Heinlein, Robert A – Expanded Universe

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.