In article <3vujog$ai1 at newsbf02.news.aol.com>,
TheBugLady <thebuglady at aol.com> wrote:
>my master's program was sympathetic and I actually minored in English
>Literature. My PhD advisor was unsympathetic, but I sneaked I took
>classes in other areas anyway. This was important to me because
>scientists can be rather narrow in their thinking and I wanted to remind
>myself what science as a way of thinking was good for and what it wasn't.
>As things turned out for me, I ended up teaching at St. John's College
>where all the faculty are expected to teach the entire liberal arts
>curriculum - all from the original sources. I still practice my
I missed the original comment, as I'm finishing up my thesis, but I
think I can put together the original ideas.
Funny thing. I went to St. John's as an undergrad, and now my advisor, Walter
Freeman,
is quite supportive of my "extracurricular" interests in philosophy
and poetry. In fact I think it's made me a better scientist to have
that background, although I was insecure for a while not having had
the "traditional" math and science classes. So, he has always encouraged
the discussion, study, and inclusion of other, nonscientific fields in
the laboratory. I guess it helps that he had the same education as I
but at the University of Chicago, where the St. John's great books program
was originally developed and implemented.
Leslie Kay
lmk2 at garnet.berkeley.edu
