Humanities in STEM

In which ways does humanities benefit the sciences? Most scientists will be familiar with obligatory humanities courses they had to take in high school & university. Personally I have used ideas derived by philosophers in order to set my goal in life. However I still don't understand how the obligatory literature courses I had to take, influence my career as a scientist in any way. As far as I understand Science tries to describe an observed phenomenon rationally, whilst the Humanities try to make the irrational even more irrational (take abstract art for example). If anyone has any arguments as to why include humanities in a STEM education curriculum, please enlighten me.

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_science
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Are you actually expecting a response that isn't an enlightened 12 year old going "MUH LIBSHIT KIKES SHOVING LEFTIST PROPAGANDA DOWN YOUR THROAT"

At the best, basic education in the humanities helps scientists be able to communicate to the general public about why their work is important, which is a necessity because we cant force the plebs to accept that we know whats best for them.

I am honestly curious. Based on my personal opinion (which is probably biased) I see no reason to include literature and other Humanities into a STEM curriculum. That is why I wanted to know how others justify including these subjects into an scientific education.

In my experience, most stem majors can't write for shit, which is troubling, since writing is such an integral part of communication. Imagine of they didn't have to take any writing/reading classes.

Also, a good part of science is weaving the significance of your research into a narrative, so perhaps the humanities might help with that as well?

t. bio major

they should've learned how to write in highschool.

knowing how to write and knowing how to write well are two distinctly different things, and a scientist ought to know how to write better than a factory worker because of how integral writing is to their work.

>Personally I have used ideas derived by philosophers in order to set my goal in life
Underachiever. Set goals derived from mathematicians you aren't gay af. Paul Erdos if you want to live in life in hard mode.

>In which ways does humanities benefit the sciences?

Whenever we are down, whenever we are depressed, the humanities remind us that there are literally hundreds of millions of people who are so much worse than us that it is ridiculous.

It is a big help. For example, recently I've been depressed. I've been reading a book and out of nowhere I can't do the exercise problems. I simply can't. I was feeling real bad and doubting myself but then I remembered "Hey, at least I am not a humanities garbage. They wouldn't even be able to read this book hahah" and then I calmed myself down and kept going on.

Thank you, humanities. For being worse than me and always reminding me that it doesn't matter how bad or mediocre I become, I will never be as bad and mediocre as you. And that makes me an okay person.

>life goals set out by mathematicians
What did he mean by this?

>He wrote or co-authored 1,475 academic papers, many of them monumental, and all of them substantial.

DO
YOU
EVEN
PUBLISH?

Philosophy laid the framework for science. The etymology of the word is "the love of wisdom" in Greek"
Concepts like the scientific method, Occam's razor, reasoning by analogy, and rigorous logic are all philosophical.
The earliest scientists (ancient mathematicians, astronomers) called themselves philosophers.

> the Humanities try to make the irrational even more irrational (take abstract art for example).

Wrong. Abstract art is just abstract art, it doesn't "try" anything.

Many would call disciplines like psychology and sociology (or even economics) "humanities", when in fact they also use the scientific method, just to analyze some phenomena that contemporary "hard" sciences can't explain - those regarding the human mind and behavior.
Just because there isn't so much rigorous math involved, and phenomena can't be measured as accurately and repetitively, doesn't mean it's not science, nor that this kind of "soft" knowledge isn't useful.

Why include humanities in a STEM curriculum? Obviously I'm not an advocate of forcing engineers into art classes, but some understanding of the philosophy of science would do them good.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_science

>Just because there isn't so much rigorous math involved, and phenomena can't be measured as accurately and repetitively, doesn't mean it's not science

it means exactly that. Clever-ish observations about the world isn't science, it's on the same level as "folk wisdom" if not lower.

>Look! Scientists and mathematicians from 3000 gorillion years ago called themselves philosophers. That mean PHIL = GUD. Never mind that back then there was no technology and no specialization whatsoever, basically everyone was a philosopher, regardless of what they studied, mainly because every intellectual studied everything as there was barely any knowledge to really specialize in.

>This means that even now philosophers are really important to science guys, I swear.

Meanwhile philosophers:
>Life has the name of life, but in reality it is death. (Quote by - Heraclitus)
Wow so deep my man how did you come up with that?

>The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer see the birds or hear them sing. (Quote by - Eric Berne)
Wow, someone give a deep man of the year award to him please.

>A thing, until it is everything, is noise, and once it is everything it is silence. (Quote by - Antonio Porchia)
Fuck pass me what you are smoking my dude

>Before I travelled my road I was my road. (Quote by - Antonio Porchia)
Wow, so poetic man. Top scientist right here.

>I've observed that there are more lines formed than things worth waiting for. (Quote by - Robert Brault)
t. some white dude at the Starbucks line

Nice science my dude, I totally want to learn to mentally jerk off like these bunch of faggots. TOTALLY WORTH MY TIME!

Epistemology is interesting

for an exhaustive discussion of that topic you might want to look into Jordan "Bucko" Peterson

Why the fuck are you so hostile, man? Got up on the wrong foot or what?
Did you even as much as skim over the article I've linked, or did you go straight into copy-pasting those bogus quotations?

>Science - a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.

>science - the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.

"clever-ish observations" resulting from observation and experimentation about human and societal behavior allow us to explain some current and past phenomena, and also predict some future ones - even if they don't always hold 100% true.

The human mind is too complex and unpredictable for physics or mathematics to model - but there are some general rules, so we use "soft" sciences like sociology, psychology and economics to get at least SOME understanding. Do you think it's wrong? Do you think we should just forget about it?

you are maybe smart but dont show any wisdom. you dont even realise that philosophy and science work on complete different layers. if you were actually willing to listen you might find out something useful. only your own superbia stands in your way.

There are a couple of things to be gained I assume, as long as the students are willing at least.

Basic philosophy should be introduced to everyone at least, literature should help with writing skills which are extremely important and often overlooked by enlightened teenagers that think science is le math and logic only, thinking that they'll never deal with the real business world. Understanding basic political and economic structures is also useful because as a scientist you SHOULD have an opinion, because governing affects your sector too, funding and such.

You might think that all these things are obvious and explored by everyone but they aren't. Also, I'm not saying that university humanities courses ACTUALLY help develop those skills for everyone, I'm just offering you reasons to consider paying attention to them and things you can gain from it.

>Why the fuck are you so hostile, man? Got up on the wrong foot or what?

I wouldn't even consider my post hostile. I am just shitting on you, par for the course here. You are sounding more and more plebbit by the minute. I am sorry I hurt your feefees. But hey, you know there is a website where your feefees will always be protected, and I think it is time for you to go back there.

>Did you even as much as skim over the article I've linked, or did you go straight into copy-pasting those bogus quotations?

>He thinks its the first time a philosophy discussion happens in this board
>He thinks he is the first philosotard to link to the fucking wikipedia page on philosophy of science
>He thinks I give a shit
>He calls it a fucking article, even though it is just wikipedia
>He thinks we all haven't read that shit a million times
>He thinks that philosophy of science has any kind of effect on modern science

I think it is time for you to go back.

Anger leads to increased blood pressure and cortisol levels - not good for your health.

>He thinks I'm angry
>from a discussion on the internet

Here in the four channel we do not take the internet as seriously as you plebbitors. I am chilly Willy, I am even writing a mathematical paper as I shit on you.

Wtf i LOVE positivism now!

When you need to deliver your mad scientist speech it will help the theatrics...trust me.

Humanities here. I see no reason to make me take basic physical sciences, math, etc. The level of technology is enough for me right now, what's the point of STEM? I don't care for advancement.

>obligatory humanities courses in STEM university
What now?

Wasn't this shit derivated from the greeks that they should learn all kind of stuff, followed by the origins of "liberal arts"?

Also maybe any university you have those obligatory courses, but I think like all the other anons said, one should be able to become a good writer and a good speaker (comm courses).

But I still don't know why some unis gotta take shit like chicano studies or afro studies, these are just useless courses that have no benefit for anyone smart enough to take STEM, Business and maybe Rhretoric & Writing majors.

Everything else is useless.

I agree with what philosophy can bring, but your historical perspective is naive. Philosophy was an umbrella term for ayone who participated in intellectial endeavours and isn't really what we mean today by "doing philosophy" which is a much more niche field. No one really should be force to learn anything, but there should be an opportunity.

Not the user you replied to, but there's more to philosophy than just the shit you quoted from the wikipedia page. I wouldnt say that i know a lot about philosophy, i'm a mathematician but once in a while i read some philosophy and theres some interesting stuff. Of course its not science, because you cant answer the questions they ask with science. Doesnt mean its irrelevant.

Also, why do you care (or imply) that he browses reddit? or how are you "not hostile"? You spent enough time replying to him so you're either bored enough to reply or just an asshole who likes pissing of people. I guess its the latter. If you're really a mathematician it makes me sad to know that there a narrow minded fuckers like you working in this field.

The reason is that a lot of people are just shit at writing anything, and they need to bring some people up to speed. Of course, a lot of STEM majors are smart and work hard, so they're fine with writing, but there are always the people that are incompetent. In STEM you need to be able to explain things precisely, yeah? There's your practical reason.

I disagree that the "aim" of humanities is to make the irrational even more irrational. I think its just to uniquely transform ideas, experiences and emotions. I'll work off your example. Abstract art isn't necessarily just about being off-the-wall; it's about attempting to tap into raw emotions and concepts.

actually laughed, good one
t. english and philosophy major