Re:Biographer: Jobs refused early and potentially life-savin...
by paganel on Thursday October 20, 2011 @06:08PM
(#3137326)
> But I think it goes both ways; I'd like to see more hard scientists with a strong background in the liberal arts.
Exactly, I actually kind of have a little bit of sympathy for a guy like Oppenheimer that cited John Donne and the Bhagavad Gita after the first nuclear test (even though even the thought of nuclear bombs almost makes me sick to my stomach), but I suspect that today's scientists are not that versed in "liberal arts".
Re:Biographer: Jobs refused early and potentially life-savin...
by hugh3 on Thursday October 20, 2011 @07:36PM
(#3137635)
I try to be one of those scientists who is also well-versed in the humanities.
There are very few rewards for it, though, apart from a smug feeling of superiority to everybody and a massive further decrease in the number of people with whom I have anything in common. :)
Re:Biographer: Jobs refused early and potentially life-savin...
by dilap on Thursday October 20, 2011 @09:55PM
(#3137988)
Wait a minute, being knowledgeable in the humanities should vastly increase the number of people with whom you have something in common!
Re:Biographer: Jobs refused early and potentially life-savin...
by hugh3 on Friday October 21, 2011 @11:27AM
(#3140163)
Nah, it just doubles the likelihood that someone you're talking to is gonna say something you know is stupid.
"But by not requiring a deep, and I mean deep knowledge of hard science for any liberal arts degree, our great institutions have created an artificial separation between learned people."
But I think it goes both ways; I'd like to see more hard scientists with a strong background in the liberal arts.
Reminds me of how Oxford (it might still do so) calls their Physics degree/certification a degree in Natural Philosophy.