Why study history?

I extracted the following from the newspapers on Monday. Note the words in red. Not that I’m boasting my accomplishments but I think what the author says is very true. It’s not easy to face this world with a soft skill aka liberal arts but one of my professors said this before,

We have a lifetime to be practical but only 4 years to learn something for a lifetime.

Read on and be inspired.

From the Straits Times, Review Section.

Why a liberal arts education is useful

by Kishore Mahbubani

11 August 2010

Straits Times

STIMES

English

(c) 2010 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

ONE of the most stupid decisions I have made in my life also turned out to be one of the wisest decisions of my life. What was my most stupid decision? It was to give up studying economics and sociology at the National University of Singapore (NUS), repeat a year and start studying philosophy as a single subject. Friends and family thought I was committing an act of total folly by giving up one year of income and graduating a year later, and studying an impractical and ‘useless’ subject.

So why was it wise? Simple! We are moving into an era of great uncertainty. Frankly, no one has a clue about the nature of the new world order which is emerging. Experts are clueless. No one predicted the Lehman Brothers crisis of 2008. Many more such crises are forthcoming because we have never experienced the kinds of historical changes we are experiencing now.

And how does one prepare for uncertainty? The only way to do so is to take nothing for granted. We must learn to question every assumption in our minds. How does one acquire the facility to do this? The answer is a Western liberal arts education.

Wikipedia defines it as follows: ‘The term ‘liberal arts’ denotes a curriculum that imparts general knowledge and develops the student’s rational thought and intellectual capabilities, unlike the professional, vocational, technical curricula emphasising specialisation. Contemporary liberal arts education comprises studying literature, languages, philosophy, history, mathematics and science. In classical antiquity, the liberal arts denoted the education proper to a free man… unlike the education proper to a slave.’

Though I specialised only in philo-sophy, I imbibed the liberal arts culture of challenging and questioning assumptions. This habit of questioning assumptions did not stop when I graduated from NUS in 1971. Indeed, it has intensified over the years. And this habit of questioning gives me the confidence to predict with certainty that we will be encountering uncertainty on many fronts. At the global level, we have lived with a reasonably stable world order because the United States and Western Europe have provided pillars of stability since World War II. While the rest of the world shook with changes, they continued to remain stable, peaceful and prosperous. While they had upheavals from time to time – from the protests against the Vietnam War in the US to the Paris riots of 1968 – there was never any doubt that they would remain politically and economically stable, and that they would continue to support the benign rules-based world order they had created.

The most shocking thing to happen in recent times is that these two pillars of stability may well become two pillars of instability. The rhetoric of the US and Europe has not changed. But those who make policy decisions on the basis of rhetoric will get into trouble. In a fairly fundamental way, the political consensus on the global roles and responsibilities of the US and Europe has begun to break down.

It is possible that a new positive political consensus may well emerge, but I am not holding my breath. It would be safer to prepare for political dissension and gridlock in the US and Europe. And what happens to the global order when the pillars of stability become unstable pillars?

As for the regional level, we face uncertainty on many fronts. Asean is facing many challenges. Thailand, a traditional pillar of stability in the Asean family, continues to face an uncertain future. The fate of Myanmar is also uncertain. Externally, the simultaneous rise of China and India and the decline of Japan will give Asean both unprecedented opportunities and challenges.

The opportunities come in the form of free trade agreements signed with China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Today, the most important relationship is between the US and China. Soon, the most important relationship will be between China and India. Overall, the prospects of positive relationships look good. But there will be many hiccups along the way. And will Asean be torn apart if these relationships sour?

Domestically, we have just celebrated 45 years of peace and prosperity. This is a remarkable feat. But over the next 45 years, I can predict with great certainty that there will be political upheavals, economic challenges, social tensions and other unanticipated problems. Why am I so certain?

The 45 years of continuous peace and prosperity was the result of extra-ordinary skill and wisdom. Such extra-ordinary skill and wisdom comes once in 1,000 years. Singapore cannot keep defying the odds. Soon, it will revert to the norm and experience the usual challenges which most nation-states experience.

So how do we deal with these multiple waves of uncertainty which will inevitably come to our shores? We should learn a lesson or two from the surfers of physical waves. They train their bodies to immediately seize and take advantage of a new wave and try to ride it before it swamps them. In Singapore, we should all learn to become mental surfers, ready to ride the next wave of uncertainty before it swamps us.

