What is a liberal arts degree?

Question

what kind of classes do u take. what does it consist of? what are the humanities? i always get mixed up...

Answer 1

here are some search results.Good Luck.

http://www.yabloog.com/liberal_arts_degr...

Answer 2

Until the last century all colleges were either "liberal arts colleges" or professional schools -- for divinity, law, medicine or civil engineering.

The term "liberal arts" comes from the Latin phrase for arts, or skills, of free men, that is, those with the leisure to study. The concept itself is Greek; the Romans borrowed it, hence the term derived from Latin.

The idea was that just as mechanics needed skills, the "mechanical arts" and doctors needed skills, "the medical arts" people who didn't have to work, and had time for public affairs, that is the liberi or free men, had to have "liberal arts". These included skills of higher order thinking and skills for speaking and writing in an influential manner. Just as a doctor couldn't cure a disease without medical skills, a free person couldn't make a good speech in the assembly without liberal skills or arts.

In the Greek conception that developed into a full blown curriculum in the early middle ages there were seven liberal arts divided into two groups: the verbal arts (logic, rhetoric and literature) and the mathematical arts (astronomy, geometry, arithmetic and musical harmony). This scheme continued to serve as the backbone for liberal arts college styudies in Great Britain and the United States until around 1850.

At that time society came to demand a more scientific approach to education. Undergraduate studies were introduced in the natural sciences, the social sciences, and various occupational fields.

Even the liberal arts became more scientific, morphing into the disciplines we know today: history, economics, sociology, anthropology, geology, geography, etc. Rhetoric turned into the course on English composition. Logic became a symbolic mathematical science. Literature became the discipline of literary theory and criticism.  These are the subjects you would study in a liberal arts education today.  

A final note: the "humanities" are derived from the studies of the renaissance humanists, scholars who turned away from the dry scholasticism of medieval universities. Their goal was to enliven studies and make them useful for citizens of the new free towns. Today the "humanities" are history, philosophy, and literature, studied in that spirit. But many would argue that under the burden of a pretension to "science," the humanities have become dry scholastic studies once again.

Answer 3

Its a degree that requires you to take different types of classes in various areas of study. Its basically a degree for people that want to be well educated in many different areas. You would take your general education classes (english, math, science) and then your liberal arts classes (philosophy, humanities, social sciences, etc.)

some liberal arts degrees are those in: english, philosophy, psychology, sociology, history, art history, music, latin, american studies, communications etc.

Because liberal arts degrees are very broad and not specialized many people have a hard time finding a job after getting theirs. Of course its all about how you market yourself, how you interview, your social skills, etc. Some people have found great jobs with their lib degrees because of other skills that they have.

Answer 4

I went to a liberal arts college, majoring in Biology. You would think that a degree in Biology would be a bachelor of science but at my liberal arts school I earned a bachelor of arts degree in biology.  I took classes in psychology, sociology/poly sci/economics, environmental science, religion/philosophy, foreign language/computer/stats, along with the required biology classes, math, chemistry, physics and plus a few electives.  

Here is are quotes from Wikipedia:

"The term 'liberal arts' is described in the Encyclopædia Britannica as a "college or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing intellectual capacities, in contrast to a professional, vocational, or technical curriculum.""

"Examples of the disciplines related to humanities are ancient and modern languages, literature, history, philosophy, religion, visual and performing arts (including music). Additional subjects sometimes included in the humanities are anthropology, area studies, communications and cultural studies, although these are often regarded as social sciences."