Because it's unpleasant and dangerous work that has fewer intrinsic rewards for the worker than academic intellectual production has. Or as us nutty parecon types would say, in parecon-ese, "remuneration should be according to effort and sacrifice rather than according to bargaining power or perceived productivity."
>> and that colleges shouldn't have the
>> right to force a liberal arts curriculum on people who want an engineering
>> degree. Is that anti-intellectual?
>
>Again, it depends on your argument. While I don't agree with either of these
>propositions
So should english lit profs make more or should they make the same amount? Or should perhaps a market decide? Should collective bargaining be part of the market system?
>I know they don't have to be argued in anti-intellectual ways,
>although they can be.
Agreed. I try to argue them in non anti-intellectual ways.
> Anti-intellectualism is when you resort to the derogatory
>label "intellectual" (or various synonyms) in place of making any kind of
>argument/explanation.
Sure.
>> How would you define
>> anti-intellectualism? To avoid the anti-intellectual label, do I have to
>> eagerly defend every privilege and perogative that self-identifying
>> intellectuals claim they deserve?
>
>No. Of course not. Having said that, calling yourself an "intellectual"
means
>different things in different contexts, so I'm not sure "self-identifying"
is
>the point.
>
I am being cautious about how I use the word. Self-identification is a fairly safe criterion if i don't want to be misunderstood. Are you an intellectual because of what you do at work or because of what you do with your leisure time? Which professions are the "intellectual" professions? Which interests are "intellectual" interests? If we don't answer these questions the term 'intellectual' becomes more or less meaningless.
>In general, aren't you better of explaining what is wrong with "a liberal
arts
>education"
I don't think there's anything wrong with a liberal arts education, if that's what you want.
I am almost done with a degree in English lit and a second degree in German lit, with lots of supplementary classes in history, philosophy, linguistics, religion, and elementary French, many many more than I need for my two degrees. Obviously I don't think there's anything wrong with a liberal arts education-- unless i'm some kind of sick masochst ^_^
My opposition to core requirements comes from a distaste for cultural elitism and from my engineer friends, who complain incessantly about the hated 'core' for entirely practical reasons. I have heard that in germany there's no core at all at the university level. Is so, is it such a radical idea to do away with it here?
There's quite clearly something wrong with taking someone who wants to build bridges and telling them, ok, you want an engineering degree that employers will take seriously? Here's some engineering and math courses. Oh, and we'll also be forcing you to slog through 2 years' worth of expensive 'cultural' education you have no interest in and will not benefit from.
This is not to say that engineers don't need writing and communication classes, many of them clearly do in order to perform their jobs well, but that should be part of the engineering degree (in many cases it already is) and doesn't have to include Music Aprreciation or Literature of the Renaissance.
As adults (yes, we students are adults) have the right to decide for ourselves what our tastes are, whether we really need to learn history and religion, etc. I think we do need these things, we need history in particular, but in a democracy we don't take basic freedoms away because we fear that people will make the wrong decisions.
And yes, as a friend of mine recently pointed out, this amounts in some cases to a "freedom to be ignorant." Dreadful as it may sound, so be it.
> or why English literature professors are overpaid rather than just
>saying "Oh intellectuals!"
>That's what leaves you open to the above dismissal.
>
This is a very clear dissection of the problem and I agree with most of what you've said here, but not that I am open to the above dismissal. If I were "just saying 'Oh intellectuals!' you would be absolutely right.