Cairo University

Faculty of Engineering
Chemical Engineering Department

Introduction to Humanities and Social

Sciences for Engineering Students

Ahmad Gaber

Fall 2004
 Course objectives

• Introducing the wider scope of humanities and

social sciences to engineering students to make
them:
– aware of its scope and disciplines
– interested and motivated to know more
– able to enjoy and acquire this type of knowledge
• Challenging the students to think openly and
think rationally
• Encourage students to question and inquire…
Term: inquiry

inquiry n 1: a search for knowledge; "their

pottery deserves more research than it
has received" [syn: enquiry, research] 2:
an instance of questioning; "there was a
question about my training"; "we made
inquiries of all those who were present"
[syn: question, enquiry, query] [ant:
answer] 3: a systematic investigation of a
matter of public interest [syn: enquiry]
 Major components of liberal
arts and sciences

1. Humanities
2. Social sciences
3. Natural sciences
Term: Liberal arts

• The term 'liberal arts' has come to mean studies

intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual
skills, rather than occupational or professional skills. The
scope of the liberal arts has changed with society.
• The term liberal in liberal arts originally meant
"appropriate for free men," i.e., those citizens of the
republics of classical antiquity and a generalized
education thought to be most proper for these social and
political elites. As such, the course of study in the "liberal
arts" was almost entirely devoted to the classics . Later,
the "liberal arts" broadened to encompass study in the
humanities more generally
 Humanities, scope
The humanities are a group of academic
subjects united by a commitment to
studying aspects of the human condition
and a qualitative approach that generally
prevents a single paradigm from coming
to define any discipline.
In academia, the humanities are generally
considered to be, along with the
social sciences and the natural sciences,
one of three major components of the
liberal arts and sciences
Term : paradigm

Probably the most common use of the word paradigm is in

the sense of world view meaning a mental picture or a
pattern of though. In social science, the term is used to
describe the set of experiences, beliefs and values that
affect the way an individual perceives reality and
responds to that perception. Social scientists have
adopted the phrase "paradigm shift" to denote a
particular social phenomena.

The word paradigm comes from the Greek word

παράδειγμα (paradeigma) which means "pattern" or
"example", from the word παραδεικνύναι (paradeiknunai)
meaning "demonstrate
Term: Academia

Academia is a general term for the whole of

higher education and research. The word comes
from the Greek referring to the greater body of
knowledge, its development and transmission
across generations. In the 17th century, English
and French scholars popularized the term to
describe certain types of institutions of higher
learning. The English adopted the form
academy while the French adopted the forms
academe and academie
 Humanities core disciplines
• While the precise definition of the humanities can be a
difficult task, the following disciplines are generally
recognized to form their core:
• The Classics:
• Ancient Egyptians
- Ancient Greek
• Latin
• Literature and literary criticism
• Philosophy
• Law application and philosophy
• Art, art history, art criticism, and theory
• Area studies
– Regional interdisciplinary fields such as
East Asian studies and American studies
 Other disciplines included in the study
of Humanities

The contents of the humanities are nowhere

particularly prescribed. Some expand the
definition to include other studies of human life
using qualitative description and analysis:
– Cultural anthropology
– History
– Sociology
– Political science
– Archaeology
• Some branches of economics
Term: qualitative methods

• The qualitative method in sociology is a

research method. It gives up on quantity in
order to reach a depth in analysis of the object
studied. It uses different techniques doing so.
Focus groups, content analysis,
participant observation and participation are
some of the most important.
• Qualitative methods are commonly used
together with quantitative methods. Using
qualitative methods it is often possible to
understand the meaning of the numbers
produced by quantitative methods.
Term: quantitative methods

• Quantitative methods are research methods concerned

with numbers and anything that is quantifiable. They are
therefore to be distinguished from qualitative methods.
• Counting and measuring are common forms of
quantitative methods. The result of the research is a
number, or a series of numbers. These are often
presented in tables, graphs or other forms of statistics.
• Advocates of quantitative methods have argued that only
by using such methods can the social sciences become
truly scientific; advocates of qualititative methods have
argued that quantitative methods tend to hide the reality
of the social phenomena under study.
 Social sciences
The social sciences comprise the
application of scientific methods to
the study of the human aspects of the
world. They are also known as social
studies and as the soft sciences
Term: scientific method

