Subject: RE: Another angle: what about precise use of language? (Re: [ha ckers-il] Re: Math for Humanities...)

From: Chen Shapira <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 12:57:14 +0200

> 
> So my question is:  do people actually learn precise use of 
> language in
> humanities?

Depends.
Certainly Law school teaches alot about precise language. (Is this a
humanity? I think its much closer to exact sciences in many aspects, but its
foundations and justifications are in philosophy)

Some humanities has nothing to do with language (dancing, music).

But the most interesting humanity in this respect is Literature? Does
studying literature teach you about precise use of language? I doubt it. It
certainly teaches you something about language, like understanding imprecise
and ambigious language, in several ways and justifying your understanding,
but I'm not sure if this skill can be mapped into anything more usefull.

---

From: Omer Zak <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 13:16:05 +0200 (EET)

> but I'm not sure if this skill can be mapped into anything more usefull.

Again, it depends.

Some authors make precise use of language, and carefully sculpt their
writings to pack as much meaning as possible in as few words as humanly
possible.  It may be educational to study their techniques.  For example -
Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Ayn Rand.

Of course, bad teachers can (and do) ruin math, literature and even
programming.
                                             --- Omer
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