- #36
Tobias Funke
- 132
- 40
I agree that the OP's remark about being essentially worthless for not being a revolutionary physicist, and nothing else, is pretty weird to me. I majored in math, and while I never got a PhD or became a professional mathematician, I completely appreciate the value of math and science to the world. I also think that history is at least as important to know as math, and probably even more so.
Since there have been some (I'm assuming pretty good-natured) jabs at the "soft sciences", I also think that, contrary to what most scientists and mathematicians will tell you, history and a lot of the humanities are actually harder than the "hard sciences." There are no axioms to fall back on and no near-universal agreement on what's true and what isn't. You're much more on your own in something like history, although it helps to have some experience with making models and testing hypotheses to see which version of history makes the most sense. There's of course a higher BS:truth ratio in something like history, but that's to be expected; there's not much reason to lie about mathematical results, but there are certainly reasons to lie about history.
Even leaving behind academic matters, firefighters, EMTs, some random person handing out gloves and socks to the homeless, Big Brothers/Sisters (which may not be universal, but it's a mentoring organization), the people behind "It Gets Better", etc., are all serving a pretty high purpose if you ask me.
Since there have been some (I'm assuming pretty good-natured) jabs at the "soft sciences", I also think that, contrary to what most scientists and mathematicians will tell you, history and a lot of the humanities are actually harder than the "hard sciences." There are no axioms to fall back on and no near-universal agreement on what's true and what isn't. You're much more on your own in something like history, although it helps to have some experience with making models and testing hypotheses to see which version of history makes the most sense. There's of course a higher BS:truth ratio in something like history, but that's to be expected; there's not much reason to lie about mathematical results, but there are certainly reasons to lie about history.
Even leaving behind academic matters, firefighters, EMTs, some random person handing out gloves and socks to the homeless, Big Brothers/Sisters (which may not be universal, but it's a mentoring organization), the people behind "It Gets Better", etc., are all serving a pretty high purpose if you ask me.