IDS 100 Perspective in liberal studies

1. Apart from a very brief look at Darwin, we have not really talked about the rise of modern science in our course of “the making of the modern person.”  This is, perhaps, a serious omission.  It could be argued that Science and Technology are at the core of everything that makes the modern world what it is.  Prepare a brief essay showing how every other major development we have studied this semester is really only a by-product of the development of modern science and technology.  Without science, there would be no democracy, no human rights, no emancipation of slaves and women, no global perspective, and none of the benefits we enjoy as people of the 21^st century.  

2. The entire semester has covered globalisation, Europe’s “discovery” of the rest of the world, the impact of the global economy that emerged in the 17^th century, the effect of piracy and the slave trade on the modern world—on and on and on. I really never talked much about where you and I live (that would be Saskatchewan), and how much of all of this is felt right here at home. I’m not so much talking about news stories filtering into our living rooms or our social media feeds: I’m talking about how much of all of this historical perspective I’ve been giving you can actually be felt in your daily life. Unlike in Europe, where you only need to walk out your front door to be bombarded by history, Regina not only seems untouched by history, but it actively erases its own historical memory by routinely pulling down public buildings that are even less than a century old, in favour of shiny new ones. So: how do you feel the impact of all this history in a city like this? Is it possible that none of what I have been talking about makes much of a difference to you as you go about your day? Or can you still see the effects of the past, even in little ol’ tear-it-down-and-make-it-new Regina? 

3. In her Preface to Examined Life, Astra Taylor asks, “Are philosophers dead?” and then laments the rather marginal place philosophy has within 21^st century North American culture:

There are various reasons for philosophy’s rather musty reputation. Our current culture’s anti-intellectualism plays a strong role, standing in stark contrast to a country like France, where philosophers possess comparatively significant cultural and political influence, helped in part by a decades-long tradition of televising philosophical discussions. The turn away from liberal education, with its emphasis on the humanities, critical thinking, and the arts, in favour of more market-friendly disciplines certainly hurts philosophy’s cause. Without a doubt, the professionalization of the field and narrowing of its language has contributed to this situation as well—can the public really be blamed for finding current academic debates a bit arcane, if not wholly incomprehensible? As a consequence, where people may have once turned to philosophy for consolation, they now look to self-help; when they seek insight into human nature or the world we inhabit, they look to science. At the same time, communication technologies have immersed us in the ecstasies and agonies of ubiquitous and relentless—if often fleeting—“connectivity,” eroding both patience and stamina for the unique sort of contemplation and dialogue philosophy invites. (vii-viii)

I’d like to expand Taylor’s point, and include the sorts of disciplines Taylor means by the “liberal arts,” the sorts of disciplines we have been dealing with in this course, such as history, literature, and social sciences such as political science and economics.

Your essay question, then: What, if anything, has Examined Life and the different parts of IDS taught you about the world in 2020? Do these disciplines actually equip you for living in the 21^st century in ways that science, self-help, and social media simply can’t? What specific examples from IDS100 can you draw on to support your claim?