Removing the fence between science and liberal arts- General education and its promise

Cheung Ching-yuen

Dept. of Philosophy,

Chinese University of Hong Kong

From “Leader’s message”

• This Science Web provides an environment to pursue deep studies and to explore new science frontiers and thus new challenging fields… it cooperates with the philosophy course and it challenges a new activity that removes the fence between Science and Liberal arts, too. It is convinced that a lot of unexplored science frontiers can be developed by promoting the cooperation among diverse fields, and many appear one after another top-class personnel having rich internationalism and a broad outlook.

Liberal arts

• Latin: artes liberales– grammar

– rhetoric

– logic

– arithmetic

– astronomy

– music

– geometry

Studies to “free” a person

Science and knowledge

• The old principle that the acquisition of knowledge is indissociable from the training (Bildung) of minds, or even of individuals, is becoming obsolete and will become ever more so… Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold, it is and will be consumed in order to be valorised in a new production: in both cases, the goal is exchange. Knowledge ceases to be an end in itself, it loses its “use-value.”– Cf. J-F. Lyotard, Post-Modern Condition : A Report on

Knowledge.

Questions

• How to remove the fence between science and liberal arts?

• How to teach liberal arts in today’s university?

The case of “General Education” (通識教育) in Chinese University of Hong Kong

Chinese University• Established in 1963

• Number of students:– Undergraduate: 11,255

– Postgraduate: 3,060

• Number of full-time staff: 6,571

• General Education

(通識教育)

Tohoku University• Established in 1907

• Number of students:– Undergraduate: 10,997– Postgraduate: 7,136

• Number of full-time staff: 5,826

• Liberal Education

(全学教育)

Mission and Goals of CUHK GE Programme

• General Education at CUHK aims to nurture students’ personal development so they will become educated persons capable of taking up the challenges of an ever-changing world. It strives to equip students with the intellectual capacity for making informed judgment about issues, ideas, and values of humanity and of modern society. Preparing students to be lifelong learners and engaged citizens with a global awareness, it targets their growth as whole persons rather than specialists.

Curriculum

• Foundation Programme (6 credits)– In Dialogue with Nature

– In Dialogue with Humanity

• Courses in four areas (9-11 credits)– Area A: Chinese Cultural Heritage

– Area B: Nature, Science and Technology

– Area C: Society and Culture

– Area D: Self and Humanity

Through reading and discussing classic texts written by great minds like Newton, Darwin, Poincaré and Schrödinger, students will not only gain an understanding of Nature, but will also build up a dialogue between science and humanity…

Poster presentation

In Dialogue with Nature:

A Core-text General Education Course

- Bridging Science and Humanity

by

CHAN Ka Wai

WONG Wing Hung

CHAN Chi Wang

SZETO Wai Man

My teaching experience…

• Area A: Chinese Cultural Heritage

– Courses on Chinese Culture / Philosophy

• Area D: Self and Humanity

– Courses on Logic / Critical Thinking

How can these courses remove the fence between science and liberal arts?

Topics

1. I-ching (『易経』)

2. The concept of contradiction (矛盾)

3. “White horse is not a horse.” (白馬非馬)

1. I-ching

• The Book of Changes (易経)

• Concepts of Yin (陰) and Yang (陽)

• Ancient natural philosophy / worldview

Incommensurable with modern science?

C. G. Jung on I-Ching

• “Forward to the I Ching”

• I do not know Chinese and have never been in China... In order to understand what such a book is all about, it is imperative to cast off certain prejudices of the Western mind. It is a curious fact that such a gifted and intelligent people as the Chinese has never developed what we call science. Our science, however, is based upon the principle of causality, and causality is considered to be an axiomatic truth…

… The I Ching does not offer itself with proofs and results; it does not vaunt itself, nor is it easy to approach. Like a part of nature, it waits until it is discovered. It offers neither facts nor power, but for lovers of self-knowledge, of wisdom -- if there be such -- it seems to be the right book. To one person its spirit appears as clear as day; to another, shadowy as twilight; to a third, dark as night. He who is not pleased by it does not have to use it, and he who is against it is not obliged to find it true. Let it go forth into the world for the benefit of those who can discern its meaning.

• Segregation Table of the symbols of the Book of Changes

– J. Needham, The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China

I Ching and nature

乾 坎

太極

離 坤

I Ching and binary system• The ultimate (太極 ) 20 = 1

• 2 forces (兩儀)– 陰、陽 21 = 2

• 4 phenomena (四象)– 陰少、陽少、陰太、陽太 22 = 4

• 8 trigrams (重卦)– 乾、兌、離、震、巽、坎、艮、坤 23 = 8

• 64 hexagrams (重卦) 23 x 23 = 64

Leibniz and I-ching

• G. W. Leibniz

(1646-1716)– Mathematician

– Logician

– Philosopher

– Sinologist

“A scientist influenced by I-ching”?

Leibniz’s letter to Bouvet (1701)

• All numbers could be written by 0 and 1

1 = 1

10 = 2+0= 2

100 = 4+0+0 = 4

111 = 4+2+1 = 7

11001 = 16+8+1 = 25

Diagram of hexagram in Bouvet’s reply to Leibniz (1701)

2. The concept of contradiction

• Hanfeizi (韓非子)– A: “This is a shield that no spear can penetrate. This

is a spear that no pierce any shield.”

– B: “What happens if you use the spear to pierce the shield?”

• Two contradictory propositions– The force is irresistible. P

– The force is not irresistible. ~P

P and ~P cannot be true at the same time!

Inconsistency

• Q: What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?

• A: Everything!

• The force is irresistible. P

The force is not irresistible . ~P

Therefore, sun rises from the west. ∴Q

– Copi, Introduction to Logic, p.377

Formal proof of validity

1. P

2. ~P

∴Q

3. P v Q 1, Add.

4. Q 3, 2, D.S.

This argument is valid but not sound!

3. “White horse is not a horse.”

• Official: “Horses are not allowed to pass through the gate.”

• Gongsun Long (公孫龍): “White horse is not a horse.”

• Some horse is white.

Therefore, white horse is not a horse.

Is this argument valid?

Quantification theory

• Some horse is white.

For some x, x is white and x is horse

(x) (Wx・Hx)

• White horse is not a horse.

For all x, if x is white and x is horse, then x is not a horse.

(x) [(Wx・Hx) ~Hx]

1. (x) (Wx・Hx)

∴ (x) [(Wx・Hx) ~Hx]

2! ~ (x) [(Wx・Hx) ~Hx] I.P. (Indirect proof)

3! (Wa・Ha) 1, U.I.

4! [(Wa・Ha) ~Ha] 2, U.I.

5! ~Ha 3,4, M.P.

6! Ha 3, Simp

7! Ha・~Ha 5, 6, Conj.

What should I teach?

• Dull and dry concepts in frigid and sterile logic courses

• A slew of profound and beautiful ideas in mathematics, physics, computer science, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and so on

Cf. Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, p.9.

Concluding remarks

• General education courses

– Reading the texts of past masters

– Training logical skills in cultural contexts

• Promise of general education

– New learning experience for students and teachers

– Dialogues among different disciplines

Exploring new science frontiers

Online resources

• CUHK

– http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/

• General Education, CUHK

– http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/oge

• I-tunes @ CUHK

– http://itunes.cuhk.edu.hk/