course description. I took a religious studies course in college amid a liberal arts math/CS major. I can say it was one of my favorite classes in college, primarily for exposing me to ways of thinking that differ from my own, and yet I left with my (lack of) religious beliefs intact.
	▲	alephnerd 33 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		There's nothing inherently wrong with theological education assuming it is also clubbed with other curricula and is not dogmatic in nature. Most major theological programs in the US like Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Chicago, Vandy, and Notre Dame take this kind of an interdisciplinary approach. The issue with madrassas and some hardcore yeshivas and seminaries is they do not allow any curricula that isn't litigurical in nature. > Liberal education was traditionally broad. There are curricula based on the Great Books. [1] They can be criticized for being retro, but they are not narrow I've found the Great Books curricula to be closer in style to madrassa and hardcore yeshivot curricula than a traditional liberal arts education, as they don't actively try to connect past texts and treatise with the present. The Great Books curriculum is itself a holdover from back when UChicago was meant to be a fundy evangelical theological program.

▲ WalterBright an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I took and engineering and science program in college. The education was in learning how to learn, learning how to solve problems, and how to distinguish fact from fiction. It's served me well.

To make a living, it is necessary to learn a skill that people are willing to pay for.

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vineyardmike an hour ago | parent | next [-]

> The education was in learning how to learn, learning how to solve problems, and how to distinguish fact from fiction

Sounds pretty close to a liberal arts education.

That said, not everything is about a job or work. Sometimes (usually) education is itself a goal.

	▲	WalterBright 23 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> Sounds pretty close to a liberal arts education That's the plan, but it doesn't seem to work out too well. > not everything is about a job or work Yes, if you are independently wealthy. Need to pay back those student loans!

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alephnerd 21 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

That doesn't preclude minoring or double majoring - which is what plenty of my peers who were also STEM majors often did (as did I)

Concentrating on monetizable skills is critical, but most colleges give enough space for interdisciplinary electives.

	▲	WalterBright 11 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		At Caltech, the usual was to double major with one to make money, the other for fun. The fun one was usually Astronomy, where it was well known there were no prospects for employment. In my case the problem was there were too many fascinating engineering classes to take. I tried to pick out ones that would be of maximum benefit to my chosen career.

▲ alephnerd 36 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I've always been a huge proponent of CMU, UIUC, and Stanford's CS+X programs for this very reason.

Innovation is inherently interdisciplinary, and learning how to synthesize multiple different domains has tremendous value.

▲ ThrowawayR2 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yet another dubious claim that "skills of close reading and critical questioning" are the products of a liberal arts education. Students can gain such things just fine in a STEM field if they care enough and aren't the sort who are just doing the bare minimum to get the sheepskin.

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mdp2021 29 minutes ago | parent [-]

> Students can gain such things just fine in a STEM field

As long as you do not claim that "living only on proteins or stones and without carbs or leaves would be a good idea".

	▲	WalterBright 2 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Those with a liberal arts education do indeed look down on STEM educations as merely a trade. What they miss is the joy of understanding how the world works. I remember many "aha!" moments like somebody turning on the lights in a dark cathedral. Like when I found out how jet engines really worked, not the handwavy cartoons one usually sees. Or when suddenly all the pieces fit together and I knew how a computer worked. Or when Prof Gomez turned math from black+white to color when he taught me calculus.

▲ eddhead an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Communist brainwashing for Trust Fund kids?

Seriously speaking what in Liberal Arts can you learn that's not already on Youtube now?

	▲	CobaltFire an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		This comment really speaks to the article. The commenter didn't even have the curiosity to read and comprehend the article, and made the articles point in that.
	▲	areoform an hour ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		From the article, `What can we learn about what other people are thinking, about their mental models of the world, by paying very careful attention to the words they use?` A lot of people will make fun of you, but I think everyone should read a book or two that's not airport pulp. Given you're on HN, try Gödel, Escher, Bach. https://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6del-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden... Be warned though, it'll take you well over a decade.
	▲	bulbar an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		You can learn anything from books, you never needed a college for that. Except, discussing things, having somebody else grade your coursework etc., you don't get that from books or YouTube.