• The scientific method is a sequence or collection of

processes that are considered characteristic of scientific
investigation and the acquisition of new scientific
knowledge based upon physical evidence.
• Science tries to define or describe our world , in the form
of theories, hypotheses or observations. On occasion,
people find that they disagree as to the truth of some of
these definitions or descriptions. Various ways have
been proposed in order to decide between conflicting
views. The idea is that these methods underlie the
practice of science, enabling it to determine which
theories, hypotheses and observations are acceptable.
 Social sciences
Psychology studies the human mind and
behavior; sociology examines human society
and human relationships within it;
political science studies the governing of groups
and countries; and economics concerns itself
with the production and allocation of wealth in
society. Social sciences diverge from the
humanities in that the many in the social
sciences emphasize the scientific method or
other rigorous standards of evidence in the study
of humanity, although many also use much more
qualitative methods
 The main social sciences include:
• Economics, production and allocation of wealth
• Political Science
• Psychology, human mind and behavior
• Linguistics (considered by some a branch of
anthropology)
• Sociology
• Anthropology
• Communications

Anthropology and History are sometimes classified as

social sciences or as humanities. Furthermore,
anthropology is sometimes classified as a natural
science
 Social sciences versus humanities

Let us look at the respective dictionary definitions of ‘social sciences’

[1] and ‘humanities’ [2] (from Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate
Dictionary, 1963: 828, 404):

[1] branches of science dealing with the institutions and functioning of

human society and the interpersonal relationships of individuals;
[2] branches of learning having primarily a cultural character.

The same dictionary give the difference between ‘science’ versus

‘learning’. As follows:

Scince is knowledge attained through study or practice; knowledge

covering general truths or the operation of general laws; one of the
natural sciences; Learning is knowledge or skill acquired by
instruction, study, or experience.
 Natural sciences
• The term Natural Science is the way which different
fields of study are defined is determined as much by
historical convention as by the present day meaning of
the words.
• Thus the traditional description of Natural Science is the
study of the physical, nonhuman aspects of the world. As
a group, the natural sciences are distinguished from
theology and the social sciences, on the one hand, and
from the arts and humanities on the other. Mathematics
is not itself a natural science, but provides many of the
core methods for them. Natural sciences generally
attempt to explain the workings of the world via natural
processes . The term natural science is also used to
identify "science" as a discipline following the
scientific method
The main natural sciences include:

• Astronomy
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Earth science
• Ecology
• Geology
• Physics
Review of selected disciplines

• Literature
• Art
• History
• Sociology
• Law
• Political science
• Geography
• Philosophy
• Anthropology
Discipline: Literature

• Literature is literally "an acquaintance with

letters" as in the first sense given in the
Oxford English Dictionary; the term has,
however, generally come to identify a collection
of texts.
• The word "literature" spelled with a lower-case
"l" can refer to any form of writing, such as
essays; while "Literature" spelled with an upper-
case "L" may refer to a whole body of literary
work, world-wide or relating to a specific culture.
• Etymologically, the word literature comes from
the Latin word "litera" meaning "a individual
written character (letter)".
Discipline: Art

Although today the word art usually refers to the visual arts
, the concept of what art is has continuously changed
over centuries. Perhaps the most concise definition is its
broadest—art refers to all creative human endeavors.

Artistic expression takes many forms, painting, drawing,

sculpture and possibly architecture are the most widely
recognized forms. However, since the advent of
modernism and the technological revolution, new forms
have emerged. These include performance art,
photography, video art, installation art, conceptual art,
and computer art.
Discipline: History

• History is often used as a generic term for information about the

past, such as in "geologic history of the Earth." When used as the
name of a field of study, history refers to the study and interpretation
of the record of human societies.
• The term history comes from the Greek historia, "an account of
one's inquiries," and shares that etymology with the English word
story.
• Historians use many types of sources, including written or printed
records, interviews (oral history), and archaeology. Different
approaches may be more common in some periods than others.
The events that occurred prior to human records are known as
prehistory.
• Knowledge of history is often said to include both knowledge of past
events and historical thinking skills
Discipline: Sociology

