Q: Why do more and more students choose to study applied science and hard skills instead of humanities? A: As tuition costs continue to rise, many students prioritize studying something that can boost their job prospects. The trend is seen as a means for economic betterment rather than human betterment, leading to a decline in liberal arts majors by nearly 50% over the past generation. Labs are now seen as more compelling than libraries, making it likely that the slide of humanities will persist or accelerate.
Q: What value do humanities add to people’s lives? A: Humanities help us understand the inner forces that drive people to greatness or self-destruction through stories, music, myth, painting, architecture, sculpture, landscape, and traditions. Studying humanities improves our reading and writing ability and makes us familiar with the language of emotion and creative processes. It also invests us with great insight and self-awareness that unleashes our creative energy in positive ways. Furthermore, studying humanities prepares us for various careers from medicine to business to entertainment.
Q: Are technical knowledge and inner insight both important in establishing a career? A: Yes. Nowadays, having technical knowledge alone may not be enough in meeting the needs of modern life. Pairing technical knowledge with inner insight is seen as ideal in establishing a career. For example, if two medical school applicants have the required basic scientific courses but one is a philosophy major while the other is solely a pre-med student, the philosophy applicant would be chosen because they possess both technical knowledge and inner insight gained from studying humanities.
Q: Why should we spend time studying humanities? A: Humanities help create well-rounded human beings with insight and understanding of passions, hopes, and dreams common to all humanity. They teach us to see things differently and broaden our horizons while providing timeless reservoirs of knowledge relevant in modern times. Studying humanities could lead us to become outstanding and remarkable individuals who achieve fame and success.
