人文学科教会我们什么
作者：Mark Edmundson
来源：《新东方英语》2014年第09期
Humanities professors have come up with a emingly foolproof1） defen against tho who trash degrees in， say， English literature or philosophy as wasted tuition dollars， one-way tickets to unemployment. Oh no， we say—the humanities prepare students to succeed in the working world just as well as all tho alleged practical majors， maybe even better.
We offer tools of thought. We teach our students to understand and analyze complex ideas. We help them develop powers of expression， written and verbal. The lengthy essays we assign enhance their capacity to do independent work. At our best， we teach them how to reason—and reasoning undergirds2） every successful professional project.
In the short term， such a defen may em effective. But it is dead wrong.
