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What’s the Point of the Humanities? — John Horgan (The Science Writer)

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Why should STEM students have to read this old guy? I found this photo of a bust of Socrates on Wikipedia. The humanities, you may have heard, are in trouble. Enrollment in philosophy, history and literature courses “is in free fall,” The New Yorker reports. Defenses of the humanities, such as one published last week in The Los Angeles Review of Books, come across as cries of rage and despair rather than reasoned arguments. I tried to defend the humanities myself a decade ago after reading a New York Times lament about declining enrollments. (Yeah, this is an old story.) Below is a revised version of my column. –John Horgan What's the point of the humanities? Of courses in philosophy, history and literature? I was forced to confront this question in 2010 when I started teaching a humanities course required for first-year students at Stevens Institute of Technology. The syllabus includes Socrates, Thucydides, Shakespeare, Descartes, Marx, Freud and other bigshots [Postscript]. I love te

What’s the Point of the Humanities? Jul 19 Written By John Horgan Why should STEM students have to read this old guy? I found this photo of a bust of Socrates on Wikipedia . July 19, 2023. The humanities, you may have heard, are in trouble. Enrollment in philosophy, history and literature courses “is in free fall,” The New Yorker reports . Defenses of the humanities, such as one published last week in The Los Angeles Review of Books , come across as cries of rage and despair rather than reasoned arguments. I tried to defend the humanities myself a decade ago after reading a New York Times lame

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