Maybe not merit but a STEM PhD at least establishes some pretty high baseline understanding of scientific method and contribution to humanity which is more than you can say about 99% of other certifications
If a STEM degree doesn’t include mandatory ethics and humanities credits then the graduates it produces are mostly only useful for raising Lockheed Martin’s stock price.
Ethics in engineering don’t teach you to not build weapons for Lockheed Martin. They teach you to not cut corners while you build weapons for Lockheed Martin. It’s about the ethics of the actual engineering process, not what you engineer
People are much more affected by their social environment and material conditions than a miniscule amount of required humanities classes. Most STEM students I know who took humanities classes openly told the other students and sometimes even the teacher that they only took it because it was an easy class
Required ethics and humanities courses doesn’t change the fact that in the West, they graduate into a ton of opportunities worth six figures to do highly unethical shit, and those opportunities were probably the reason why they even chose to study engineering in the first place
People can understand right and wrong without studying it.
Most STEM PhDs are working for ordinary, banal, good. Testing water, improving infrastructure, serving coffee, trying to make stuff more efficient etc. Yeah a minority go into like banking and weapons and that is a horrible thing to do with the legacy of human knowledge but most are just people.
Yea, especially the math related PhDs that are in academia and don’t do any industry work at all since that means they chose to not work for companies making 5+ times what they’re making in academia
Knowing the difference between first-order ethics and second-order ethics, and being generally knowledgeable about the study of ethics doesn’t seem to make one what most people here would consider to be morally good.
Not sure why the other humanities fields are supposed to be relevant in this regard, at least if we separate them from social studies.
I know lots of STEM PhDs. Lots of them. The majority of them have an attitude that they’re well above basic humanity. That is not the mindset you want from a leader of any sort.
Maybe not merit but a STEM PhD at least establishes some pretty high baseline understanding of scientific method and contribution to humanity which is more than you can say about 99% of other certifications
If a STEM degree doesn’t include mandatory ethics and humanities credits then the graduates it produces are mostly only useful for raising Lockheed Martin’s stock price.
Ethics in engineering don’t teach you to not build weapons for Lockheed Martin. They teach you to not cut corners while you build weapons for Lockheed Martin. It’s about the ethics of the actual engineering process, not what you engineer
People are much more affected by their social environment and material conditions than a miniscule amount of required humanities classes. Most STEM students I know who took humanities classes openly told the other students and sometimes even the teacher that they only took it because it was an easy class
Required ethics and humanities courses doesn’t change the fact that in the West, they graduate into a ton of opportunities worth six figures to do highly unethical shit, and those opportunities were probably the reason why they even chose to study engineering in the first place
People can understand right and wrong without studying it.
Most STEM PhDs are working for ordinary, banal, good. Testing water, improving infrastructure, serving coffee, trying to make stuff more efficient etc. Yeah a minority go into like banking and weapons and that is a horrible thing to do with the legacy of human knowledge but most are just people.
Yea, especially the math related PhDs that are in academia and don’t do any industry work at all since that means they chose to not work for companies making 5+ times what they’re making in academia
Knowing the difference between first-order ethics and second-order ethics, and being generally knowledgeable about the study of ethics doesn’t seem to make one what most people here would consider to be morally good.
Not sure why the other humanities fields are supposed to be relevant in this regard, at least if we separate them from social studies.
If your primary exposure to ethics and humanities is six 3-credit-hour college courses, you are not “well-rounded”.
I know lots of STEM PhDs. Lots of them. The majority of them have an attitude that they’re well above basic humanity. That is not the mindset you want from a leader of any sort.