Writing the Liberal Arts and Sciences

Starting from informal cross-disciplinary conversations between colleagues, this volume is the result of an experiment in understanding the standpoints and methodologies of others in a multidisciplinary setting. At its heart are the core values of a liberal arts education: intellectual curiosity and the ability to communicate across borders. Written with the aim of communicating academic content to non-specialists, the essays interweave narratives about truth with various kinds of dialogue and the importance of historical consciousness. Together they illustrate the power of writing as a tool for strengthening a scholarly community. “A treasure trove of inventive, accessible, and deeply thoughtful writing, that ranges from astrophysics to anthropology, from literature to law, and from politics to public health. These are essays very much in the spirit of Montaigne: wise and witty, their open, exploratory, and at times personal approach make them ideal for classroom discussion. They offer us opportunity and space for valuable reflection and learning, and remind us that the liberal arts and sciences must be at the heart of debates about the human condition and the world’s most important and pressing concerns.” - Professor Ian Gadd, Academic Director of the Global Academy of Liberal Arts (GALA) “The classroom is where important but complex issues are explained in accessible form and language. This book offers its readers a crash course in such essential topics as truth, language, the law, religion, statistics, and history, but you don’t have to stick to a school timetable and there is no exam afterwards. It’s a feast for the mind; enjoy!” - Maarten Prak, Emeritus Professor of History at Utrecht University and first chair of the Board of Studies at University College Utrecht