Society is starting to look exactly like what happens when we spend decades treating STEM as the only path worth investing in, while sidelining the humanities.
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Society is starting to look exactly like what happens when we spend decades treating STEM as the only path worth investing in, while sidelining the humanities.
This isn't a criticism of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. We need them. Desperately. They should be well supported.
But we also need philosophy, history, literature, languages, ethics, the arts, and every discipline that wrestles with what it means to be human. We need people who can understand the human condition, recognise propaganda, interpret context, think critically about power, engage with complexity, and ask not only how the world works, but what kind of world we ought to build.
A society built only to solve technical problems eventually forgets how to solve human ones.
#Humanities #STEM #Education #CriticalThinking #Ethics #Democracy #Society
@thepurpleoctopus
“The main business of humanity is to do a good job of being human beings," said Paul, "not to serve as appendages to machines, institutions, and systems.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano -
@Colman What would you suggest then? I'm open for suggestions
@thepurpleoctopus what did you call it in olden days? Before some guru did a divide and conquer as parr of a mission to tame universities.
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Society is starting to look exactly like what happens when we spend decades treating STEM as the only path worth investing in, while sidelining the humanities.
This isn't a criticism of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. We need them. Desperately. They should be well supported.
But we also need philosophy, history, literature, languages, ethics, the arts, and every discipline that wrestles with what it means to be human. We need people who can understand the human condition, recognise propaganda, interpret context, think critically about power, engage with complexity, and ask not only how the world works, but what kind of world we ought to build.
A society built only to solve technical problems eventually forgets how to solve human ones.
#Humanities #STEM #Education #CriticalThinking #Ethics #Democracy #Society
@thepurpleoctopus Relatedly, a shift more towards a liberal arts education. Yes we need historians and philosophers and ethicists,
but we also, desperately, need scientists, engineers, mathematicians, who can actually think coherently about ethics, about how their work interacts with humanity, how their work will impact a society and what could go wrong with it, etc. - and that means teaching ethics, philosophy, history, etc. even to STEM students. -
Society is starting to look exactly like what happens when we spend decades treating STEM as the only path worth investing in, while sidelining the humanities.
This isn't a criticism of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. We need them. Desperately. They should be well supported.
But we also need philosophy, history, literature, languages, ethics, the arts, and every discipline that wrestles with what it means to be human. We need people who can understand the human condition, recognise propaganda, interpret context, think critically about power, engage with complexity, and ask not only how the world works, but what kind of world we ought to build.
A society built only to solve technical problems eventually forgets how to solve human ones.
#Humanities #STEM #Education #CriticalThinking #Ethics #Democracy #Society
This is a bit of a stretch, but feel like your thesis is well illustrated by the recent big hit IMAX spectacle production of Homer's epic Greek poem.
Rather than rely on classics scholars to produce something that hued to the essence of this classic literary form, they created a tedious Cliff notes summary with wooden vocabulary and made up 21st century nonsense morality themes.
Feel like the film was made targeting a mass audience incapable of appreciating art.
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@thepurpleoctopus what did you call it in olden days? Before some guru did a divide and conquer as parr of a mission to tame universities.
@Colman I'm not from the anglosphere, but we called it just "natural sciences". The local term for STEM then was MINT (Mathematik, Informatik, Naturwissenschaften und Technik).
I usually still use the term Naturwissenschaften (natural sciences) in regular speech, but it doesn't translate that well to English directly.
That said, I do agree with you, and I would use a different term than STEM if I did not mean to highlight everything that came with the term.
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Society is starting to look exactly like what happens when we spend decades treating STEM as the only path worth investing in, while sidelining the humanities.
This isn't a criticism of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. We need them. Desperately. They should be well supported.
But we also need philosophy, history, literature, languages, ethics, the arts, and every discipline that wrestles with what it means to be human. We need people who can understand the human condition, recognise propaganda, interpret context, think critically about power, engage with complexity, and ask not only how the world works, but what kind of world we ought to build.
A society built only to solve technical problems eventually forgets how to solve human ones.
#Humanities #STEM #Education #CriticalThinking #Ethics #Democracy #Society
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@thepurpleoctopus Relatedly, a shift more towards a liberal arts education. Yes we need historians and philosophers and ethicists,
but we also, desperately, need scientists, engineers, mathematicians, who can actually think coherently about ethics, about how their work interacts with humanity, how their work will impact a society and what could go wrong with it, etc. - and that means teaching ethics, philosophy, history, etc. even to STEM students.@miss_rodent@girlcock.club @thepurpleoctopus@lgbtqia.space splitting natural philosophy out of philosophy and renaming it "science" was, to put it bluntly, a mistake. The results of separating them... well, the planet is on fire and our societies are terrible, so...
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Society is starting to look exactly like what happens when we spend decades treating STEM as the only path worth investing in, while sidelining the humanities.
