Liberal Arts and the Advantages of Being Useless Essay Example For Students

Liberal Arts and the Advantages of Being Useless Essay The oil in the lamp burns itself, The cinnamon tree is edible, so it is cut down The varnish tree is useful so it is cut apart, All know the advantage of being useful, but no one knows the advantage of being useless. (364-230 BCC), Gazing, Transactions in the World of Men When we are young, its easy to figure out vat to do next. At least, that Vass my experience. In high school, knew what was going to do after each school day: sports practice (I was a sock), then eat, then watch some TV, then sleep. And I knew what was going to do after high school graduation: go to college. And I knew What was going to do after each school day again: go to work (I was poor), then eat, then watch some TV, then sleep. Even knew what I was going to do after college graduation: go to graduate school. Of course, ended my undergraduate schooling with a philosophy degree. So it wasnt much of a surprise to anyone that went to graduate school. After all, what else was I going o do with a philosophy degree? Law school, maybe. But anyone who knew me also knew I didnt have a penchant for layering. And everyone knew I also had no desire to flip burgers or deliver pizzas, It seems my hand was pretty much forced: graduate school or bust. Liberal Arts, and the Advantages to Being Useless 2 Lucky for me got admitted to a graduate program. Thinness, who knows might still be unemployed, or stuck flipping burgers like all the other philosophy majors who dont go to graduate school. I mean, if theres any college major thats totally useless, its got to be Philosophy! Of course, I dont mean to be biased toward Philosophy. There are lots of useless college majors: History, English, Music, Sociology pretty much the entire repertoire of Liberal Arts bet there are some of you who disagree, who think Liberal Arts degrees arent useless. Youre wrong. Also bet that, among those Of you who agree, who think Liberal Arts degrees are useless, youre prong about why they are useless. One Of my goals, accordingly, is to explain Why Liberal Arts degrees really are useless and why people are right to say so. But dont want to BEA Negative Ned. Want to give you something positive. o I have two Other goals. Im going to tell you what the Liberal Arts are whats so liberal about them, and why theyre arts. This is going to support my explanation of why Liberal Arts degrees are useless: and its also going to help with a third goal Because Im going to convince you that the uselessness of Liberal Arts degrees is advantageous. Im going to argue that people who major or minor in a liberal arts discipline are better off than people who dont. And Im going to argue that these people are better off precisely because Liberal Arts degrees are useless. 2 What Are YOU Going TO DO With That Degree? Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good. seems different in different actions and arts; it is different in medicine, in strategy, and in the other arts likewise. What then is the good Of each? Surely that for Whose sake everything else is done. In medicine this is health, in strategy victory, in architecture a house, and in any other sphere something else, and in every action and pursuit the end. [Aristotle) (384-332 BCC), Mechanical Ethics Book I Probably one of the most useless people in the history of the world is an ancient Greek guy by the name of Aristotle. Even though he initiated many of our modern scientific disciplines biology, zoology, psychology, and 50 on he sucked at being a scientist. Pretty much every theory he ever proposed has turned out to be false, bla me Aristotle teacher, Plato, getter yet, I blame Plats teacher, Socrates. Socrates is the only philosopher to make a guest appearance in Bill Tees Excellent Adventure. He earned a reputation among Athenians for asking people all sorts of annoying questions Socrates was so annoying that he was nicknamed the gadfly of Athens, and he was 50 good at being an annoying daffy that he got himself executed for annoying everyone. Aristotle was no different well, he didnt quite get himself executed (he wasnt that annoying); but he was very fond of asking people questions. Liberal Arts, and the Advantages of Being useless 3 Among his many intellectual pursuits, Aristotle liked to ask people whether they were doing anything useful With their lives. This is pretty ironic, since Aristotle was doing philosophy with his life and philosophy, many people tell me, is more useless than just about anything else. Taut lets set aside the irony. Aristotle had a method. He thought that a good way to figure out whether an activity was useful was to ask people why they were doing it: if the goal of the activity was worthwhile, and the activity really was a way to achieve that goal, this would be good evidence that the activity itself was useful. Heres an example. Want to know whether furniture-making is useful? Ask people what the goal of furniture- making is. Obviously, to make furniture. Dont care about having