The art of mental surfing can be best learnt through a liberal arts education. Singaporean parents are congenitally conditioned to push their children to learn something ‘useful’, like engineering or accounting. Yes, these are worthwhile professions – my son is studying civil engineering. At the same time, Singaporean parents should not despair if their children opt for a ‘useless’ liberal arts education – as my two other children have.

Such an education may actually provide the most useful education young Singaporeans can get.

(The writer is the dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

Think-Tank is a weekly column rotated among eight leading figures in Singapore’s tertiary and research

institutions.)

Reminiscence

Wrote this in 2007. Something for me to remember NUS by.

School beckons, readings scream to be read.

Seems RBR and carbonisation come as a package.

Halls picks up pace as activities fill the place.
The unheard-of CCAs and clubs: suddenly welcome teas come out.

Freshies or newbies, however you call them,
Keep blundering and wondering what’s SS and GEM.

In the hustle and bustle, glimpses of friends flicker along corridors.
Rooms once echoing in silence break into a flurry exchange of words.

Buses forever cramped like sardines.
And canteens packed like buffet restaurants.

All found in one place,
The one and only NUS.

Essay: Is God in Time or Outside of Time?

When Boethius came up with an argument for the denial of foreknowledge of God, he made the argument that God is outside of time and eternal. This argument has brought about many implications as detractors have brought up the point that any being that is eternal in the sense of existing outside of time could never act within it and therefore could not create a world, forgive anyone, answer any prayer, or bring about a miracle – activities generally ascribed to the theistic God. In other words, the counter-argument is trying to say that if we think of God as omnipotent, omniscience and omnibenovelent, we cannot hold on to the logic that he exists outside of time.

This paper would like to consider firstly, the contentions behind the issue of time and secondly, the debate of whether God is timeless and eternal and would also try to show how that for God to be timeless and still be able to affect time to not be a logical contradiction but something that is logically consistent.

Philosophers have debated over what is time and this paper will present two differing views of time. By time, we may look at it in two ways. There are two main theories of time. The tensed theory of time or in other words, dynamic theory and the other being the tenseless theory of time or in other words, static theory.

In the dynamic theory of time, events are past, present or future. The ‘now’ is an objective concept. Events are first in the future; they become the present and then pass away into the past. Hence, the present is the only real moment of time there is. Past events have already happened and they do not continue to act in the past, future events have not occurred yet. (But, the effects of past events may continue to be felt even if those events themselves no longer exist.)

In the static theory of time, there is no such thing as the objective ‘now’. This means that events are only past, present and future and they are all relative to each other. To theorist of the static theory of time, there is no such thing as a ‘now’ and there is no flow of time. The events of 1939 are still occurring for the people of 1939. All times exist simultaneously; it’s just that we only experience one at a time.

Depending on which definition of time one holds, there is an implication to the timeless nature of God.

By being eternal, it would means that God has always existed and always will exist, he has no beginning and no end. But herein lies the argument that a timeless being cannot be the God who interferes with human events. Now, to say that a being is timeless, he can only be so if and only if it:

1)    lacks temporal location

and

2)    lacks temporal extension.

But if God is a timeless being, then sentences such as “God parted the Red Sea” would become either meaningless or false, since God cannot make his presence known in time when he exists outside of time.

The defense for such an argument is by thinking of God as a creator and an omnipotent being whereby he chooses to condescend to engage with time. In that way, God is eternal and temporal at the same time. God chose to be limited in time as an act of self-limitation. Also, by attributing omniscience to God and the creator of all things (including time), then God would have to know time itself. For if God existed in time and then created the universes, then there would be one thing that God did not create. Namely, time.

Take for example, the event of creation. If God exist in time, then he would have waited for a long while before creating the universe. But since God created time when he created the universe then God existed not before time, as that would somehow be a contradiction but beyond time i.e. God is timeless before creation. But the conception of creation signifies that God involves himself into a temporal mode of existence.

God is timeless and yet still part of time. By creating time, he would be the one who understands it best but he does not get locked up in time. When saying God is not locked up in time, it is stating the argument whereby God does not start to become holy, he is holy even before the beginning of time, it is the nature of God. Therefore, there is no start nor end for God unlike humans who have a start (conception or birth, depending on how the start is defined) and end (death). Hence, it produces an intellectual barrier for us humans to conceive God as someone outside of time and yet still able to affect time.