This isn't a criticism of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. We need them. Desperately. They should be well supported.
But we also need philosophy, history, literature, languages, ethics, the arts, and every discipline that wrestles with what it means to be human. We need people who can understand the human condition, recognise propaganda, interpret context, think critically about power, engage with complexity, and ask not only how the world works, but what kind of world we ought to build.
A society built only to solve technical problems eventually forgets how to solve human ones.
#Humanities #STEM #Education #CriticalThinking #Ethics #Democracy #Society
@thepurpleoctopus as a person with a bachelor in psychology and a PhD in polar geophysics, I have firsthand exoerience in exactly how hard society misunderstands *all of this*
[currently working as a bicycle mechanic, apparently the best usage of a heavily multi-disciplinary education
️. Also 4 years into collecting rejection letters for 'professional' roles] -
Society is starting to look exactly like what happens when we spend decades treating STEM as the only path worth investing in, while sidelining the humanities.
This isn't a criticism of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. We need them. Desperately. They should be well supported.
But we also need philosophy, history, literature, languages, ethics, the arts, and every discipline that wrestles with what it means to be human. We need people who can understand the human condition, recognise propaganda, interpret context, think critically about power, engage with complexity, and ask not only how the world works, but what kind of world we ought to build.
A society built only to solve technical problems eventually forgets how to solve human ones.
#Humanities #STEM #Education #CriticalThinking #Ethics #Democracy #Society
@thepurpleoctopus@lgbtqia.space this 100%!
On my homeworld in my previous life we lived in treehouses whenever we lived in a dense forest area, but we still had STEM related things, but we also knew we had to focus on history, literature, languages, ethics, and arts.. that said we did have androids similar to Lt. Data living among us (but we integrated them within our society in a way that we didn't allow the AI to too heavily replace bio-lifeforms.. then again we did have space travel, sooo shrugs)
Everything in moderation can be useful and good. I just wish humanity would understand that better, and not try to focus on one thing so much that everything else falls out by the wayside. -
Society is starting to look exactly like what happens when we spend decades treating STEM as the only path worth investing in, while sidelining the humanities.
This isn't a criticism of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. We need them. Desperately. They should be well supported.
But we also need philosophy, history, literature, languages, ethics, the arts, and every discipline that wrestles with what it means to be human. We need people who can understand the human condition, recognise propaganda, interpret context, think critically about power, engage with complexity, and ask not only how the world works, but what kind of world we ought to build.
A society built only to solve technical problems eventually forgets how to solve human ones.
#Humanities #STEM #Education #CriticalThinking #Ethics #Democracy #Society
@thepurpleoctopus yup!
Vaccine hesitancy is a humanities problem, not a science one.
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Society is starting to look exactly like what happens when we spend decades treating STEM as the only path worth investing in, while sidelining the humanities.
This isn't a criticism of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. We need them. Desperately. They should be well supported.
But we also need philosophy, history, literature, languages, ethics, the arts, and every discipline that wrestles with what it means to be human. We need people who can understand the human condition, recognise propaganda, interpret context, think critically about power, engage with complexity, and ask not only how the world works, but what kind of world we ought to build.
A society built only to solve technical problems eventually forgets how to solve human ones.
#Humanities #STEM #Education #CriticalThinking #Ethics #Democracy #Society
@thepurpleoctopus @StaceyCornelius Yes.
I believe that the ability to solve humanistic problems is being intentionally purged by a ruling class which believes the solutions will reduce its relative power. (It’s correct.) I have never seen such an enormous and effective top-down attack on cultural knowledge.
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Society is starting to look exactly like what happens when we spend decades treating STEM as the only path worth investing in, while sidelining the humanities.
This isn't a criticism of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. We need them. Desperately. They should be well supported.
But we also need philosophy, history, literature, languages, ethics, the arts, and every discipline that wrestles with what it means to be human. We need people who can understand the human condition, recognise propaganda, interpret context, think critically about power, engage with complexity, and ask not only how the world works, but what kind of world we ought to build.
A society built only to solve technical problems eventually forgets how to solve human ones.
#Humanities #STEM #Education #CriticalThinking #Ethics #Democracy #Society
@thepurpleoctopus
The problem is the demonstrably ahistorical, weaponized modern perception that there exists some clear division between arts and sciences.There has never been, and can never be, great art but for great science, and no great science but for great art.
Even a cursory examination of blue pigment throughout history is only one of thousands of examples across dozens of disciplines that substantiate my point.
The real question is who, what class, and what ideology materially benefits from fomenting this false dichotomy?
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Society is starting to look exactly like what happens when we spend decades treating STEM as the only path worth investing in, while sidelining the humanities.
This isn't a criticism of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. We need them. Desperately. They should be well supported.
