• Question: What would you consider more important- humanities or science?

    Asked by Alena to Daniel, Freya, James, Miranda, Usman on 17 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Miranda Jackson

      Miranda Jackson answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      I believe that both of those fields of study are essential for society. Given that we are intelligent and curious beings, we will always be compelled to study both ourselves (the humanities) and the universe around us (the sciences), so I would say they are equally important, and there will always be people interested in studying either one of them.

    • Photo: Usman Bashir

      Usman Bashir answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      Science. The way I see it, science gets me from A – B, provides me with good food, and stay healthy. Humanities, may help me understand myself and my people better, but doesn’t play such an important part in my day-to-day life

    • Photo: James Gilbert

      James Gilbert answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      You need both in your life. I don’t believe in this “art vs science” or “humanities vs science” thing to be honest. Fill your life with it all.. it’s part of being human. Go where your interests take you.

      But I’ll say this: science is a critical way of thinking that is VERY important. It’s an evidence-based assessment of *how things areMATOMO_URL Scientific thinking is also very open-minded, in that it allows anything to be proved or disproved.

    • Photo: Freya Wilson

      Freya Wilson answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      Interesting! This sparked a bit of a debate in our lab. I think they are both equally important. The study of people and the expression of art is always going to spark interest, it formulates our society. One nil to humanities.

      The study of what is around us and that craving to know more about it will drive all sorts of technologies. One to science.

      Personally, I think science is the thing that has a direct impact on people in terms of the quality of life. The biggest changes throughout civilization were science based rather than humanities based – fire, wheel, farming, the needle etc. So if that is important to you then I would say science!

    • Photo: Daniel Hewson

      Daniel Hewson answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      I agree that they are both very important. In this life we have to make decisions all the time and the better decisions we make tend to be those that are best informed by the things we study.
      Each is better at serving a different purpose – science helps to serve us on a very practical level as Usman said (transport, food, healthcare etc) and the humanities are better at serving our emotional and social needs. There will always be something interesting to us in each area so follow your own desires and study as much of everything as you can.

Comments