Logical, analytical & critical thinking, math and numeracy, synthesizing ideas, and problem-solving are the cornerstone of some key humanities courses including economics, linguistics, and sociology. Here are three prime examples to substantiate this thinking –
- While Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It encompasses the analysis of components and the methods for understanding and modeling the language. Language sounds, gestures, phonemes, words, phrases, sentences, their meaning, and use are some of these components. Theoretical linguistics is concerned with building models of language systems, making use of these components in parts or combinations. Psycholinguistics builds theories on the processing and production of all these phenomena. Computational linguistics implements theoretical and mathematical constructs to analyze languages. Neurolinguistics investigates linguistic phenomena by experiments on actual brain responses involving stimuli.
- Economics still remains the study of production, distribution, and supply chain. Both in micro and macroeconomics, the goal is to forecast and measure the probability of an occurrence. This work involves applying utility curves, growth models and deriving cost- revenue, inflation, resource allocation, distribution, and growth.
- Sociology is the study of social life, change, to understand the causes and consequences of human behavior. Since all human behavior is social, the subject matter of sociology ranges from the intimate family to the hostile mob, from organized crime to religious cults, from the divisions of race, gender, and social class to the shared beliefs of a common culture and so on. The course structure includes designing experiments, collecting data, analysis, and deductions, problem-solving form the very basis of social science research.
You better be assured you’re not leaving the science and math enthusiast behind when you choose humanities.