IntroductionThere are many different subjects that we learn in school. Some subjects, such as literature, history, or language, are considered liberal arts courses. Such courses are designed to provide general knowledge and develop intellectual skills. In comparison, natural sciences courses, such as biology, physics, and chemistry, are designed to develop specific scientific skills. Today our debaters will discuss whether liberal arts and natural sciences education should be combined. Let’s see what Henry and Ashley have to say about this topic.
Henry (Constructive)Liberal arts and natural sciences education should be combined. Generally, liberal arts education and natural sciences education are taught separately in schools. Therefore, students gradually begin focusing more on either liberal arts or natural sciences as they get older. This is bad because students who focus on natural sciences often focus solely on scientific methods to answer their questions. Similarly, liberal arts students do not incorporate any scientific knowledge to analyze their questions. This is a loss for both types of students.
Ashley (Constructive)Liberal arts and natural sciences education should not be combined. Liberal arts and natural sciences are just too different. For natural sciences, students are taught to think in a systematic way and they must also follow the scientific processes. With liberal arts education, teachers introduce broader ways of thinking. Furthermore, the students focused on the natural sciences want to answer different types of questions than liberal arts students. Therefore, it is clear that they must learn different methodologies to answer different questions.
Henry (Rebuttal)Actually, liberal arts and natural sciences students seek to solve the same problems. Climate change is a prime example. Scientists need to study the scientific reasons for climate change. However, they also need to study why and how human beings contribute to climate change. Problems like these are best solved by people who have training in both liberal arts and natural sciences. We cannot solve these problems unless we combine the liberal arts and natural sciences.
Ashley (Rebuttal)Climate change is a good example of a problem that requires both scientific and liberal arts methodologies. However, this does not mean that we need to combine liberal arts and natural sciences education. People generally have a preference for either liberal arts or natural sciences based on their talents and interests. Therefore, they should be trained in one of the areas. Then they must work with each other to solve problems, such as climate change.
Judge’s CommentsAshley is the winner of today’s debate. Henry stated an absolute statement without any evidence. He said, “We cannot solve these problems unless we combine the liberal arts and natural sciences.” However, he provided no evidence that the only way to solve these problems is to combine liberal arts and natural sciences education. An absolute statement is one that cannot be wrong in any circumstance. Therefore, it is incorrect if there is even a shred of evidence against it.