News

Penny Pritzker Says She Has ‘Absolutely No Idea’ How Trump Talks Will Conclude

News

Harvard Researchers Find Executive Function Tests May Be Culturally Biased

News

Researchers Release Report on People Enslaved by Harvard-Affiliated Vassall Family

News

Zusy Seeks First Full Term for Cambridge City Council

News

NYT Journalist Maggie Haberman Weighs In on Trump’s White House, Democratic Strategy at Harvard Talk

Princeton Survey Indicates Social Sciences Waning

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

For the first time in many years Princeton University students are spending more class-room hours studying the humanities than the social sciences. The results of a recent survey of undergraduate selections revealed that 41 per cent of the courses elected by students for the spring term were in the Humanities.

J. Douglas Brown, dean of the Princeton faculty, regards the swing away from the social sciences toward the humanities as a "persistent trend" which began shortly after the end of the war.

"This indicates that young men realize that the answers to many of the problems facing the world today lie in the humanities, where they may gain an understanding of the age-old values which have been the strength of western civilization," he said.

Science Dangerous

"Knowledge in the fields of science and social science, standing alone, may be turned to purposes which are disastrous to our way of life."

Courses in American civilization, Near Eastern studies, and creative writing, which, along with philosophy, religion, English, music, and art, are included among the humanities, have all experienced increased enrollment.

While the humanities enrollment has increased from 32.8 per cent to 41 per cent in a year and a half, the social sciences have dropped off from 36.5 per cent to 33 per cent. The pure sciences have declined from 30.7 per cent to 26 per cent.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags