Is it good policy to give financial aid to liberal arts majors?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Asher
Classics != History

Do you want to argue that Classics is the same as History, or would you rather dwell on semantics rather than deal with anything of substance? This is a rhetorical question, don't answer it -- we already know the answer...

Actually, what he quoted was rather amusing.

[Kuciwalker]

What the "liberal arts" side fails to recognize is that the hard sciences also teach you how to think. Physicists, biologists, and chemists aren't just little biological computers solving equations.

[Whaleboy]

An authority on GPU's and classics, an incredible feat at the best of times, more so when you make it clear that you haven't got the faintest idea about either!

It's a very specific set of studies for a very specific time that's pretty damn pointless today.

BS. What you're studying in classics is a range of texts in original and translated form that are selected to highlight certain periods in history. It's not a self-contained discipline and since you've already admitted you know nothing about it and have never studied it, and by implication are working entirely on prejudice, I'm surprised that you think your opinion should be taken seriously.

[Kuciwalker]

The only Classics programs I've heard about were ones where you learn calculus by reading Principia Mathematica, etc. I figure the only reason that people who graduate from those programs end up very skilled is because you'd have to be a good student to learn through such a suboptimal method.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
An authority on GPU's and classics, an incredible feat at the best of times, more so when you make it clear that you haven't got the faintest idea about either!

More nonsense and terrible arguments from the Liberal Arts major. I've already said my experience with classics is limited to knowing what it is, and here you are saying I'm acting like an authority on classics.

And yes, I am somewhat of an authority on GPUs because I do know a lot about them. Which is why you got your ass handed to you in that thread and let it slip from the front pages.

It's a very specific set of studies for a very specific time that's pretty damn pointless today.

BS. What you're studying in classics is a range of texts in original and translated form that are selected to highlight certain periods in history.

Do you realize you just called BS and said the same thing in a more flattering light?

From Wikipedia:

Classics, particularly within the Western university tradition, when used as a singular noun, means the study of the language, literature, history, art, and other aspects of Greek and Roman culture during the time frame known as classical antiquity.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
What the "liberal arts" side fails to recognize is that the hard sciences also teach you how to think.

Yes, but in a different and complementary fashion.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Anthropology is science. Social sciences are, for the most part, sciences. English is not a science.

Its nice to see someone here thinks that anthorpology is a "science". I guess his classes on Indian films were VERY scientific....

The knowledge you gain (or are supposed to gain) in law school is how to apply the basic facts; that's knowledge in itself. The point is that legal reasoning is, in our system, more akin to math than to English.

As someone who has to do legal reasoning for his job, I have to say I have not found this to be true. The kind of thinking I had to do in calculus was very different from the kind of thinking I find myself having to do at work. Which is good, since I did not like or care for the mathematical mehtod of thinking that much, and why I left math as soon as possible.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Agathon


Yes, but in a different and complementary fashion.

Agree.

I Hope Kuci goes to a Univerity with a good core program that forces people to take classes in all the fields. Best way of getting to see the differences.

[Kuciwalker]

What kind of law do you deal with?

xpost

[Whaleboy]

It's a disease of the English speaking world. We ought to be worried about that.

People have always wondered why Ashkenazi Jews are perceived to be so successful in life, and the answer is simple: we were brought up to constantly expand our horizons with various and diverse interests and studies. It's not just Jews, early Islam, India, Sung-dynasty China, Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe... all have been characterised by tremendous economic and social progress, and at the centre of it all can be found acceptance and encouragment of the arts and humanities .

Simiarly, think of all the periods you can of social and economic retardation... there the arts were on the fringes, sidelined by mainstream society and authoritarian governments who have always considered arts and humanities to be a breeding ground for dissent against authority.

[Agathon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classics

Could be better.... but I guess it's OK.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classics

Could be better.... but I guess it's OK.

Classics, particularly within the Western university tradition, when used as a singular noun, means the study of the language, literature, history, art, and other aspects of Greek and Roman culture during the time frame known as classical antiquity.

If that's not useful, I don't know what is.

[Kuciwalker]

People have always wondered why Ashkenazi Jews are perceived to be so successful in life, and the answer is simple: we were brought up to constantly expand our horizons with various and diverse interests and studies.

Actually, I'm fond of the theory that it was natural selection.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Whaleboy


People have always wondered why Ashkenazi Jews are perceived to be so successful in life, and the answer is simple: we were brought up to constantly expand our horizons with various and diverse interests and studies. It's not just Jews, early Islam, India, Sung-dynasty China, Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe... all have been characterised by tremendous economic and social progress, and at the centre of it all can be acceptance and encouragment of the arts and humanities .

I heard that the explanation for the Jews was: "Their mothers."

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker

People have always wondered why Ashkenazi Jews are perceived to be so successful in life, and the answer is simple: we were brought up to constantly expand our horizons with various and diverse interests and studies.

Actually, I'm fond of the theory that it was natural selection.

It's not.

It's that there are consequences for the Jewish kids for not doing well. I've taught loads. They aren't natively brighter than the others, but they tend to be much more motivated. The Jewish religion prizes intellectual accomplishment, the English tradition resents it.

Asian kids in NZ are exactly the same. Their parents have a much higher propensity to push them academically, and their culture values education and learning. To be a professor in an Asian country is a position of respect: in an English speaking country it is to be the object of suspicion.