• Sociology is the study of social rules and

processes that bind, and separate people not
only as individuals, but as members of
associations, groups, and institutions.
• A typical textbook definition of sociology calls it
the study of the social lives of humans, groups
and societies. Sociology is interested in our
behavior as social beings; thus the sociological
field of interest ranges from the analysis of short
contacts between anonymous individuals on the
street to the study of global social processes
Discipline: Law

According to Western liberal political theory, a

body of law attempts to balance individual rights
and social control, which are viewed as being
inversely related, and is enforced by a system of
criminal justice. Many social scientists use the
term more broadly, to refer both to formal and
informal systems of social control. In most
political and legal theory, however, it refers
specifically to a formal system administered and
enforced by a government, and more generally
to include all aspects of governmental decision
making and maintenance of social order.
Discipline: Political science

• Political science is the study of politics. It

involves the study of structure and process in
government - or any equivalent system that
attempts to assure safety, fairness, and closure
across a broad range of risks and access to a
broad range of commons for its human charges.
Accordingly, political scientists may study social
institutions such as corporations, unions, or
other organizations whose structure and process
approach that of government in complexity and
interconnection.
Discipline: Geography

• Geography is the study of the locational and

spatial variation in both physical and human
phenomena on Earth. The word derives from the
Greek words gê ("the Earth") and graphein ("to
write," as in "to describe").
• Geography is much more than cartography, the
study of maps. It not only investigates what is
where on the Earth, but also why it's there and
not somewhere else, sometimes referred to as
"location in space." It studies this whether the
cause is natural or human. It also studies the
consequences of those differences
Discipline: Philosophy

Literally 'love of wisdom', a subject which deals with the most

general questions about the universe and our place in it. Is the
world entirely physical in its composition and processes? Is
there any purpose to it? Can we know anything for certain? Are
we free? Are there any absolute values? Philosophy differs
from science, in that its questions cannot be answered
empirically, by observation or experiment.

Philosophy tends to proceed by conceptual analysis and

reasoning. Its major branches are metaphysics, epistemology
(or theory of knowledge), ethics, and logic (especially the
theory of meaning, formal logic now being regarded more as
part of mathematics.

Philosophy is thus concerned with the common core of human

knowledge and experience but also with the concepts, modes
of argument, and foundations of other special subjects, so that
there are, for example, philosophies of science, history, art (
aesthetics), politics, and religion
Discipline: Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humankind. It is

holistic in two senses: it is concerned with all
humans at all times, and with all dimensions of
humanity. Central to anthropology is the concept
of culture, and the notion that human nature is
culture; that our species has evolved a universal
capacity to conceive of the world symbolically, to
teach and learn such symbols socially, and to
transform the world (and ourselves) based on
such symbols
Term: Symbols

• A symbol is a representation of something — an idea, object,

concept, quality, etc
• A symbol can be a material object whose shape or origin is related,
by nature or convention, to the thing it represents: for instance, the
for Muslims ar the cross for Christians.
• A symbol can also be a more or less conventional image (i.e. an
icon), or a detail of an image, or even a pattern or color: for
example, the olive branch represents peace, and the color red is
often used as a symbol for socialist movements, especially
communism.
• More often, a symbol is a conventional written or printed sign ,thus
mathematical symbols such as π and + represent quantities and
operations, currency symbols represent monetary units,
chemical symbols represent elements, and so forth
Proposed topics to be covered this year
(not in order)
1. History
2. Geography
3. Globalization
4. Anthropology and culture
5. Locating humans in the universe
6. Visual arts
7. Literature
8. Values and ethics
9. Knowledge management
10. The Arab-Israeli conflict
11. Law and legal system
12. Organization and Management
13. Problem solving
14. Decision making
 Art museums to visit
1.Mohamed Mahmoud Khalel Museum,
Giza
2. Mokhtar Museum , El Geziera
 Books to Read and sources of
information

• You will be informed with the references

of each lesson
• You have to train yourself about getting
information from the www
example: http://encyclozine.com
• You have to read:
Problem analysis assignment
• Proposed problem list will be discussed,
third week
• Teams will be formed , same week
• Each team will do his research, four
weeks
• Each team will prepare and submit his
report, 8th week
• Each team will prepare powerpoint
presentation
• Selected teams will present their reports