Now the argument for such a being would be that of how can a timeless God act in a temporal universe. If he does act in a temporal universe, then he is temporal and not atemporal. While philosophers have conceded that is a strong argument against the timeless nature of God, here I would like to present a contentious example with regards to this issue. Since one of the attributes of God is that of omnibenevolence, which means that he cannot allow bad things to happen. As a result of that we cannot attribute bad events to God. Yet, we can only credit God with good events like miracles and answering prayers. But how is this world then a creation of God when only good things come from the hands of God and bad things are not done/allowed by God? This question would definitely entail issues pertaining to the problem of evil, which will not be discussed in this paper. But what is of significance here to the question of God and time is that the idea for arguing for God to be active through miracles is a wrong step to take since it does not hold for all events. Here, I would like to see that God does not make things happen by participating in time but more of God allowing things to happen that are beyond the conception of man.

While there is no conclusive answer as to whether God exist inside or outside of time, this paper has tried to show that there are indeed possibilities that God can exist both inside and outside of time and still affect time in his own method. Yet, each of these arguments has their strong points and weaknesses. Hence, in order to fully understand God and time, it is therefore necessary to also consider the nature of God and the many reasons of his possible existence in and beyond time.

Last Moments

As I’m writing my last essay, I glance out of the window of the honours room that offers me a glance of NUS constrained by its dimensions. The sprawling slopes, the mad rush hour crowd going home, students moving from place to place. Suddenly a wave of emotions hits me – it’s my final week in NUS. My real real final week. Never will I be like those people whom I’m looking at now. No more crazy MPE, or the CORS (that can’t work), no more unmentionable 8am classes, no more crowded lunchtime canteens, no more deadly deadlines, no more mugging, no more exams, no more crappy tutors or stupid group mates, no more……. a student.

It  all just seems so surreal, the past 5 years seems to have gone by pretty slowly at times but now it’s all over. Yet their memories are etched deeply in my mind and they don’t seem to be much of a distant past. I still remember my freshmen year clearly, such a bumbling newbie. Not knowing LT from LT, not knowing how CORS or the library or how anything works at all. But then the years in passing imparted much knowledge and sense into me. Everything became clearer and friendlier. Made friends, forged bonds, became smarter (i hope). And at the end of five years, I look back and really cherish the moments spent in this campus that has almost become a second home to me.

Now as things come to an end, it’s time to say the sweet farewells to all who have made an impact in my life, made my existence in NUS so much bearable. All the funny and lame jokes, groans and moans, happy and sad moments will all be  remembered for as long as I can.

And finally here I am, a graduate of NUS.

Weird Paradoxical Thoughts

Consider this:

We won’t think it very amusing if we see a dog/cat or any other animal dressed up in formal wear. In fact we would think that the owner is stupid or crazy to dress the animal up.

Now reverse the logic.

Would we find it ok if a human being is not wearing anything? or wearing lesser than usual? I guess not and probably we would think the owner of the body is crazy or stupid to not cover up.

So.. why are people wearing lesser and lesser!!!!!! Think people think!!!

The Road not Taken

by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The En-d Poem

The curse is broken.
The door to hell is shaken.
Death’s power, He has beaten.
For our Lord and Saviour is risen.

Us, He has not forsaken.
Our sins all forgiven.
And when our eyes darken.
Forever we shall dwell in Eden.

Reflections from QT on worship

From CS Lewis
“The miserable idea that God should in any sense need or crave for our worship like a vain woman wanting compliments or a vain author presenting his new books to people who had never met or heard of him is implicitly answered by the words: ‘If I be hungry I will not tell thee’ (Ps. 50:12). Even if such an absurd Deity could be conceived He would hardly come to us, the lowest of rational creatures, to gratify His appetite. I don’t want my dog to bark at my books.”

In commanding us to worship Him, the Almighty is demonstrating far more interest in us than in Himself. Our worship of Him completes us. We perfect our personalities to the degree that we give ourselves to God in worship. In eternity we shall experience full joy because we shall be able to worship Him fully. Meanwhile we are tuning our instruments.

Personal thoughts – What is man that Thou thinkest of him, who is so unworthy of Thine love?

Essay Review

Got back my Classical Empires essay. Got a B, not that good, but also not that bad. I went to see Prof Lockhart today and he said that I’m doing fine in the essay just that there isn’t a lot of my own arguments/views in the paper. I did ask him how to improve the essay and he gave some advice which were quite good.

Looking back in hindsight, I should have went to consult the prof with my paper since year 1. It’s kinda late to do so now but I think at least it’s a good lesson learnt in my last semester.

2 more essays to the end of study life. Mixed emotions now.

Quotes

1)For every folly their Kings commit the punishment should fall upon the Greeks
2) Quidquid delirant reges, plectantur Achivi (The pleasures of the mighty are the tears of the poor.)