courses can be elective and the re
mainder elective in part, from a long menu. We are still talking solely about
nonmathematical subjects. If you are after a Ph.D. in astronomy, UCSC is a wonderful
place to get one . . but you will start by getting a degree in physics including the
toughest of mathematics, and will study also chemistry, geology, technical
photography, computer science-and will resent any time not leading toward the
ultra-interdisciplinary subject lumped under the deceptively simple word
“astronomy.”
Breadth-the humanities, natural science, and social science-1/3 in each,
total 3/3 or one academic year, but spread as suits you over the years. Classically
“the humanities” are defined as literature, philosophy, and art-but history has been
added since it stopped being required in college and became “social studies” in
secondary schools. “Natural science” does not necessarily mean what it says-it can
be a “nonalcoholic gin”; see below. “Social science” means that grab bag of studies
in which answers are matters of opinion.
Courses satisfying “breadth” requirements
Humanities
Literature and Politics-political & moral choices in literature
Philosophy of the Self
Philosophy of History in the Prose and Poetry of W. B. Yeats
Art and the Perceptual Process
The Fortunes of Faust
Science and the American Culture (satisfies both the Humanities requirement
and the American History and Institutions requirement without teaching any science
or any basic American History. A companion course, Science and Pressure Politics,
satisfies both the Social Sciences requirement and the American History and
Institutions requirement while teaching still less; it concentrates on
post-World-War-TI period and concerns scientists as lobbyists and their own interactions
~rows~ with Congress and the President. Highly recommended as a way to avoid
learning American history or very much social “science.”)
American Country Music-Whee! You don’t play it, you listen.
Man and the Cosmos-philosophy, sorta. Not science.
Science Fiction (I refrain from comment.) The Visual Arts-“What, if any, are
the critical and artistic foundations for judgment in the visual arts?”-exact
quotation from catalog.
Mysticism-that’s what it says.
(The above list is incomplete.)
Natural Science requirement
Page 216
General Astronomy-no mathematics required Marine Biology-no mathematics
required Sound, Music, and Tonal Properties of Musical Instruments-neither math nor
music required for this one!
Seminar: Darwin’s Explanation
Mathematical Ideas-f or nonmathematicians; requires only that high school
math you must have to enter.
The Phenomenon of Man- “-examine the question of whether there remains any
meaning to human values.” (Oh, the pity of it all!)
Physical Geography: Climate
The Social “Sciences” requirement
Any course in Anthropology-many have no prereq. Introduction to Art Education-You
don’t have to
make art; you study how to teach it. Music and the Enlightenment-no technical
knowledge of music required. This is a discussion of the effect of music on
philosophical, religious, and social ideas, late 18th-early 19th centuries. That is
what it says-and it counts as “social science.”
The Novel of Adultery-and this, too, counts as “social
science.” I don’t mind anyone studying this subject or teaching it-but I object
to its being done on my (your, our) tax money. (P.S. The same bloke teaches science
fiction. He doesn’t write science fiction; I don’t know what his qualifications are
in this other field.)
Human Sexuality
Cultural Roots for Verbal and Visual Expression-a fancy name of still
another “creative writing” class with frills-the students are taught how to draw out
“other culture” pupils. So it says.
All the 30-odd “Community Studies” courses qualify as “social science,” but
I found myself awed by these two: Politics and Violence, which studies, among other
things, “political assassination as sacrifice” and Leisure and Recreation in the
Urban Community (“Bread and Circuses”).
Again, listing must remain incomplete; I picked those below as intriguing:
Seminar: Evil and the Devil in the Hindu Tradition. Science and Pressure
Politics-already mentioned on page 529 as the course that qualifies both as social
“science” and as American History and Institutions while teaching an utter minimum
about each. The blind man now has hold of the elephant’s tail.
The Political Socialization of La Raza-another double header, social
“science” and American History and Institutions. It covers greater time span (from
1900 rather than from 1945) but it’s like comparing cheese and chalk to guess which
one is narrower in scope in either category.