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 @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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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 my computer science degree from #WSU had a required ethics course. Only one semester, but that’s something. I wonder if they still do.
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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
stems without roots, leaves or flowers don't last long. same for STEM.
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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 It's arguably worse than that. Those areas certainly suffered less than the humanities; but it's not like the shifting percentage of "tech" that involves actually designing useful tools vs. the adtech and dark patterns on the consumer side and SaaS feeding frenzy and VC valuation fluffing on the business side has been pretty to watch. Nor has the shift in incentives for people with decent math away from physics and toward exotic derivatives and quant stuff.
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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'd argue that STEM often grows the other ones as a bi-product very reliably:
- higher wages and lower work load means more free time to explore humanities
- analytics and result/growth focused mindset popularized by STEM applies to humanities just as well
- humanities being more of a hobby subject protects it from commercial negativityWe should actually do _more_ STEM. I'd really just complain about "business degrees" as these are just useless outside of a class or two.
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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.
@mastodonmigration @thepurpleoctopus And Elmo’s version will be even worse.
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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
, and anyone who disagrees with you has clearly never worked with a bunch of engineers who tried to solve human problems with More Code. -
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 with the sentiment, but is that failing globally or somewhere specifically? Any sourced per-country graphs with trends somewhere?
At least in my little part of the EU, we seem to graduate significantly more (more then double) non-STEM (e.g. agriculture, politicians, business, administration, hospitality, lawyers, medical, historians, philosophers, arts) then STEM folks.
TBH, I'd rather cut down say politics and law. I like tap water, HVAC, 'net and electricity
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@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.)
@LPerry2 @thepurpleoctopus
I'm very familiar with the various historic use/abuse of mummies, but it's at best, only peripherally related to the point I made about the history of blue pigments which was pivotal to the evolution or art and science, the rise and fall of entire civilizations over millennia. -
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
C. P. Snow wrote about this in "the wltwo cultures" and it's never been more (depressingly) relevant
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