From: ejh@khonshu.colorado.edu (Edward J. Hartnett)
Subject: Re: Any Humanities Grads out there?
Organization: Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 22:11:23 GMT

In article <1992Apr13.203349.1317@midway.uchicago.edu> ogil@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>In article <1992Apr13.191754.21615@colorado.edu> ejh@khonshu.colorado.edu (Edward J. Hartnett) writes:
>>In article <1992Apr13.171003.18664@blaze.cs.jhu.edu> callahan@biffvm.cs.jhu.edu (Paul Callahan) writes:
>>> [quoted material deleted--BWO]
>>>
>>>Maybe not boast, but I've heard plenty of engineering students claim that
>>>literature or the arts are unimportant.  Also, there's certainly a prejudice
>>>that liberal arts majors are somehow intrinsically easier than technical 
>>>majors.
>>
>>Actually, I think they are harder. I'm an electrical eng., but I took quite
>>a few LA courses, and not the easy engineering ones either, I mean the
>>toughest ones. And studying a detailed history of the reformation, or
>>the works of Shakespear, no matter in what depth, is a hell of a lot easier
>>then learning Foruier transforms!!
>
>Did Mr. Hartnett actually mean to say that liberal arts are _easier_
>than technical subjects?  The rest of his reply seems to indicate
>that, but his first sentence seems to indicate that they (referring,
>of course, to "liberal arts majors," are harder.  It certainly seems
>like Rhetoric, one of the seven liberal arts of the Middle Ages, is
>beyond his grasp, unless he is borrowing the deconstructionists'
>technique of deliberately confusing his readers.
>
	My meaning was clear, or so I thought. The 'they' refers to technical
courses, not to LA courses. On the other hand, I want to be crystal clear:
I think that advanced LA courses are CONSIDERABLY easier than advanced
science/engineering/math courses. (excepting the study of languages, which
I have never been good at.) One could easily argue that to do well in a 
course in literature (for example) and to truely get something out if it 
are different things. You take 'Hamlet' for example. Great play, full of
good stuff. But really, all you need is a little time and a good dictionary.
You can think about it for hours, look at the way your own experiences are
similar to Hamlet's, wonder about things like whether his mother was part
of the plot to murder the king, etc. Great stuuf, as I say. I love stuff 
like. There is no way that you can compare that with solving circuits, which
requires lots of very hard work,and turns your brain to mush. For one thing,
the pace in E.E. courses was a lot faster. Now if you had to read and discuss and
everything else about 'Hamlet' in one day, and the next day do 'Romeo and Juliet,'
and so one, onle play per day for the whole term (in addition to other
classes), that would be hard.
	Not only is rhetoric beyond my grasp, but an understanding of 
why anyone thinks it has any value is beyond my grasp.
(I'm not making a general statement about LAs, just rhetoric). (If you're
interested in why I think so, read Locke's "On the Conduct of the Understanding")
By the way, no need to be so formal. Call me Ed.

>Since I bothered to respond to this article, I will also point out
>that "Shakespeare" and "Fourier" are misspelled (though the latter
>could simply be a typo).  Followups on this paragraph to
>alt.flame.spelling, please.
>
Thanks for bothering. "I have no respect for a man who can only spell
a word one way" - Mark Twain.

>And at the University of Chicago, Fourier transforms are (or were, six
>years ago) taught in Freshman honors physics.
>
>

That's great. Fourier transforms can be taught easy or hard. Maybe I should
have said 'a hell of a lot easier than learning to use F. analysis to design
filtering circuits.' Believe me, there's no comparison between that and a
Freshman formula physics course.
I could say that LAs are so easy that I was learning them in High School, but
that would hardly be fair.
>-- 
>Brian W. Ogilvie           "Find a need and fool it!"
>b-ogilvie@uchicago.edu              --Zippy the Pinhead

You seem a little touchy about this Brian. Would I be far wrong if I
guessed that you are on of those dreaded humanities people yourself?
	Ed Hartnett

Newsgroups: soc.college.grad