In today’s world, we seem to be surrounded by many different types of technology and there is a high demand for more technology.  Because of this boom or expansion of technology many people have become interested in more math or science related topics to become educated on because they see opportunity in the future of modern science and technology.  This demand for education in sciences and math has caused people to believe that a liberal arts education is no longer necessary because of the takeover of technology.  This belief is not in the least bit correct for anyone, the people that say this are unaware of what the purpose of a liberal arts education is, as well as being afraid of a challenge and an opportunity to gain insight from the education being offered.  People do not realize that a liberal arts education is just as important as being educated in math and science.  If you think about the process of writing and interpreting texts, it is a science in its own.  There are many variables that determine how someone perceives and creates meaning through reading and writing text.  The ultimately unique and numerous experiences that molded the thought process of the reader will determine how he reacts to the piece he is reading.  As well as the writers experience and how it affects the style or purpose of the writing.  Through the examination and comparison of David F. Wallace’s “This is Water” and Thomas C. Foster’s “Is That a Symbol” we can draw many similarities that point towards the true purpose and value of being exposed to liberal arts education.

In life, there are many things that are affected by what happens to you while you are in existence.  As mentioned in the paragraph above many people don’t see the use for a liberal arts education, in David Arndt ‘s “Liberal Education in Crisis” we are able to see the values of a liberal arts education.  Also, Arndt’s work points toward what Wallace talks about in “This is Water” with how we are being taught how to think.  In Arndt’s work, he brings up multiple points describing the grounds of liberal traditions which were based on certain assumptions.  In the first point, he talks about how scientific knowledge is not the only form of knowledge.  He introduces opinion, know-how, judgement, knowledge, and wisdom to show that scientific truth is not the only or highest form of truth.  He explains how the highest form of truth is wisdom and because of this most people involved in liberal arts begin to study philosophy.  Arndt says: “This is why even today advanced degrees in the liberal arts are called PhDs—doctors of philosophy. Because the highest form of truth was wisdom, the search for wisdom was the highest end of liberal education.” (Arndt).  In agreement Wallace states that the purpose of a liberal arts education is to teach you how to think.  Wallace also goes into detail about the way people normally think and how it is very arrogant and judgmental.  It is easy for humans to get caught up in themselves because you live life only knowing things from your own point of view.  It takes practice and thought for someone to be able to analyze certain situations and come up with different solutions based on the facts that are present at that time.  You must leave your point of view out of the picture when you think about certain things because what you believe was molded by an immense amount of experiences that are all different from each other.  Wallace talks about how it takes a lot of practice to be able to pay attention to the little things and draw logical conclusions from what you see and from what you have experienced.  This process of being more “aware” is a very important tool that is rare among most humans because they have not been exposed to the idea, purpose, or outcome of getting a liberal arts education.Being able to think about things more fully, and being able to see things from many different perspectives before jumping to a conclusion can make a huge difference in everyday life challenges.  Every day people are analyzing things and coming up with conclusions to certain things they see.  Most people’s ego or “self” has a huge impact on what they interpret from experience, and it gets in the way of them gathering a large amount of different perspectives and drawing a fuller conclusion.  In Charles J. Nolan’s Hemingway’s “Out of Season” The Importance of Close Reading he states: “We would be the poorer, less aware of how multiple perspectives can enrich our understanding of a complex text, without them” (Nolan).  By just coming up with your own single interpretation of an event you are risking the possibility of being able to gain more knowledge about that event and come up with a better conclusion.  In Thomas C. Foster’s “Is That a Symbol?” similar points to Nolan’s work are brought up.  Foster talks about how most individuals prefer to be shown symbols that have a straight forward meaning.  But in contrast most the symbols people are exposed to have multiple different meanings.  This brings us back to the fact that everybody is molded differently through experiences in life and this will influence the way they come up with meaning from symbols.  Since individuals are not motivated to compose meanings or ideas from experience in their own everyday life, they are denied a helpful tool that is available to them.  Being able to step outside of the box and think more abstract about certain things is a very hard but useful skill.  By practicing better analyzation of experience and symbols, individuals can increase their ability to come up with solutions that will count for the whole.  As the population grows the idea that humans will eventually destroy themselves becomes very real.  People working together is very important and being able to interpret different perspectives would increase the efficiency of the operation and decrease conflict when trying to reach the big picture.  Therefore, it is important to make people aware of the benefit to their wellbeing and intelligence through obtaining a liberal arts education.

Throughout your life, you are constantly looking for that next task or that thing that will satisfy you.  We are always busy with some form of thought aimed towards a subject or busy with a physical task.  People with more experience with thinking more fully about problems will be able to see a better solution that someone who has not had experience fully thinking things out.  A liberal arts education is necessary, not only because of the advantages in problem solving you learn, but also because it is a more mentally stable, and healthy way of thinking.
