In Defence of the Liberal Arts

To put it simply, an education in the liberal arts involves the relational study of different subjects as opposed to a fixed technical discipline for a clearly intended vocation. In specialised degrees such as Medicine or Law, for instance, the course of study is specifically designed to help the learner acquire the set of necessary skills for either a medical or legal profession. Beyond the mere imparting of skills, a liberal arts education aims to furnish one’s mind with different ways of thinking, through the study of philosophy, the classics and history. However, despite being stereotyped as the dream degree of ‘artsy’ people, liberal arts defies the norm of conventional humanities and social science degrees by incorporating the ‘hard sciences’, such as physics, chemistry and mathematics. It breaks down this false binary that modern thought has created between the two, and demonstrates the inextricable links the two share thus shaping a better understanding of the world

The setting up of Yale-NUS College in 2011 as Singapore’s first full-fledged liberal arts college is a visible paradigm shift in the current Singaporean thinking. Its students are offered a common, broad-based curriculum for a period of two years, in which their studies range from comparative ancient philosophy to the natural sciences. With source materials ranging from the Mahabharata to Machiavelli, or from Chinese history to molecular biology, the programme demands students to adroitly manoeuvre from one mode of thinking to another.

However, as the three-percent dropout rate reveals, some are of the mind that this broad coverage lacks depth. This experimentation with ‘American-style’ liberal arts education famously pioneered in renowned colleges like Columbia and Georgetown on the U.S.’ East Coast is a fresh and exciting development in both Singaporean education and mindset, but bringing an American academic tradition to a society used to Confucian rote learning is a tall order. Such stumbling blocks are not abnormal to a project this ambitious.

However, this concept of a ‘do-all’ liberal arts education is not entirely alien to the Singaporean education system. Before Yale-NUS, the University Scholars’ Programme (USP) had offered a broad-based higher education concept for National University of Singapore (NUS) students. Based on Harvard’s core curriculum, it offers special interdisciplinary modules only USP students have access to. Participants take part in group discussions where each member represents his or her chosen discipline, and when given an issue, would offer their inputs from the perspective of their own area of study. The objective of these group discussions is to make students more adept at considering any problem from multitudinous viewpoints, broadening their approach to resolving issues.

Where some may question the use of such adeptness, such skills need to be cultivated in this connected global society where international issues become increasingly perplexing and multifaceted. An armed conflict cannot be understood through the lens of theories embedded within international relations, historical investigation, or protocols alone for there are questions of political economy, religious fundamentalism and moral ethics to consider. There are the biases of contending sides which may be rooted in worldviews shaped by different cultural narratives or social institutions. There is, in short, a great deal to unpack when it comes to examining current issues — a task that requires an increasingly multidisciplinary touch.

Even technological institutions see the wisdom of doing away with the distinction between science and the arts. The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) follows a system of education that is closely modelled after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The latter has its own thriving school of the Humanities and Social Sciences despite being a leading centre of instruction in the applied sciences. SUTD, likewise, hosts a Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) faculty, which offers fascinating electives on early modern history and even ancient Chinese urban planning. SUTD’s core curriculum also includes two major modules on world civilisations and pre-modern cultural history, alongside its foundational introductory classes on physics, mathematics and engineering.

Singapore – A Technocracy

Given these new developments in Singapore’s higher education and attitudes towards higher education, there is still a prevailing emphasis that has been unfairly placed on excellence in science and technology, to the extent that Singapore has, all things considered, become a ‘technocracy’. The state is characterised by austere simple pragmatism with little consideration for such things as art — which is itself increasingly being treated like an industry rather than a way of life. Poetry is viewed with cynicism and we demand that beauty serves a practical purpose. What needs to be known is that beauty, cross-cultural intelligence and inquisitive philosophic doubt are all-too-human needs. As Rabindranath Tagore, our polymathic friend once argued, despite the necessity of science to sustain life, the truth is that science is not Man’s nature; it is mere knowledge and training. By knowing the material laws of the universe, you do not change your deeper humanity. You can borrow knowledge from others, but you cannot borrow temperament.

Reflecting this, there appears to be a growing belief that scientific knowledge alone is insufficient to produce ground-breaking technological advancement when not paired with the influence of ‘softer touch’ from social sciences, humanities, and the arts. Interestingly, this recognition of human needs constitute part of the innovative process, just as Steve Jobs himself claimed that it is only then that technology can produce the results which “make our hearts sing”. It can then be argued that a balance between the two can help cultivate individuals who are at once not carried away by the wistful idealism of literature and philosophy and will not coldly reduce the world around them into rational digits and compounds. There is no denying that one must acknowledge pragmatic considerations that are necessary for survival in order to become truly whole as an individual, but this pragmatism must be tempered by an understanding of human nature such as that only instruction in the arts and humanities can provide.

Are We Truly Great?

Singapore has been showered with appellations ranging from ‘efficient’, ‘sanitised’, ‘modern’ and ‘advanced’, but can our city be considered great? The mightiest city-states to have ever graced the pages of history — Venice, Florence and Athens — were so, not just due to the sheer impeccability of their social organisation, public administration or wealth. Rather, they were also renowned centres of art, philosophy and literature. Venice gave us the maestros Vivaldi and Canaletto; Florence, the masters of Renaissance painting the likes of which included Michelangelo and Botticelli, the writer of the famous Inferno, Dante Alighieri, and Niccolo Machiavelli, author of The Prince, a book that has, implicitly, offered the basis for Singapore’s very own style of governance. Athens sired the fathers of Western philosophical thought and conceptualised democracy as we know it.

Of course, it is not to say that by merely investing in the liberal arts we shall be raised to the stature of these highly accomplished societies. However, recognising that technological advancement or economic growth alone is not enough for a meaningful existence is a good first step. Where this applies to the community in need, the very step towards becoming a better human being can lend our society the strength and compassionate it needs to be empathetic towards others.