::The Citizen - Liberal Arts, Science, and Education	2009-01-08 01:13:42 | TMSTKSBK
	Liberal Arts (noun): The study of a wide range of subjects, providing the scholar with information relevant for forming a coherent and comprehensive analysis of information received later in life. This is a simple definition of the concept comprising the prevalent course of study at Western institutions of higher learning. An objective observer would approve of the concept presented herein, which is that the scholar exits the course of learning with the ability to look at any information from a variety of perspectives, and analyze it according to the viewpoints of myriad philosophies. The first universities in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia adhered to this concept. They provided the scholars in attendance the ability to think deeply about any topic from a variety of related and unrelated perspectives. This, then, is the true purpose of a "liberal arts" degree: The ability to reason carefully from any perspective. European universities, emerging in the late middle ages and Renaissance, taught their students how to think. Students did "major" in some subject, but the subjects were not the silos they are in most modern institutions. Instead, the student chose his own course of study, relevant to what he wished to learn. Instead of the universities being administration- and teacher-driven, the students were in charge of their own destinies, and took that responsibility very seriously. However, it is the unfortunate truth the most "liberal arts" programs in modern times are simply the acquisition of a meaningless piece of paper for the purpose of stating that the bearer attended an institution of "higher learning". The current program of liberal arts study is comprised of information that does not allow the recipient to reason with problems posited to them today. Many liberal arts majors are not capable of contributing to society in a manner more meaningful than listing historical dates, or citing the works of obscure authors from centuries past. They cannot correlate past and present events, nor can they tell you why an author's works are important in our present time. Or perhaps only telling you what golf club you should use in a particular situation. This is not a failure of the scholar, but of the system which is entrusted with preparing the scholar. But this travesty is not the only problem facing "liberal arts" today. In the past, science was an offshoot of natural philosophy. It was a reasoning from a liberal arts perspective about how the world might work. As it matured, it emerged from the field of "liberal arts" into its own more stringently defined course of study. This course of study has branched and branched again into the many and varied technical studies present in modern universities. The problem here is that the liberal arts have somehow, in the course of divorcing science, lost the focus on the scholar's need to reason and use logic to determine truth and falsity. This lack of instructing a modern liberal arts major on how to carefully reason through any question or problem from a variety of perspectives is at the core of why our society is crumbling. When the supposedly "learned elite" of a society are incapable of carefully comparing their society to others, of determining from history just what similarities and differences the current state of the world has to another point in time, the society will be incapable of discerning what ideas are beneficial to its own preservation, and which ideas will slowly erode its very core. In the late 1800s and 1900s, Western civilization was at the forefront of human progress. Many choices were made with far-reaching ramifications. Some of these choices were made poorly, and we are still paying the price today.Universities were producing almost entirely liberal arts majors, who were of the older style, reasoning from many perspectives. However, in the late 1900s, and continuing now in the 21st century, Western civilization is dependent on the continued amity of civilizations categorically different from our own. We are no longer capable of inventing, developing, and producing all of our own needs. Instead, we administer the process, and provide comforts to ourselves. We can only provide so many services to ourselves before the lack of anything of value catches up with our society. We can only consume so many things of value without producing anything before our current friends no longer need our services. The problem of the "liberal arts", then, is tightly intertwined with our overall economic potential. If the people we place over us as learned scholars are, in truth, incapable of correctly analyzing information, of producing items or information of worth, our society cannot endeavor toward the greatest human goal. In order to create scholars capable and prepared to face the myriad problems of the modern world, we must first revert, then enhance. First, reversion. We must look back to the roots of the concept of a University. The University is to be a place where a scholar will learn a very large amount about a few subjects, but also a great deal about many other subjects peripherally or even objectively unrelated to his or her primary course of study. To continue our reversion to useful education, courses of study must be less strictly defined. Accreditation of a university or a program within a university should not be based upon a checklist. Instead, a student should be able to craft what he or she feels is the most useful course of study corresponding to his or her passions. This is not to imply that a scholar should have complete control over what he or she decides learn. The scholar should not be able to pick the path of least resistance to a degree. To allow this defeats the entire purpose of our reversion. Secondly, we must enhance the course of study known as liberal arts. The most common course of study for liberal arts majors is almost entirely focused on the humanities. While the humanities are necessary for a well-defined perspective on the world, one that is not entirely quantitatively bound, they are not sufficient to analyze the problems of the modern world. To this end, universities must provide liberal arts majors with a much stronger focus on reasoning and logic. It is a betrayal of the purpose of a university if anyone in any major graduates from such an institution without them at least knowing what modus ponens and modus tollens are. Furthermore, while a solid foundation in reasoning would serve any person of any major well, it behooves all universities to provide liberal arts majors with a refocused course of study that encompasses the modern necessities of science and mathematics. While these two composite subjects are primarily the domain of specialists in those fields and engineers, a truly liberal modern education is incomplete without the scholar understanding and being able to apply the principles presented therein. Taking these steps will save society. As it currently stands, Western civilization is incapable of picking up the pieces if we were to lose our technology. Knowledge is being lost due to our system of education focusing either entirely on humanities or entirely on a technical ivory tower of information. It is true that some passing service is made to the original concept of a university, and that students in one tower are permitted to visit the other tower for short periods now and again, but this nodding acquaintance with the denizens of separate camps is abusive to the spirit of the ideal university. Instead, graduates of a university in any major should have a focus in one area or another, but be very strongly grounded in history, language, natural sciences, mathematics, and philosophy, whatever their concentration. To permit any other concept of instruction to have sway is to relegate the University to a technical school or a simple college, teaching but one concept. This will allow our society the resources it needs to not only remain in the vanguard of progress, but to protect what it already knows.
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