I
appreciate the opportunity to offer a few comments in this first
issue of Psychobabble. Let me take this occasion to
reflect a bit on the relationship of liberal studies to the balance
of the college curriculum, and in this case, the social sciences and
particularly psychology.
Too often, the liberal studies are viewed as
competitors for curricular time in the brief four years of
undergraduate life. Yet the social sciences have grown out of, and
continue to be sustained by, liberal studies both in content and
method. The "big questions" which liberal studies engage continue to
provide a baseline for reflection and research. Absent this
grounding, social science risks becoming irrelevant, only choosing
to ask the questions it can answer or measure. Psychology invites
the deepest examination into the nature and behavior of human
beings, and this requires an ongoing dialogue within the
discipline. The ongoing cycle of curiosity to questions to research
to dialogue is especially stimulated in psychology by the breadth of
its scope and the diversity of methods.
The work of social science cannot be sustained
without preparation in liberal studies, and at the same time,
liberal studies, to remain vital, must draw on the work of social
science to re-vitalize its examination of “big questions.” It is
this synergy which we work to capture at Saint Michael’s. Done well,
it will sustain our students far beyond their undergraduate careers.
