Two years ago, I fulfilled a huge part of my dream of doing what I love and started studying creative writing full time. This program is run by a humanities department, so I knew I’d have to stomach epistemic nonsense from time to time, which most of the time I can do while reminding myself that in the end it’s the diploma and the connections that I care about.
But some days are harder than others, and every time a teacher says something plainly wrong, I can’t seem to decide between the cost of derailing the class and the cost of letting my classmates walk home with a wrong idea. For example, in first semester I had a long discussion with a teacher about questions in general; he didn’t believe that questions are supposed to get answered, that debates are supposed to be settled. I tried my best to make the case that a long-standing debate managed in such a way that it never ends is a very poorly managed debate, but he thought that was the whole point of a debate. This was the same teacher who later said that an essay could make strong points with impeccable arguments and solid evidence and still he had the essential freedom to not believe it. Last year, a small disagreement over the interpretation of a poem got seriously derailed to the definition of life, and the teacher started saying one badly constructed modus ponens after another, and I didn’t know whether to address each argument or to simply point out he didn’t know how to make an argument and should never have been given a teaching position. Last week, a teacher recited the standard clichés against logical positivism and claimed that science was oblivious to the suffering of the poor; upon further probing, it turned out he was confusing positivism with optimism. I wasted half an hour trying to explain his error, to no avail. At one point he uttered the phrase “I prefer to believe...” and it was impossible to make him see how irresponsible such a statement is. Yesterday, a teacher was explaining the composition of a literary essay, and she claimed that an essay writer isn’t required to provide justification for their claims. I asked, “Then why should I believe anything the essay says?” and she replied, “You’re free to decide whether you believe it or not,” and I was just too exhausted from last week to explain that’s not how beliefs should work. She then proceeded to teach social constructionism while my insides leaked plutonium and melted down.
I knew from the beginning what I was getting into. But it’s hard not to despair for the current state of education in the world. Art departments live in a separate universe and they teach generation after generation an epistemically irresponsible view of the world. Do you think it’s worth my energy to try to correct my teachers? Most of my classmates already agree with the view that objective facts don’t exist and rationality hinders your creativity, and every day I feel like an infiltrated agent in enemy territory. Should I just shut up and focus on graduating? Or would it be unethical of me to just stand by while hundreds are taught to shut off their reasoning skills?
[Question] How do you survive in the humanities?
Two years ago, I fulfilled a huge part of my dream of doing what I love and started studying creative writing full time. This program is run by a humanities department, so I knew I’d have to stomach epistemic nonsense from time to time, which most of the time I can do while reminding myself that in the end it’s the diploma and the connections that I care about.
But some days are harder than others, and every time a teacher says something plainly wrong, I can’t seem to decide between the cost of derailing the class and the cost of letting my classmates walk home with a wrong idea. For example, in first semester I had a long discussion with a teacher about questions in general; he didn’t believe that questions are supposed to get answered, that debates are supposed to be settled. I tried my best to make the case that a long-standing debate managed in such a way that it never ends is a very poorly managed debate, but he thought that was the whole point of a debate. This was the same teacher who later said that an essay could make strong points with impeccable arguments and solid evidence and still he had the essential freedom to not believe it. Last year, a small disagreement over the interpretation of a poem got seriously derailed to the definition of life, and the teacher started saying one badly constructed modus ponens after another, and I didn’t know whether to address each argument or to simply point out he didn’t know how to make an argument and should never have been given a teaching position. Last week, a teacher recited the standard clichés against logical positivism and claimed that science was oblivious to the suffering of the poor; upon further probing, it turned out he was confusing positivism with optimism. I wasted half an hour trying to explain his error, to no avail. At one point he uttered the phrase “I prefer to believe...” and it was impossible to make him see how irresponsible such a statement is. Yesterday, a teacher was explaining the composition of a literary essay, and she claimed that an essay writer isn’t required to provide justification for their claims. I asked, “Then why should I believe anything the essay says?” and she replied, “You’re free to decide whether you believe it or not,” and I was just too exhausted from last week to explain that’s not how beliefs should work. She then proceeded to teach social constructionism while my insides leaked plutonium and melted down.
I knew from the beginning what I was getting into. But it’s hard not to despair for the current state of education in the world. Art departments live in a separate universe and they teach generation after generation an epistemically irresponsible view of the world. Do you think it’s worth my energy to try to correct my teachers? Most of my classmates already agree with the view that objective facts don’t exist and rationality hinders your creativity, and every day I feel like an infiltrated agent in enemy territory. Should I just shut up and focus on graduating? Or would it be unethical of me to just stand by while hundreds are taught to shut off their reasoning skills?