It is often said that science and mathematics are more crucial for our lives because they are practically useful, making our lives more convenient. However, I believe that without the basis of liberal arts, science and mathematics just serves as a secondary means or tools. This is because history and literature gives people inspirations to invent some technology applied to science and mathematics. Also the humanistic subjects including history and literature plays a pivotal role in fostering communication skill, which is the essential skill in today’s world.
To begin with, studying history and literature stimulates people’s imagination, helping people invent and design something new. In particular, the process of design is an important part in developing certain products in which used a lot of scientific knowledge. The ideas for designing some technology often come from stories in fiction and nonfiction works, not the texts of on science and mathematics. According to an article of Chosun Daily Newspaper of Korea in 2010, some of famous scientists are inspired by several novels and movies when they come up with a new project. For instance, Steve Jobs, a co-founder of Apple Company, have has read many novels in order to foster imagination, leading him to invent brilliant products beyond conventions. This implies that the liberal arts have a more significant influence on the developing technology.
Next, learning history and literature fosters one’s communication skill. This is because these subjects teach the way of having relationship with others and give insights of how to express their thought and emotion. In current society, communication skill plays a pivotal role in success including scientists. Many people may think that it would be enough for a scientist to only focus on things related to science and mathematics in order to develop products which are useful for people’s lives. However, without communication, their project would not succeed, since science in the modern world is so complex, needing others cooperation. Also, scientists have to present their project to other people like managers and investors. Jeong-Ui Son, a chair person of Soft Bank which is a venture capital company in Japan, said that successful developers in IT industry are equipped with good communication skills, which are based on the humanities. Thus, the importance of learning history and literature outweighs that of science and mathematics.
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