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

[Lawrence of Arabia]

One of my professors had a rather good class on ehtnic violence and how it spreads, and it also included some of the rationale for why irregular forces could last long in an insurgency, essentially in the different balance of terror between rebels and the military. Anyways, he had a paper on the Algerian civil war in which he was trying to come up with a formula to explain the workings of, well, I forget what exactly, but he was tyring to use calculus to understand the way violence was used in Algeria..

well, my professor figured it out.

beware, there is some math.

http://www.nber.org/cgi-bin/author_papers.pl?author=eli_berman

for part 1, click on w6717 and for part 2, click on w10004. (you have to pay, I have them as part of the course, but they are too big to attach)

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
So? The subject is still more science than liberal art.

That's a philosophical question, so you smelly oiks better butt out and mind your own business.

FTR I have no idea what the answer is, but I do know that psych students tend to be FOS.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

psych students also tend to be the must scrwed up mentally.

[Agathon]

Why don't you just say that in universities, some subjects tend to be fact based and some value based.

Philosophy is slap bang in the middle, the sciences are not at all value based, and things like economics come between science and philosophy, while things like Lit and Art History come well to the value side.

If you want a university based only on factual investigations, you're a ******. What's the point of finding stuff out if we have no decent idea what to do with it?

If you think that everyone should just decide for themselves what's worth doing, then you're also a ****. In the real world most important decisions are based on consensus and dialectics. That you want it won't cut it in a serious discussion. Relativism may or may not be true, but its a waste of time practically speaking.

The problems with an education based solely on value are too obvious to bear repeating.

That's the answer to this thread. Feel free to continue talking out your asses.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
psych students also tend to be the must scrwed up mentally.

And they don't seem to learn anything. The number of psych girls manipulated into putting out every week is staggering.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

actually good news, I can download it for free, heres the link for free download


part 2

http://papers.nber.org/tmp/49805-w10004.pdf

aaannd heres part 1

http://papers.nber.org/tmp/53976-w6715.pdf

enjoy.

[Sikander]

Intellectual knowledge is a poor substitute for emotional knowledge when the latter is what's required.

[Agathon]

Y'know... I hate to say this (well I don't really, but..) Kuci and Jaguar remind me of Merry and Pippin.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Agathon
That's a philosophical question, so you smelly oiks better butt out and mind your own business.

FTR I have no idea what the answer is, but I do know that psych students tend to be FOS.

All of the published psychology research papers I've read have seemed to be just as scientific as the biology ones.

[Apocalypse]

Originally posted by Asher

Psychology and International Studies don't nearly have the same math as Economics does...

The good ones do.

Edit: not the same type of math all the time, but in terms of importance and whatnot.

[Dinner]

Liberal Arts had a good reaons to come into existance. Originally a liberal Arts major was someone who would go to graduate school where he would specialize in law or business or some other school.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

The good ones do.

theres no way - they have no need for calc I, calc II, partials, statistics, probabilities, or econometrics.

[Az]

Btw not all BAs are "liberal arts". I have a BA in chemistry. It's simply a code-word for a 3 year program. They are fools for giving 3 year degrees though - they just cramped more classes in less time....

[BeBMan]

Just curious, why is it so important how much math there is in a certain field? I don't think this would say something about the level of "scientificness" in this field.......

[Dinner]

Originally posted by BeBro
Just curious, why is it so important how much math there is in a certain field? I don't think this would say something about the level of "scientificness" in this field.......

Because some people have a need to feel better then other people. Thus they brag about things like how mucht e average person in a field makes or how many math classes they took. It is sad really. People should be more conserned with what makes them happy rather then what makes the most money.

I myself could make more money by switching my focus but I have chosen to do what allows me to live where I want to live and do things which allow me to fell good aboput how I make my living.