But we also need philosophy, history, literature, languages, ethics, the arts, and every discipline that wrestles with what it means to be human. We need people who can understand the human condition, recognise propaganda, interpret context, think critically about power, engage with complexity, and ask not only how the world works, but what kind of world we ought to build.
A society built only to solve technical problems eventually forgets how to solve human ones.
#Humanities #STEM #Education #CriticalThinking #Ethics #Democracy #Society
As someone who studied history and politics as an undergraduate, I was stunned at how mainstream economists (those that weren’t interested in economic development, behavioural economics or economic history) seemed to think they inhabited a world where ethics and morality were not their concern. Within months of entering the economics department of a well respected university, the financial crash of 2008 was upon us…and still 95% of academic staff felt no shame.
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As someone who studied history and politics as an undergraduate, I was stunned at how mainstream economists (those that weren’t interested in economic development, behavioural economics or economic history) seemed to think they inhabited a world where ethics and morality were not their concern. Within months of entering the economics department of a well respected university, the financial crash of 2008 was upon us…and still 95% of academic staff felt no shame.
If economics and business graduates of the 80’s, 90’s and noughties had been taught to consider that their financial models, decisions and actions have moral consequences - would we be in a different place now? Possibly.
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@thepurpleoctopus
The problem is the demonstrably ahistorical, weaponized modern perception that there exists some clear division between arts and sciences.There has never been, and can never be, great art but for great science, and no great science but for great art.
Even a cursory examination of blue pigment throughout history is only one of thousands of examples across dozens of disciplines that substantiate my point.
The real question is who, what class, and what ideology materially benefits from fomenting this false dichotomy?
@muiren @thepurpleoctopus Look up Egyptian brown paint some time. I don't know what the hell category that falls under! (But if I were a horror writer, I'd have some ideas.)
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Society is starting to look exactly like what happens when we spend decades treating STEM as the only path worth investing in, while sidelining the humanities.
This isn't a criticism of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. We need them. Desperately. They should be well supported.
But we also need philosophy, history, literature, languages, ethics, the arts, and every discipline that wrestles with what it means to be human. We need people who can understand the human condition, recognise propaganda, interpret context, think critically about power, engage with complexity, and ask not only how the world works, but what kind of world we ought to build.
A society built only to solve technical problems eventually forgets how to solve human ones.
#Humanities #STEM #Education #CriticalThinking #Ethics #Democracy #Society
@thepurpleoctopus Well stated. Thank you for this.
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@miss_rodent@girlcock.club @thepurpleoctopus@lgbtqia.space splitting natural philosophy out of philosophy and renaming it "science" was, to put it bluntly, a mistake. The results of separating them... well, the planet is on fire and our societies are terrible, so...
@aud @miss_rodent This!
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Society is starting to look exactly like what happens when we spend decades treating STEM as the only path worth investing in, while sidelining the humanities.
This isn't a criticism of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. We need them. Desperately. They should be well supported.
But we also need philosophy, history, literature, languages, ethics, the arts, and every discipline that wrestles with what it means to be human. We need people who can understand the human condition, recognise propaganda, interpret context, think critically about power, engage with complexity, and ask not only how the world works, but what kind of world we ought to build.
A society built only to solve technical problems eventually forgets how to solve human ones.
#Humanities #STEM #Education #CriticalThinking #Ethics #Democracy #Society
@thepurpleoctopus I'm old. I remember someone calling attention to this exact issue back in 1966.
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Society is starting to look exactly like what happens when we spend decades treating STEM as the only path worth investing in, while sidelining the humanities.
This isn't a criticism of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. We need them. Desperately. They should be well supported.
But we also need philosophy, history, literature, languages, ethics, the arts, and every discipline that wrestles with what it means to be human. We need people who can understand the human condition, recognise propaganda, interpret context, think critically about power, engage with complexity, and ask not only how the world works, but what kind of world we ought to build.
A society built only to solve technical problems eventually forgets how to solve human ones.
#Humanities #STEM #Education #CriticalThinking #Ethics #Democracy #Society
@thepurpleoctopus exactly this
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Society is starting to look exactly like what happens when we spend decades treating STEM as the only path worth investing in, while sidelining the humanities.
This isn't a criticism of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. We need them. Desperately. They should be well supported.
But we also need philosophy, history, literature, languages, ethics, the arts, and every discipline that wrestles with what it means to be human. We need people who can understand the human condition, recognise propaganda, interpret context, think critically about power, engage with complexity, and ask not only how the world works, but what kind of world we ought to build.
A society built only to solve technical problems eventually forgets how to solve human ones.
#Humanities #STEM #Education #CriticalThinking #Ethics #Democracy #Society
@thepurpleoctopus I agree! In my classes (Conservation Biology, Biostatistics, Freshwater Ecology) we spend a lot of time discussing values, ethics, philosophy, it's essential and complementary to the maths, modelling, etc.
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