A few comments regarding education; in my opinion exposure to the humanities has gone decidedly downhill. Of course I realize that this is a complaint of each generation senior to the present. However I think the downhill slide is accelerating. In my own experience, I was exposed to much in the way of humanities, both in high school and later college. I was a Biology and Chemistry major and headed to Medical school. My college curriculum and student advisors that even as science majors we we going to be exposed to serious thinking in the humanities - in effect they said that is is good you are majoring in the sciences but you came to this place to be educated in civilized thought. This is what occurred. So I had 4 years of minors in philosophy, theology and literature, art and foreign language.
Over the course of my career in medicine it was definitely the humanities courses that came to bear most significantly (being competent in the sciences was a given, expected by the medical school professors) for the patients. The word patient literally means the one who suffers. This requires a compassionate response and a willingness to listen. It also requires the recognition that the relationship is unbalanced meaning that the patient is the supplicant in the therapeutic relation. Ethical thinking and action is required on the healer’s part. I did get a masters degree in ethics.
All of the above was given to frame my opinion that today’s education schema is severely lacking. Few students arrive in medical school with sufficient breadth of knowledge of what is significant for people in need. Today’s students are highly facile with technologies but are they aware of the ethical implications no matter the field they enter?
I totally agree, Richard. The ATLANTIC recently ran an article on students who show up at the most elite universities in the United States who have never read a complete book.
Obviously, this is due to technology, and is symptomatic of a very serious decline.
On the bright side, there are a lot of serious readers and writers here on Substack with a serious interest in the humanities.
The irony is that within a generation or two, the Renaissance itself became nearly as degenerate as the intellectual milieu it replaced. What began as an exuberant rediscovery of classical models soon became a slavish devotion to obsolete ideals. Not in equal measure or velocity in every field, but in the fields that I personally know best, the stagnation was real and crippling.
In mathematics, classical concepts of number and infinity impeded progress until well into the 17th century. I would argue that in philosophy, much of the violence of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation was due to the inability of theologians to shed obsolete *classical ideas*. And in my own favorite area - cartography - the Renaissance was a shackle that had to be forcibly broken by a new generation of imaginative men.
I love this, I hope we’re headed for another Renaissance
A few comments regarding education; in my opinion exposure to the humanities has gone decidedly downhill. Of course I realize that this is a complaint of each generation senior to the present. However I think the downhill slide is accelerating. In my own experience, I was exposed to much in the way of humanities, both in high school and later college. I was a Biology and Chemistry major and headed to Medical school. My college curriculum and student advisors that even as science majors we we going to be exposed to serious thinking in the humanities - in effect they said that is is good you are majoring in the sciences but you came to this place to be educated in civilized thought. This is what occurred. So I had 4 years of minors in philosophy, theology and literature, art and foreign language.
Over the course of my career in medicine it was definitely the humanities courses that came to bear most significantly (being competent in the sciences was a given, expected by the medical school professors) for the patients. The word patient literally means the one who suffers. This requires a compassionate response and a willingness to listen. It also requires the recognition that the relationship is unbalanced meaning that the patient is the supplicant in the therapeutic relation. Ethical thinking and action is required on the healer’s part. I did get a masters degree in ethics.
All of the above was given to frame my opinion that today’s education schema is severely lacking. Few students arrive in medical school with sufficient breadth of knowledge of what is significant for people in need. Today’s students are highly facile with technologies but are they aware of the ethical implications no matter the field they enter?
I totally agree, Richard. The ATLANTIC recently ran an article on students who show up at the most elite universities in the United States who have never read a complete book.
Obviously, this is due to technology, and is symptomatic of a very serious decline.
On the bright side, there are a lot of serious readers and writers here on Substack with a serious interest in the humanities.
A very explanatory introductory essay David! Thanks!
The irony is that within a generation or two, the Renaissance itself became nearly as degenerate as the intellectual milieu it replaced. What began as an exuberant rediscovery of classical models soon became a slavish devotion to obsolete ideals. Not in equal measure or velocity in every field, but in the fields that I personally know best, the stagnation was real and crippling.
In mathematics, classical concepts of number and infinity impeded progress until well into the 17th century. I would argue that in philosophy, much of the violence of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation was due to the inability of theologians to shed obsolete *classical ideas*. And in my own favorite area - cartography - the Renaissance was a shackle that had to be forcibly broken by a new generation of imaginative men.
I'd love to post about all three subjects, but I prefer to keep my substack focused on the subject I love best, cartography. https://mensormodicus.substack.com/p/make-way-for-the-baroque?r=5kc089