在许多年前的一次朋友聚会上，一位学机械工程的博士生问我学的专业是什么，我回答：历史学，她一脸困惑，问道：“what is its application?” （它有什么用？）我一时语塞，不知道该如何回答。旁边一位学医学的女士大概怕我难堪，马上接过话头说，作为人文科学，历史学可能不像科学技术那样直接创造物质的东西，但是它的作用是不容低估的。
Repost my comment at 伊萍's blog on the same subject...
Please bear with me responding in English as I don't have Chinese input installed on my PC.
I'm impressed by the great variety and depth of the thoughts from many bloggers here at creaders.
Particular to this specific issue, maybe I can extend the points expressed here a bit further. The issue is really not so much about the role or the nature of humanities as academic subjects, but rather the ethos of a nation (people). According to dictionary.com, ethos is
1. Sociology. the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; dominant assumptions of a people or period: In the Greek ethos the individual was highly valued. 2. the character or disposition of a community, group, person, etc. 3. the moral element in dramatic literature that determines a character's action rather than his or her thought or emotion.
IMHO, the ethos of the modern western civilization can be grossly characterized as the respect of and the adherence to individuality, the pursuit of truth, and critical thinking. The word 'truth' is not to be mistaken as in its upper case, or the truth. Truth in any individual's mind may be off by a large extent compared to the 'objective' or the 'real' truth where it applies, but that is not the point. The point is that the individuals are all willing, and daring, to go after truth to their belief.
The notion of "critical thinking", or "independent thinking" in its more popular incarnation, is trickier as it can be argued no thinking is truly independent. Again, rigorous academic measure is not the point here. The point is that individuals are willing to look around and investigate for truth in their thought process instead of just accept something as true, or authoritative, or just expedient.
IMHO, such ethos is the foundation of the western civilization as we know it, and the driver to modern science and humanities as academic subjects. Without picking up this ethos, Chinese, or by the same token any non westernized countries, will always remain as students when it comes to science and humanities both at both societal and academic levels.
Now it may be debatable whether this ethos is the product of, or can be cultivated by, the political system and education system of a society. There is truth in either way, so I'm content to take it as a chicken and egg thing and not gonna to get hung on which way makes more sense. But the message is clear. There is something more fundamental to what is visible and strong about the western society. This is the underlying gap between the modern western society and the non-westernized societies. And what matters is that can truly close this gap.
好文。目前的大学教育(或者说教育本身)都渐渐地功利化，失去了本身的求知目的。 而学生们越来越热衷于能够带来更大“收益”和“回报”的专业，导致文科和科学学科冷落，的确很让人担忧。这里转两段时东陆教授“论大学教育” 文中提到的牛津大学教授 John Newman 在他的名著"The Idea of University" 中 关于大学教育的目的和人文学科的意义的论述，非常精到。 原文链接：http://www.sciencenet.cn/m/user_content.aspx?id=3755
