From: clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin)
Subject: Re: Any Humanities Grads out there?
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 92 17:05:41 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park
Originator: clin@coke.eng.umd.edu


In article <1992Apr17.140548.4576@mercury.unt.edu>, ac05@sol.acs.unt.edu (Bhattacharya Sumangala) writes:
[I write]
>>    It's interesting to see that some of those responding in favor
>>of humanities (and I'm not exactly opposed, just trying to liven
>>stuff up on the other side of the debate) are in the sciences
>>and engineering.   Personally, I think that while the numbers
>>of those in engineering and science who support the ideas of
>>liberal arts are small, these numbers are larger than the
>>numbers of humanities majors who feel that science and
>>engineering are worthwhile to learn (for themselves).
>
>Hoy!  Let's take a vote.  I'm a bona fide English major who finds that
>learning math and science stuff can be fun, if frustrating.  I've done a 
>B.A. in physics, a year of a somewhat more intense program in the B.Sc. hons.
>program at home.  And now that I'm an English major, I try (during summers,
>when I'm not reading 1500 page novels) to keep up, in a moderate sort of way.
>No, I don't do Fourier analyses in my spare time, or anything of that sort.  I
>do play with computers, dabble in programming etc.
>

   Aww, come one, that's cheating.  You already have a degree in physics.
So you're a closet "scientist" :-).

>Come now, don't you think that a open-minded humanities major can learn your
>field, given the basic instruction needed to get started? 

   I didn't say that.  There's a difference from being able to learn something and
wanting to learn something .  Given suffieicent effort, humanities majors could 
probabl;y do a reasonable job in various kinds of sciences.  It's just that I've 
noticed a small but reasonable percentage of scientist who do have genuine 
interests in the humanties and try to do things like read Shakespeare, etc.  I 
know of fewer people in the humanities (probably because I know so few people
in the humanties) who do electronics or computing for the fun of it.
I don't say they *can't* do it, only they don't seem to do it.

>
>>    I have heard several engineers and related majors interested
>>in philosophy, acting, Shakespeare, etc., but the number of
>>humanities majors interested in computing or electronics seems
>>much smaller.
>
>As I said, let's take a vote...I for one, hate feeling left out of discussions
>so, I like to learn enough to at least understand what you're talking about.
>One of my Shakespeare professors alluded to the Chaos theories to try to 
>explain Shakespeare's own concerns with order and Chaos.  Of course, I do know
>a few people who can't operate toasters and are proud of it.

   Well, good for you.  Would you happen to say that you are representative
of your fellow colleagues in the humanities in your interest in technology
and such?   If so, I withdraw my complaint.  All I'm saying is that not
all engineers and scientist look down upon the humanities.  Some find
it quite important in their lives.

>>--
>
>[big, BIG sig.  deleted, but you all know to whose post this is a follou-up]


   There's a bigger sig than mine that was recently posted.  It makes mine look like
yours in comparison.

   To get a signature (at least on my system which is a UNIX), go to your
home directory.  Create a file called .signature.  Put your signature in this
file.  Supposedly Pnews automatically appends the signature to the end of
all your posts though it limits it to four lines.  I use xrn myself and
by pass this four line limit.

--
   ______    __    __   ___  ____
  / ____ \  |  |  |__| |   \ |  |    Charles Lin
 | /    \_| |  |   __  |    \|  |    e-mail: clin@eng.umd.edu
 | |        |  |  |  | |  |\    |   
 | |     _  |  |  |__| |__| \___|    University of Maryland
 | \____/ | |  |____                 "I hate big sigs." -- Moo
  \______/  \_______|
Newsgroups: soc.college.grad