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Looks like arson - as in a deliberate attempt to initiate a flame war - to me.
Isn't that trolling?
Looks like arson - as in a deliberate attempt to initiate a flame war - to me.
Who has said otherwise?I've got a bachelors degree from the College of Liberal Arts (Political Science) but it would be silly to argue that my degree is somehow worth more than the degrees of physicists and doctors. All disciplines are important,
We don't know anything now from the so-called "hard sciences." What the natural sciences do is build more-or-less abstract models to help explain observed phenomena. That's useful enough for building cool gadgets, but there's no guarantee that those observed phenomena are actually occurring (as opposed to being artifacts of flawed observations) or that the processes the models describe are the way things actually happen: it's simply the global best-guess that provides outcomes most consistent with what has been observed.and without the work of many hard-sciences we would know nearly nothing about the physical world that we exist in.
Who said anything, in that context (note the emphasis), about college degrees?I also take serious objection to the assessment that my degree is an end, instead of a mean.
Isn't that trolling?
IMO it is. If you check the OP's post record, you will see many such postings. If you check other forums for the same nick, you will even see more.
Decide for yourself if you find it worth to play along in this "game" or not.
Looks like Ghostrider beat me to the punch, and in fewer words, too!
What is the use of remaining alive, if the remainder of that life is empty and devoid of beauty, enjoyment, and fulfillment? This is exactly an example of how science and technology merely provide the means, while the study of the liberal arts and humanities provides the end.
What use are ideas, if you can't share them? Technology allows ideas to be shared across distance and time.What use is a communications device, if you have no ideas to send back and forth across it? And if the only ideas you have to send back and forth are those relating to further improvements on communication devices, well, that seems a bit pointless, doesn't it?
Isn't that trolling?
Aww .Mod note: All the talk about trolling is off-topic, so stop.
Mod note: All the talk about trolling is off-topic, so stop. If you think flaming is occurring, report the post, please. Your choice is to participate in the discussion or not to do so. Complaining in the thread is not productive.
Now back to our discussion:
I think we are misled by the categorization and specialization of the modern academic system. You can't have engineering without science, and you can't have science without philosophy. Don't forget that some of the greatest scientific minds in history were philosophers, eg. Isaac Newton.
Back in the day, you wouldn't call him a physicist; rather he would be a "natural philsopher" or something similar.
Until about ten years ago I didn't have much use for the arts and philosophy.
I didn't understand it, it wasn't easy to pin down with math,
I liked airplanes and spacecraft and electronics, all of which were technical and relied on mathematics. So I work in the engineering field.
As I got a little older through my twenties and into my thirties I was unable to satisfy my curiosity about the world without looking into things like first principles and seeing what made people tick. I am fascinated by discussions of what the meaning of reality is, and how it relates to my life. Being human is more than just math.
And science and engineering is a human endeavor, so it turns out that when an engineer designs a machine he is, aware or not, applying his own personal conceptions to it. And the artist is using math and engineering in some form, as well. A digital photograph, for instance, cannot be created without the engineering and software that went into the equipment.
I think the idea of a "university" is kind of lost on so many people. To really get the most out of academics, you have to study both science and humanities, and you have to see them as a whole, instead of totally unrelated subjects.
Art, and ESPECIALLY post modern art, is in so far a means to an end as it is, above all, an expression. An Artist that doesn't believe in his "mission" for expression can hardly be considered an artist in the postmodern sense. And this expression again can be employed by the powers that be to their ends.But the liberal arts and humanities ARE the end in themselves. The liberal arts and humanities deal with what it means to be a human being, what it means to live.. They're what really matter.
If anything, liberal postmodern arts have become irresponsible, in that they care a bit about what they will actually cause. The artists are not aware anymore that they have a responsibility for what they actually cause in a society.
All natural sciences and technical fields do is develop tools. They're merely means to an end, not an end in themselves.
But the liberal arts and humanities ARE the end in themselves. The liberal arts and humanities deal with what it means to be a human being, what it means to live.. They're what really matter.
ups, yes, indeed I do. Thanks for pointing out!Huh? These two sentences seem to contradict each other. Do you mean "in that they *don't* care..."?