The Student Room Group

This discussion is now closed.

Check out other Related discussions

Whats the most important arts/humanities subject

Scroll to see replies

Music or maybe history
Amazed that no one has mentioned philosophy yet. It's the umbrella subject that has its fingers in every pie including STEM subjects.
I dont do all of these but:

Economics,
Geography/ World Development
History,
RE/ Philosophy
I'm astonished that nobody has mentioned Modern Languages.

Trade and diplomacy would both be extremely difficult if we had no language graduates.
English and History
Original post by Oli-Ol
I'm astonished that nobody has mentioned Modern Languages.

Trade and diplomacy would both be extremely difficult if we had no language graduates.


I generally think this would be untrue. There are plenty of people who grow up speaking multiple languages from birth, and achieve a native level in them. I have a nephew and a niece who live in Israel, and have done since birth. They both speak Hebrew and English natively (insofar as they don't even have a foreign accent in either language), and Arabic to a competent standard.
"It is philosophy that has the duty of protecting us...without it no one can lead a life free of fear or worry" - Seneca
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 27
Avatar for elen90
elen90
12
Are Modern Languages counted? Them, if so.

Otherwise, History. Or Geography. Of course I'm biased because I took all three at AS-Level :wink:
Original post by FireGarden
I generally think this would be untrue. There are plenty of people who grow up speaking multiple languages from birth, and achieve a native level in them. I have a nephew and a niece who live in Israel, and have done since birth. They both speak Hebrew and English natively (insofar as they don't even have a foreign accent in either language), and Arabic to a competent standard.


Not that many, actually. And how many of them want to become translators, interpreters or diplomats? Or even use their language at all?

Speaking a language to native standard also doesn't mean you know how to translate appropriately.
Original post by NYU2012
Economics is a social science. It's universally regarded as a social science. Nowhere is it considered a humanities.




It doesn't make much sense to call them sciences, for they are entirely man-made (i.e., they have the human part of humanities) and they don't really "do science" at all. Also some institutions award BA's for economics and/or politics, so they are clearly not universally considered sciences.

An interesting note is that almost all universities award Bsc's for mathematics, despite not being a science. As far as I know, only Cambridge awards a BA for maths.
In what context, for applying to university? or historically?

historically I'm inclined to say Philosophy.
Original post by Oli-Ol
Not that many, actually. And how many of them want to become translators, interpreters or diplomats? Or even use their language at all?


No idea, but who cares? The point is you don't necessarily need graduates. Edit: And how would you know, anyway?? I know a number of people who speak fluently in two languages without having studied them; usually from having parents of either nationality. Should I ever need to read anything in Slovak, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Chinese, etc.. I know plenty of people! (Esp. chinese)


Speaking a language to native standard also doesn't mean you know how to translate appropriately.


You must be joking. Native speakers of multiple languages will provide the ultimate translations. They read content in one language, taking in all the nuances and subtle details, and can recreate it as closely as possible in the target language, because that's precisely their level of understanding.
(edited 8 years ago)
Philosophy :colonhash:
Agreed with languages. :smile:
My god they do not!! I know plenty about the philosophy of science - and empirical evidence is only valuable if it is reliably repeatable. Just about everything economical and political are far from that. Whatever they study, if they're calling it science, it's damn bad science.


Something being a BA or BS doesn't have the effect you're attempting to import. My alma matter, NYU, awarded BAs to students who did things like Biology, Chemistry, etc. The name of the degree isn't grounds for whether or not something is a science.

Then it apparently must have no effect at all. If you can be a bachelor of arts in a science, or a bachelor of science in an art, then having both BA and BSc degrees is obviously pointless. And yet we do. It is generally the case that BSc goes to sciences and BA's go to arts/humanities. Seems odd if this is all actually for nothing.
Original post by TianaEsther
I'd say R.E. I think it's important for people to educate themselves on other peoples religious beliefs -> less hatred and ignorance ☺️


Rofl, good one.
Original post by High Stakes
It's a Bsc if the course is mathematical and a BA if it's not so mathematical. But it's still majorly considered a humanity subject. Unfortunately there isn't an "in-between".


It's a social science

Posted from TSR Mobile
English.

English is all about communication and looking at the world in a critical way IMO.
I'm doing a BMus Music degree. :smile: That's classical music, not popular music.

I don't know what to say... Personally, I don't see any arts/humanities subject as being more important/valuable than any other.
Value and importance just seems to mean different things to different people so I'm not even going to get into that discussion. I go to a university which is pretty much all arts, humanities and social science subjects. I don't know about 'most important' but they all seem to have their own merits. Each to his own really.
It is funny that so many STEM snobs don't even know the difference between a social science and the humanities. Not so clever after all?

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you