"A liberal arts education offers more than promising job prospects and large incomes – it offers the opportunity to learn a way of life that will prepare students for the uncertainties ahead."
—Peter K. Moore, Dean ad interim
Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences lies at the center of a collection of Professional Schools. This arrangement is predicated on the idea that the liberal arts form the foundation of a truly educated person. A liberal arts education offers more than promising job prospects and large incomes – it offers the opportunity to learn a way of life that will prepare students for the uncertainties ahead. I believe a liberal arts education promotes the virtues of engagement, community, introspection, service and calling. These virtues are not a substitute for excellence in one or more (many of our graduates earn two majors) fields of study but the scaffolding on which the knowledge must be built if it is to be of any real value to the student and society. Let me explain by giving two examples.
In his response to Stephen Carter’s book, The Culture of Disbelief1, Richard Rorty argues that “the epistemology suitable for such a (pluralistic) democracy is one in which the only test of a political proposal is its ability to gain assent from people …”2 If students, as citizens and leaders, are to engage in discussions in public forums seeking to persuade others, they must be able to frame their arguments from alternate points of view. Rarely will they engage in dialogue on their own turf. Students must be equipped with the tools necessary to contextualize their views and must have practice making their case in a public setting. These skills are learned in their liberal arts courses.
In The Dismal Science, How Thinking Like An Economist Undermines Community3, Harvard economist Stephen Marglin argues that community is essential for the well-being of individuals as well as for the health of our life as a nation. Our society tends to work against community as Marglin notes in quoting T.S. Eliot’s play The Rock “And now you live dispersed on ribbon roads, And no one knows or cares who is his neighbor unless his neighbor makes too much disturbance, But all dash to and fro in motor cars, familiar with roads and settled nowhere.”4 For many students the college experience is a time of extraordinary community life, one they remember long after they have finished. The difficulty is in translating that experience past graduation. Again a liberal arts education with small class sizes and frequent opportunities to interact with first-rate faculty in a University that itself is a vibrant community, provides students with the background to make this transition a reality.
It is my belief that the education you receive in Dedman College will prepare you not only for your life immediately after graduation but for years to come.
Peter K. Moore, Dean ad interim
Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences
SMU University Professor of Mathematics
- Stephen L. Carter, The Culture of Disbelief, Anchor Books, New York, 1994.
- Richard Rorty, Philosophy and Social Hope, Penguin Books, New York, 1999.
- Stephen A. Marglin, The Dismal Science, How Thinking Like An Economist Undermines Community, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2008.
- T.S. Eliot, The Complete Poems and Plays of T.S. Eliot, Faber and Faber, London, 1969.