Humans Need Humanities
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n 2011, a couple of connected things began to happen. That year Barack Obama introduced citizens to the idea of STEM—promoting more education in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. On the grade school level, not much has changed. But at universities, it’s clear that the realms of technology and data are swallowing nearly everything; on U.S. campuses, some 400 different disciplines are listed as STEM-related. Together, our colleges mint more than half a million STEM graduates a year.
But at the same time in 2011, the number of students graduating with degrees in the Humanities began to plummet. Look at what’s happened. In every humanities discipline, the raw number of graduates is down between 30% and 50%--even while total college enrollment increases:
There’s no secret what’s going on here. During the Trump presidency, we’ve heard the word “transactional” a lot more than we used to. The idea of a transaction—"I get this, and you get that”—certainly isn’t new to politics. And it’s becoming virtually dominant in the world of higher education. In other words, education is not so much about learning as it is getting a high-paying job. College is a transaction.
And to a degree, that’s understandable. With the outrageous costs of a degree, students (and underwriting parents) are keen on understanding just what the return will be on their daunting college investment. This is not lost on politicians. A governor of North Carolina famously said his higher education funding proposal was, “…not based on butts in seats, but on how many of those butts can get jobs.”
And on this measure, STEM degree holders do shine—for a while.
Walking off of campus, the STEM graduate can expect to make a starting salary 36% higher than the average for graduates with all other kinds of degrees. But within ten years, that salary advantage is more than cut in half. And, in fact, huge numbers of STEM graduates leave their STEM careers within a decade. Why? A Harvard study says it’s because cutting edge technology always advances, while the knowledge and skills of older STEM graduates don’t necessarily follow. Young grads who are more up to date replace older ones as the real value of those older degrees diminishes. Of course, these new tech graduates typically can be paid less then their older peers. And some tech companies are more than happy to accelerate the trend; part-time contract workers are brought on board with few benefits, no union representation and no need for promotion.
But more to the point, in the face of this, does deemphasizing humanities really matter?
You bet.
he term “humanities” has multiple definitions but is maybe best captured as “expressions of the human mind.” In the real world, this translates to fields like philosophy, language, law, religion, history and the arts. That’s a lot.
Sometimes people conflate “humanities” with “liberal arts”. By one classical definition, there are seven general liberal arts:
Logic
Grammar
Rhetoric
Archaeology
Geometry
Music
Astronomy
But wait—OK, those first three are fine--but after that, aren’t we sloshing over into the world of science?
Exactly. And that’s really the point. Historically, the liberal arts were the very reason for a university in the first place. The seven liberal arts disciplines above were those defined by the Romans. Long before that, Aristotle in his Lyceum school blended things like physics, botany and math with rhetoric, ethics and politics. The idea of Aristotle’s school was built on a foundation that today we’d call “well-rounded.”
Not so much anymore. Specialization is king.
But the fact is, humanities today may matter more than ever. And here’s why.
rogrammers have now written protocols which have computers composing song lyrics, even short novels. Of course, the silicon isn’t thinking these things up from scratch—“creating”, as it were. The programs scan, collate and coalesce thousands of existing works written by humans and then manufacture a derivative product. You might predict these works would be lacking in nuance and, well, humanity. And (so far) they are. We haven’t been fully replaced yet.
It brings to mind the iconic scene in the movie 2001 :A Space Odyssey, where the spaceship’s master computer, HAL, refuses to allow the human captain to overrule him; either HAL will kill the crew, or the crew will “kill” HAL. In this depiction, a computer had not only evolved to equal footing with a human; it claimed superiority. In the half century since that movie, advances in computers and robotics have made this fear far more real.
However, to be sure, these are the same kinds of computing and data advances that may someday solve disease, income inequality and climate crisis. So, OK, “yay, science!”
“How do technology and humans finally hammer out their truce? And on what terms will those arguments be waged?” ”
But as humanities studies dwindle, “expressions of the human mind” seem less relevant. For that matter, some believe human beings themselves could one day become irrelevant.
Thus, this is the existential argument that awaits us: how do technology and humans finally hammer out their truce? And on what terms will those arguments be waged?
That brings us to the point. If the goal is to make any sense at all of our future--to come to any reasonable conclusion—the negotiations must take place in terms of logic and language and rhetoric; in other words, with the humanities. It makes no difference how the science continues to evolve. The tools of knowledge and logic and persuasion will still be the same as they were in Aristotle’s Lyceum. And just as effective.
The foundations of these ideas are clearly under attack. Deception is eroding logic. Lies are contaminating rhetoric. It will come as no surprise that Donald Trump has proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Humanities (are inherent funding for libraries, museums, etc.) in each of the last two years.
Schooling in the humanities is vital for every student, including those diving wholeheartedly into the university STEM pool…and even those attending a vocational school. The humanities are the basis on which both education and society are built. They must be preserved, even celebrated. Without them, we’d be lost.
The humanities remain the essential way humans relate to humans—and to the world around us.
That is, unless HAL finally has his way.
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