furniture? Well, then, furniture-making is pretty useless. Heres another, Want to know whether medicine is useful? Ask people what the goal to medicine is. Most will say, to make people healthy, Care about health? Think that medicine really is a way to make people healthy? If so, medicine is pretty useful. If not, I guess you may as well do philosophy. This is all pretty abstract to some people. When I teach Aristotle in my Introduction to Philosophy course, like to have them apply Aristotle method to their lives as college students (This is called making the course relevant to students. ) So ask them whether their college education is useful in any way, I start with their Introduction to Philosophy class. Ask, Why are you in this class? They typically answer, Because it satisfies a General Education requirement for my degree. Since not every class satisfies a General Education requirement, I ask something more general. I ask, Why do you want a college degree? The standard answer is: TO get a good job. And since have serious doubts that students are in college just to be able to work, ask: Why do you want a good job? The standard answer is economic: Because I want to make good money. Now were getting somewhere. This is an incredibly popular reason people give for pursuing a college degree. In 201 1, a poll by Gallup found hat 50% of people want a college degree in order to earn more money. The poll also found that want a degree in order to get a good job. Few, very reasonably, assume that good jobs are jobs that pay well, it seems that about of people in college agree: the goal of a college education is making good money. Supposing that my students are pursuing their college degree for the sake of making good money, I ask them how their degree is going to help them achieve this goal, If their major is something in Business Accounting, Finance, Information Systems, Marketing, Management the ans wer is pretty easy: Im owing to get a job in , Good answer; these jobs (CPA Money Market Manager) make good money. Liberal Arts, and the Advantages of Being useless 4 If their major is Nursing, the answer is also pretty easy: Im going to get a job in Nursing Another good answer; nursing jobs (Pediatrics Nurse, nurse in Huntsville Hospital ERR) make good money. If their major is something in Engineering - Chemical Material, Civil Environmental, Electrical Computer, Industrial Systems, Mechanical Aerospace the answer is, once again, easy: Im going to get a job in Yet another good answer; engineering jobs (at NASA, s Product Designer at an RD company) are some of the highest paying jobs there are. If their major is something in Science Atmospheric Science, Biology, Biotechnology, Chemistry. Computer Science, Earth Systems, Materials Science, Mathematics, Modeling Simulation, Optics, Physics, Software Engineering the answer is a bit more complex, but still relatively easy: Im going to get a science- related job. The job area might be harder to name, but the students are pretty confident that the jobs exist nonetheless. And, whatever these jobs are, certainly they pay good money. Every once in a while, of course, a few students will be pursuing a major in Liberal Arts Art Art History, Classics, Communications, Education, English, Foreign Languages, History, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Compared to majors in other Colleges, far more Liberal Arts degrees lack an obvious answer regarding how possessing that degree will help one make good money. I mean, what jobs are there in History, or English, or Philosophy, or Sociology? There are teaching jobs, sure. After all, teaching is what I did with my degree. But nobody seriously thinks that teaching is a way to earn good money. If anything, teaching is for people who cant make good money Whence the adage: those who can, do; those who cant, teach. In some rare cases, like Communications or Art, people can answer: Im going to get a job in But doubt anyone really thinks that these jobs (Journalist, Web Designer) are Vass to make good money. This is a serious problem for Liberal Arts majors. When someone asks, What are you going to do with a Liberal Arts degree? , seems that the answer has to be either Im going to teach or l have no idea. Neither answer inspires very much confidence that the Liberal Arts degree is a way to make good money. Whence the joke: The Science major asks, Why does it work? The Engineering major asks, HOW does it work? The Business major asks, How much does it cost? The Liberal Arts major asks, Would you like fries With that? Liberal Arts, and the Advantages of Being Useless 5 If a degree doesnt make a person good money, then, if were following Aristotle method, it follows that a Liberal Arts degree is pretty useless. 