May the 4th Be With You
May 4th– “Science and Culture” by Thomas Huxley (1880)
Summary: Do more science!
Commentary:
In the last century, the combatants were the champions of ancient literature, on the one side, and those of modern literature on the other; but, some thirty years ago, the contest became complicated by the appearance of a third army, ranged round the banner of Physical Science.
It's weird to think that a hundred years ago there weren't hundreds of majors.
From the time that the first suggestion to introduce physical science into ordinary education was timidly whispered, until now, the advocates of scientific education have met with opposition of two kinds. On the one hand, they have been pooh-poohed by the men of business who pride themselves on being the representatives of practicality; while, on the other hand, they have been excommunicated by the classical scholars, in their capacity of Levites in charge of the ark of culture and monopolists of liberal education.
On the other hand, this hasn't changed at all! There's still the "go to college so you can get a job" people and the "society stopped advancing the second I got my doctorate" people ruining things for everyone.
How often have we not been told that the study of physical science is incompetent to confer culture; that it touches none of the higher problems of life; and, what is worse, that the continual devotion to scientific studies tends to generate a narrow and bigoted belief in the applicability of scientific methods to the search after truth of all kinds. How frequently one has reason to observe that no reply to a troublesome argument tells so well as calling its author a “mere scientific specialist.” And, as I am afraid it is not permissible to speak of this form of opposition to scientific education in the past tense; may we not expect to be told that this, not only omission, but prohibition, of “mere literary instruction and education” is a patent example of scientific narrow-mindedness? [...]
For I hold very strongly by two convictions—The first is, that neither the discipline nor the subject-matter of classical education is of such direct value to the student of physical science as to justify the expenditure of valuable time upon either; and the second is, that for the purpose of attaining real culture, an exclusively scientific education is at least as effectual as an exclusively literary education.
An early formulation of the modern STEM vs Liberal Arts debate. A debate which, honestly, has always felt highly manufactured to me. I'm friends with a bunch of people who were STEM majors in undergrad. Almost all of them like the arts. They run book clubs, they play in bands or orchestras, etc. Likewise, I know bunch of Arts majors who are amateur electricians, make their own soap, etc. To me, STEM vs LA seems more like something that gets pushed by people who are neither, in an attempt to... I dunno, turn us all into MBAs? Stir division among educated people to further some political end?
If you're following this blog, I think it's pretty obvious what I think. A well rounded education, science and humanities, practical and hypothetical, sciences and arts, historical and modern, is best for everyone. You can't learn everything about everything, but you should know enough to know what you're interested in, what's worth knowing, and how to find out more when you need it.
Cooking is a great example of this. It's considered both an art and a science, and it's one of those things where once you master a half dozen basic skills, you can combine them to cook a hundred different things by learning only a little more.
Huxley gets there eventually (after talking about how classical education doesn't have enough science/math after talking about how it has science and math...)
Nevertheless, I am the last person to question the importance of genuine literary education, or to suppose that intellectual culture can be complete without it. An exclusively scientific training will bring about a mental twist as surely as an exclusively literary training. The value of the cargo does not compensate for a ship’s being out of trim; and I should be very sorry to think that the Scientific College would turn out none but lop-sided men.
This comes about three quarters of the way through the essay, and it feels like a superficial concession that only lasts about half a page. He seems to mostly thing you need to study languages so you can read science in other languages.
At first, through the intermediation of Arabic translations, afterwards, by the study of the originals, the western nations of Europe became acquainted with the writings of the ancient philosophers and poets, and, in time, with the whole of the vast literature of antiquity
This is a cool little classics fact that I never knew.
