From: wkl1@Ra.MsState.Edu (Wing-Keong Loke                                               the consummate chronic prevaricator)
Subject: Re: Any Humanities Grads out there?
Organization: Mississippi State University
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 04:33:30 GMT

>
>
>I think you misunderstand the point when engineers say "what are you going
>to do with a humanities major?" That does not mean that they are just interested
>in a good job. That might very well mean that they are planning on engaging 
>in a lifetime of creative construction of artifacts to advance the human 
>condition, whereas most humanities majors are not studying to do this.
>Studying literature (for example) is all well and good, but a million
>people studying literature is not going to feed any starving people, or
>launch anybody into space.
	If this were so, I would expect more engineering students to 
go for a masters or higher degree.  But a lot stop at a BEng.  And, oh yes,
the engineers who've asked me what I'm going to do invariably refer to the
money I won't be making.  I've even been told to do somethings with my
degree which pays off the most handsomely.  But it's funny how your experiences
and mine differ.  Maybe it's the company we keep :-).
>
>Speaking as an engineer, I love to study the humanities, nor do I think it's a 
>waste of time. But I do think that most engineers spend their lives building
>stuff, creating things that others will use, whereas most humanities people
>simply study the creations of a (relatively few) great contributors, and
>really do not create anything themselves which others will see.
>
>There is teaching, and there is writting, but how many humanities majors
>go on to those two very constructive and contributory fields? (Plenty, sure,
>but 99.9% of engineers spend their entire professio
	99.9% "creating ?"  Isn't writing an essay an act of "creating ?"
You didn't say what type of "creating ?"  Physicists don't "create" that
much if you're talking about solid objects.  When you say almost all engineers
are creating, I don't imagine them as coming up with something really
suprising but according to some set of blueprints or something.  Creating
things is great, but I think you're assuming too much by saying most
engineers create while humanities majors don't.

>
>Another thing I'd like to add is that this discussion shifted from 'which is 
     It's all too easy to make the mistake in changing the topic from
which is harder to which is better.  This is not some mathematical formula
that we're all talking about.  If you lighten up, maybe we could have a
discussion.  By the way, calling someone "paranoid" just because somebody
chose to talk about something else isn't very nice.  I could say the same
about you for even bringing up the point of which is harder.  Are you
worried ?  See how easy it is to take someone to task ?  Maybe we all need
more humanities courses before we put more objects in space.
>personal level. It is obviously perceived to be less useful to society. 
>(Why do I say that? Look at salaries, which messure how important society
>perceives a profession to be. Also note the fact that humanities people are
>a lot more sensitive and defensive about their field then engineers.)
>
	Ahem.  So the money we pay baseball players says it's very, very
useful to society.  As to humanities people being more sensitive and 
defensive, didn't you just call someone "paranoid" for what I judge to
be a not very good reason.  Seems like you want people to talk about
what you're interested in, not what interests them.


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