Holding both a BA and an MSc, and I can tell you that there is not this vast gulf of distinction between the 'liberal arts' and the 'social sciences'. The research methodology is often very similar. Economists are as capable of writing professorial theory as historians are capable of using quantitative statistics.poppabaggins said:Political science and economics are still sciency (... a combination of philosophy and science?).
Each discipline of the liberal arts and social sciences has specific theoretical approaches associated with it, but they are all capable of a similar level of critical engagement. You're setting up a pretty arbitrary and flawed measure if you're going to judge the worth of every degree based on how close you think it is to PNS.
They don't really..poppabaggins said:If liberal arts is about teaching people how to think, why should people major in liberal arts and try to get jobs telling other people what to think?
Assuming they actually work in area pertinent to their degree, and relatively few do, they get jobs which utilize their research and analytical skills, for example in the civil service, the third sector or in publishing. A very small number go into academia.
Again, this is the equivalent of assuming all biology graduates immediately strap on lab coats and go work for Monsanto corporation, and trying to draw something sinister from that completely asinine conclusion.
Where are these scientists?poppabaggins said:So yeah, philosophy et. al. are great, but, aside from teachers/professors, we really don't need people who dedicate their lives to these topics to make the world better-- science conducted by people with a general idea of liberal arts can do that.
Science takes a lot of time and money to get anywhere in. Scientists who actually want to end up working in research do not have the time to receive a basic training in the liberal arts. Again, this is no better than suggesting that science would be better conducted by philosophers with a general idea of science.
I'm all for interdisciplinary work, but there's only so much a single person can read or understand. This is why we specialize along disciplinary lines, with different theoretical methods and practices.
As for making the world better, which has done so more for the average human being: feminist theory, or the discovery of ununoctium?