Beyond utility: liberal education for a technological age

Abstract

Growing fears about declining American competitiveness have underscored the urgent need for strengthening the study of humanities within specialised schools. In 1989, Athanasios Moulakis was asked by the University of Colorado to undertake a formidable task: developing an innovative programme called Humanities for Engineers. In order to address the problem of providing for the humane of engineers, Moulakis was obliged to consider the larger purpose of liberal arts and how that purpose relates to the of professionals. In Liberal Education for a Technological Age, he describes how his own approach to teaching can be applied to all areas of specialised professional learning. Moulakis forcefully develops the thesis that ours is a time in which both the hopes and fears of humanity are inextricably linked with the development and use of technology. He challenges us to educate ourselves and our young people for meaningful lives that acknowledge the value of and need for both. Providing a fresh look at the currently raging education debate between proponents of a rounded, humanistic and those advocating specialised professional training, Moulakis discusses such topical issues as multiculturalism, the canon, and the dangers of parochialism in a global economic, political, and ecological system. Liberal Education for a Technological Age should be of interest to educators in the humanities and in the sciences to adults concerned with preparing today's youth for productive and fulfilling lives, and to industrialists who are attentive to the educational underpinning of competitiveness. This text is aimed at anyone concerned with the quality of life and the conditions of freedom in a technological age.