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Whats the most important arts/humanities subject

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Reply 40

Doones

Philosophy

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Reply 41

Puddles the Monkey

Original post by jneill

Philosophy

Without a doubt.

Philosophy is important for all other disciplines, including sciences, I'd argue :holmes:

Reply 42

llys

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?

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

I don't see how that makes languages the most important subject.

Original post by FireGarden

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.

It's just historical. Just like most people with PhDs are not truly "Doctors of Philosophy".

Reply 43

Doones

Original post by Puddles the Monkey

Without a doubt.

Philosophy is important for all other disciplines, including sciences, I'd argue :holmes:

Indeed, and the highest academic qualification is (generally) a Doctor of Philosophy, so that just confirms it :wink:

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Reply 44

llys

Philosophy is a good suggestion. It just seems a bit overhyped to me though. You can teach the skill of arguing well in any subject, and in terms of content, I don't think Philosophy is that superior to History.

Philosophy

Original post by llys

You can't do history without philosophy :eek3:

Reply 47

llys

Original post by godivaontherocks

I'm doing a BMus Music degree. :smile:

That's classical music, not popular music.

I think Music is the best, because it combines practical skills, creativity, knowledge, research and historical study. I think it is the most rounded subject and I think it is also a subject that children could excel in. (Unlike e.g. History. I think that History (while an excellent subject) has to be dumbed down too much if your target audience are school children.)

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.

How boring. :tongue:

Reply 48

llys

Original post by Puddles the Monkey

You can't do history without philosophy :eek3:

Of course. You can't do anything without Philosophy, it is such an empty, applicable-to-all subject.

Reply 49

Puddles the Monkey

Original post by llys

Of course. You can't do anything without Philosophy, it is such an empty, applicable-to-all subject.

You think philosophy is empty? :shock:

That's controversial :tongue:

Reply 50

ubisoft

There's no such thing as an important arts subject. They're all hobbies at best.

Reply 51

llys

Original post by Puddles the Monkey

You think philosophy is empty? :shock:

That's controversial :tongue:

Sorry, I just phrased it badly. To me the most important aspect of Philosophy is the ability to argue well. Which is definitely one of the most important skills, but it is also a skill that could be taught in any other subject. Of course Philosophy has many other aspects to it, but those to me are not "most important".

Reply 52

Doones

Original post by llys

Of course. You can't do anything without Philosophy, it is such an empty, applicable-to-all subject.

And is therefore at the root of all knowledge (and wisdom).

Discuss...

Reply 53

Puddles the Monkey

Original post by llys

Ooh, I think it's so much more than that.

It's all about what is good evidence and what isn't, how do we know what we know, how should we go about conducting research.... etc.

Reply 54

Professor Oak

Original post by llys

Of course. You can't do anything without Philosophy, it is such an empty, applicable-to-all subject.

This post is somewhat ironic. You're taking quite a nihilist (as in the empty part) approach to your meta-philosophy

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 55

llys

Original post by Puddles the Monkey

Ooh, I think it's so much more than that.

It's all about what is good evidence and what isn't, how do we know what we know, how should we go about conducting research.... etc.

I agree, but you could learn all that in History or Geography as well.

Reply 56

Puddles the Monkey

Original post by llys

I agree, but you could learn all that in History or Geography as well.

Yes, except when you learn that in a history course, it's when you're doing the philosophy module :wink:

Reply 57

Emilia1320

I don't study any of the real humanities but I'll say business/economics since its rather important for functions of the society.

Reply 58

preetg97

Definitely Geography :smile:

Reply 59

llys

Original post by Puddles the Monkey

Yes, except when you learn that in a history course, it's when you're doing the philosophy module :wink:

I see what you did there. :wink:

I don't agree with you though. I guess it comes down to the difference between skill and content. I think Philosophy develops many important skills. Because of their importance, these skills have been integrated into all other subjects. Therefore, you can now learn them as part of any other subject. Usually the module is called something like "Research Methods".

But the skills have been divorced of original Philosophy content. You don't learn about existentialism, nihilism or metaphysics in Research Methods because that's not considered the important bit.