3 Why Liberal Arts Degrees are Useless A Lame Explanation The thought experiment for applying Aristotle method to the life of a typical college student is pretty fun. Bradstreet Feminism EssayCadenced, CAPE CHIC, LESS (De. ), Captivity: The Extreme Circumstance (United States Navy: 2001) People means lots Of different things When they characterize something as liberal: leafleting politically, as in liberal Democrat: free or generous in giving, as in liberal philanthropist; a large or copious amount, as in liberal dinner serving. But the Liberal Liberal Arts, and the Advantages of Being useless 9 Arts arent liberal in any of these senses. Instead, theyre liberal in a sense that dates back to the fourth century Algerian philosopher Augustine: liberal: worthy of or suitable for a free person, An art is liberal, in this sense, when it prepares a person to be an active and responsible citizen, capable to participating articulately and reasonably in civic and political activities, In a pluralistic democracy like ours, where a multiplicity of cultures and beliefs sustains deep and persistent disagreements, active and responsible citizenship demands: proficiency and patience for hearing others on their own terms, wisdom and compassion for fairly weighing and critically evaluating competing priorities, clarity and gracefulness for communicating and reasoning with those who do not share ones beliefs and values, as bevel as creativity and imagination in searches for compromise. People who study the Liberal Arts acquire these capacities Consider, for example, five disciplines in Shahs College of Liberal Arts (my home institution), and some information about those disciplines Ive taken from departmental homepages. Art Art History. The goal of studying Art Art History is the ability to understand the forms, concepts, methods, and records Of human visual expression. Achieving this goal fosters creativity, confidence, self-discipline, and individuality. Language Literature. The goal Of studying Language Literature is the ability to understand, conceptualize, interpret, and create literature. Achieving this goal fosters intellectual curiosity, critical thinking and eating, linguistic proficiency, awareness of alternative ways of life, as well as clear, graceful, persuasive writing and speaking. History. The goal of studying History is the ability to understand past cultures as well as social and political developments through time. Achieving this goal fosters skills for crafting narratives, weighing conflicting interpretations, explaining and identifying trends, and discerning between the important and the inconsequential. Music. The goal of studying Music is the ability to understand, appreciate, and enact the artistic and communicative values to music. Achieving this goal fosters an integration f physical capacities (such as instrument technique), emotional expression (such as musical performance), and intellectual abstraction (such as reading the structure and notation of musical language). Liberal Arts, and the Advantages of Being Useless 10 Philosophy. The goal of studying Philosophy is the ability to understand and evaluate assumptions that structure the range of human experiences. Achieving this goal fosters skills for articulating assumptions, evaluating assumptions and reasoning, proposing and defending alternatives, and explaining ideas and principles to Others. The goals one aims to achieve in pursuing a Liberal Arts degree transcend the particular content of those degrees; they are goals Which ought to be achieved by any active and responsible citizen. For example, understanding records of human visual expression is relevant not only to appreciating works of art but also to engaging critically with visual methods of political communication. Likewise, interpreting and conceptualizing literature is relevant not only to reading books but also to engaging critically with written forms of political communication and people with diverse cultural backgrounds; understanding coloratura dynamics is relevant not only to knowing our past UT also to assessing proposals about how to move forward as a society; and understanding and evaluating assumptions is relevant not only to reading and writing about esoteric philosophical texts but also to assessing critically political ideologies. Furthermore, the skills one develops while pursuing a Liberal Arts degree are skills worthy of and appropriate to free citizens. They foster development of ones personal identity as well as development of ones identity within a political community, Exposure to people and traditions with different beliefs and value priorities enhances awareness of the assumptions, priorities, ND possibilities accepted by oneself and ones culture. Such exposure also encourages a sense of wonder and amazement; it enables one to think clearly, comprehensively, and compassionately about public goods and the relation of ones political community to the wider world; and it develops capacities for succeeding in leadership roles. Am reminded off Winnie the Pooh-inspired poem about making ones way in life: How can you get very far, If you dont know Who You Are? How can you do what you ought, layoff dont know What Youve Got? And if you dont know Which TO DO Of all the things in front Of you, Then what youll have when you are through Is just a mess without a clue Of all the best that can come true If you know What and Which and Who. Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh, Costless Pie (1982) These consequences of pursuing a Liberal Arts degree do not occur, except by accident, in the pursuit of more technical or vocational degrees. For example, the goal of Engineering is to understand an array of engineering principles and methods, and pursuing this goal fosters specialized skills for engineering applications and, perhaps, Liberal Arts, and the Advantages of Being Useless 11 for improving the world in planned ways. The goal of Nursing is to understand an array to nursing principles and methods, and pursuing this goal fosters skills for therapeutic interventions, disease prevention, and health promotion - and, perhaps, for caring about others. The goal of Business is to acquire knowledge of various business theories and practices, and pursuing this goal fosters skills specialized skills for business applications and, perhaps, for making money. Yet, despite the value of these goals and skills, achieving the goals is not necessary for being an active and responsible citizen, and the skills do not foster the placement Of, or insight into, ones personal or political identity. Why Liberal Arts Majors/Minors Are Better Off You have noticed, hope, that man is only an amateur animal; all the others are professionals. They have no leisure and do not desire it. When the cow has finished eating she chews the cud; when she has finished chewing she sleeps; when she has finished sleeping she eats again. She is a machine for turning grass into calves and milk in other words, for producing more cows. C. S. Lewis, Our English Syllabus, Rehabilitations and Other Essays (1939) Technical and vocational disciplines Engineering Nursing, Business make people useful to others for specialized purposes; but they do not make people better citizens. Nor should they. When ones primary aim is to acquire a specialized knowledge-base and skill-set, abilities associated with active and responsible citizenship are at best accidental side effects, at worst irrelevant distractions, For example, an engineering student might, as a result of working on a project about how to improve the living conditions of impoverished citizens, acquire some insight into and compassion towards the lives of poor people; UT this insight and compassion is largely irrelevant to completing the project. A business student might, as a result of studying penal incentives in a game theoretic framework, acquire a critical attitude toward the ways in which public laws adversely and disproportionately affect minorities; but this attitude is largely irrelevant to developing a good game theoretic model. And a nursing student might, as a result of interning at a local hospital, acquire compassion for others and respect for people from different backgrounds; but these outcomes are largely irrelevant to competence in administering health care. Liberal Arts disciplines, in contrast, make people better citizens: but they do not make people useful to Others for any particular purpose. Nor should they. When ones primary aim is to think clearly, comprehensively, and compassionately about ones self and ones community, knowledge and skills associated With particular vocations or professions are at best one means among many others for understanding society, at worst irrelevant distractions. It should come as no surprise, then, that Liberal Arts degrees are useless. Their names do not readily suggest what one is able to do with them, because the ultimate aim of a Liberal Arts, and the Advantages of Being Useless 12 Liberal Arts degree is not to make its holder useful to others tort some particular purpose, That said, there is a sense in which people with a Liberal Arts degree, or at least some background in Liberal Arts, are better off than people without. People with a Liberal Arts degree have extensive and focused training for reading with comprehension, reasoning properly, communicating creatively and effectively, exploring possibilities, interpreting and assessing, incorporating and weighing different perspectives, and sustaining intellectual curiosity. They evolve these skills while completing their course work. There is also good evidence that employers especially in the business sector find these skills to be valuable, so much so that employers often express a preference for people with these skills rather than more specialized skills the thought being, I assume, that a short training program Will suffice to impart the more specialized skills. Consider this anecdote from Tom Gillis, writing for Forbes magazine: In the coming decades, success Will be defined by the ability to understand the complex problems that customers face, and the ability to solve these problems elegantly. Technology development is important, as is finance, manufacturing, and distribution. But these areas are not core competencies for the industry leaders. The next billion-dollar company will be run by history majors who are skilled in wading through a massive jumble of facts and who have the ability to distill these facts down to a clear set of objectives that a global team can fulfill.