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Comment by zdw | Hacker News Reader

I see a humanities degree as nothing less than a rite of passage to intellectual adulthood. A way of evolving from a sophomoric wonderer and critic into a rounded, open, and engaged intellectual citizen.

This is somewhat insulting to to those of us who, despite being "sophmoric" technologists, are actually quite well rounded.

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Despite actually being a big fan of the humanities (though a computer scientist myself), it's sadly not really what the median humanities degree gets you either. You can learn a lot of interesting stuff and become well-rounded, like in many fields. But, also like in many fields, you can also become the world's foremost expert on an extremely narrow subject that may or may not be even on the right track to anything. I believe this is one of several reasons for the big dropout rate in humanities PhDs--- signed up for the broad education in philosophy and knowledge, but dropped out when it became clear that it was a path to becoming the world's expert on Gendered Discourse in the Hungarian Mining Industry, 1872-1876; or perhaps on a very narrow technical problem in analytic philosophy.

> but dropped out when it became clear that it was a path to becoming the world's expert on Gendered Discourse in the Hungarian Mining Industry, 1872-1876; or perhaps on a very narrow technical problem in analytic philosophy.

On the other hand, it's not so dispiriting when you consider that you'd probably be the world's foremost authority on the topic... forever.

I studied Mathematics, Chemistry, and Computer Science in college. I'd put my well-roundedness and intellectualism up against ANY humanities degree holder in the blink of an eye.

Furthermore, I do not consent to the core conceit that a college humanities program is either a good, reliable, or even sufficient mechanism for instilling humanities values and knowledge or even the fundamental skills of intellectualism, critical thinking, and basic reasoning.

The author's view is strange indeed. To be a "rounded, open and engaged intellectual citizen" we can well just get out of the room and put curiosity and action into people's lives and matters, and reflect on what you see and do. In my experience that works much better.

"This is somewhat insulting to to those of us who, despite being "sophmoric" technologists, are actually quite well rounded."

Only if you commit the logical fallacy of assuming that "a way" means "the only way". Saying that X is a way of getting to Y does not imply that !X is not a way of getting to Y.

Said differently: there are lots of different rites of passage in our world, and they're not universal. Jewish people see the Bat/Bar Mitzvah as a rite of passage to adulthood; Catholics have confirmation; certain young girls have debutante balls. This guy thinks a liberal arts degree is one particular rite of passage, and it's no more or less insulting than any of the others.

I think the term "rite of passage" may have prompted the response. A rite of passage is generally something that every member of a culture (or subculture) goes through to get from X to Y.

That's why I wrote the second paragraph. It's still a logical fallacy to assume that "rite of passage" means "this is the only way to proceed". It's just an event that marks an important stage in someone's life.

There are lots of different rites of passage in every culture/subculture, and most people ignore most of them. If you're atheist, is it "insulting" that Jewish kids have Bar/Bat Mitzvahs?

>If you're atheist, is it "insulting" that Jewish kids have Bar/Bat Mitzvahs?

No.

If a someone told me I am not an adult because I had not had a bar mitzvah, I might be insulted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rite_of_passage

Well, that's putting it mildly. This is, in fact, the humanities kool-aid. It's all very emperors-new-clothes. But think of it this way: this guy just got himself a degree of questionable worth. He has to justify it to himself somehow, and "I'm part of a special club and you aren't" is one way to do that.

Yes this is an ad-hominem attack, but this guy is full of s--- and deserves it.

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