Re: [quizbowl] Re: Art History Debates

Andrew Feist <*feistatduke_at_feistatduke.yahoo.invalid*> · Mon, 24 Feb 2003 09:54:59 -0800 (PST)

--- "Adam Escandell <duchamp2537_at_...>"
<duchamp2537_at_...> wrote:
>  2) There's a fundamental difference between the
> sciences and the 
> > > humanities with regards to the difficulty of
> each one. The fact 
> is 
> > > that if you're a science student, it's much
> easier to learn a 
> little 
> > > history and read some literature and become a
> good humanities 
> player 
> > > as well than to do the reverse.
> 
> This is a little nutty. While I'm constantly
> impressed by the ability 
> of quizbowl players to divide knowledge into endless
> categories, this 
> is a bit excessive. All quizbowl knowledge,
> consisting as it does of 
> impetus and response, (or rather clue and answer),
> seems to me by 
> nature created equal. Is it possible that the reason
> why most science 
> majors who are quizbowl players are also capable in
> the humanities is 
> because of the nature of the distribution? While
> it's possible for a 
> humanities student to largely ignore 1\4 of the
> distribution and 
> still be a competent player, a science player,
> especially one 
> constrained only to physics, has to learn something
> outside of 
> science to even be interested in quizbowl most of
> the time. The only 
> case I see for your point would be the suggestion
> that more people 
> simply find learning literature or history to be
> more interesting 
> than learning their damn subatomic particles. This
> is probably true, 
> but to put it in terms of "easiness" or "hardness"
> is misleading.
> 
> AE
> 
> 
I think part of the reason that science people have
less trouble with the humanities is that many of us
went to liberal arts schools, where we get a
quote-unquote broader education.  At my undergrad
institution (Central MO State, as if anyone cares) my
math major required 44 "hard" credits and 80 "squishy"
credits (English composition and literature, music of
the world, history, etc. -- although I did have a
"squishy" minor).  My fiancee, majoring in English
literature, got through a BA with 9 "hard" credits
(and no math).  I think it more-or-less comes down to
the fact that we (hard science people) have seen more
humanities than humanities people have seen science.

=====
Andrew Feist  http://www.math.duke.edu/~andrewf
The moving hand writes, and having written, smears the ink.

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