Why the Liberal Arts Need the Sciences (and Vice Versa) - The Chronicle of Higher Education
There is no question that liberal-arts education in the 21st century needs to re-examine both its definition and its scope. While many people assume that the humanities are firmly and solely centered at its core, many others ask: Is that still the case? How would liberal-arts education look if science played a more prominent role?
At a recent symposium at Boston College’s Institute for the Liberal Arts, a panel of experts from the sciences and the liberal arts explained, from their perspectives, why science matters at a liberal-arts university.
Their arguments seem beyond dispute: It matters because knowledge of science is necessary for an understanding of global warming and species extinction, of the causes and history of human violence, of the ways in which humans alter the natural course of evolution, of the ways in which technology and digital media shape our access to information and to each other, of how technology informs our decisions and influences public policy, of the misleading use of statistics, and of our access to big questions about the nature and origins of the universe.
The most important answer to the question, however, is simply this: Science matters at a liberal-arts university because the problems facing our global community will not be solved by scientists alone.
A common theme throughout the symposium was the need for more scientists to better communicate the importance of “big science” and the implications of its findings to the public. For example, while the significance of using public funds to support research to understand the causes of neurodegenerative diseases is obvious to most Americans, using public funds to support the study of quantum string theory might not be; while an issue as complex as global climate change needs scientists to identify its root causes, it also needs faculty members in the humanities and social sciences to evaluate its impact on human populations and societies, and journalists to communicate this information to the wider public.
In our environmentally and economically challenged, highly technological world, it is crucial that we improve our ability to understand and critically evaluate scientific evidence and arguments. One way to do so is through partnerships between faculty in the natural sciences and faculty from disciplines like journalism, economics, sociology, political science, and philosophy. Together they can develop ways to communicate knowledge about technology and the sciences in an accessible and compelling manner, and to explain the broader relevance of scientific discovery to society. How can we encourage these partnerships? We can start by removing a few key barriers: