The role of the humanities at the threshold of the twenty-first century

Abstract

By now it has become a commonplace that there is hardly any branch of knowledge or applied knowledge which does not make use of information technology. It is becoming ever more self-evident that doctors, lawyers, architects, archaeologists, pilots, cashiers, lotto receivers, surveyors, secretaries, and a host of other people must be computer literate if they are to survive. Moreover, it is also evident that the advances made in the general sciences are simply staggering. The traditional sciences together with computer science seem to be a sine qua non both in the classroom and in daily life. The world needs science in order to survive and advance. There is therefore a whole body of scientific knowledge which simply has to be discovered and grasped. In this respect, governments and universities have a crucial role to play in seeing that sufficient investment is made for the research and teaching of the so-called hard sciences (as well as computer science) for the betterment of humanity at large.