Passage 6 Half a Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste
人文学科不可或缺 《新闻周刊》

[00:01]In a world struggling with rapid industrialization, massive immigration,
[00:07]and chaotic urban growth, science and technology seemed to offer solutions
[00:13]to almost every problem. Many Americans came to believe
[00:18]that scientific certainty could solve not only scientific problems,
[00:24]but could also reform politics, government, and business.
[00:29]Two world wars and a Great Depression rocked the confidence of many people
[00:35]that scientific expertise alone could create a prosperous and ordered world.
[00:42]In the aftermath of World War II, the academic world turned
[00:46]with new enthusiasm to humanistic studies,
[00:50]which seemed to many scholars the best way to ensure the survival of
[00:55]democracy and to resist tyranny.
[00:59]Behind every statistic, there's a good story: facts and figures
[01:05]can add up to something greater than themselves.
[01:09]In the America of our own time, the great educational challenge
[01:14]has become an effort to strengthen the teaching of what is now known
[01:19]as the STEM disciplines. There is considerable and justified concern
[01:25]that the United States is falling behind much of the rest of
[01:30]the developed world in these essential disciplines. India, China, Japan,
[01:37]and other regions seem to be seizing technological leadership.
[01:42]At the same time, the humanities have experienced a significant decline.
[01:49]Humanistic disciplines are seriously underfunded, not just by the government
[01:54]and the foundations but by academic institutions themselves.
[01:59]Humanists are usually among the lowest-paid faculty members
[02:04]at most institutions and are often lightly regarded
[02:08]because they do not generate grant income
[02:12]and because they provide no obvious credentials for most nonacademic careers.
[02:18]There is no doubt that American education should be training more scientists
[02:25]and engineers and should be teaching scientific literacy to everyone else.
[02:31]Much of the hand-wringing among politicians
[02:34]is focused on the absence of "real world" education.
[02:39]But the idea that institutions
[02:42]or their students must decide between humanities and science is false.
[02:49]The humanities are not simply vehicles of aesthetic reward
[02:54]and intellectual inspiration, as valuable as those purposes are.
[02:59]Science and technology aspire to clean, clear answers to problems.
[03:05]The humanities address ambiguity, doubt,
[03:09]and skepticism-essential underpinnings in a complex and diverse society
[03:14]and a turbulent world.
[03:17]It is not surprising that many of our greatest scientists
[03:21]are also deeply committed to humanistic knowledge and values.
[03:26]Nor should it be surprising
[03:28]that many humanistic fields find scientific tools essential
[03:33]to their work. Many liberal-arts institutions
[03:37]have developed similar curricular goals. Among academics,
[03:43]scientists and humanists not only coexist, but often collaborate.
[03:49]It is impossible to imagine our society without thinking of
[03:52]the extraordinary achievements of scientists
[03:55]and engineers in building our complicated world.
[03:59]But try to imagine our world as well without the remarkable works
[04:04]that have defined our culture and values