The necessity of including humaniies in Engineering education

Abstract

In the early twentieth century, people thought that science and technology can take care of all human needs. Thus, the attention of universities, especially in the West, was concentrated on teaching science and technology. The occurrence of the two world wars during the first half of the twentieth century weakened this view and Western universities sought humanities. It turned out that human societies need both science and technology as well as humanities in order to take care of their needs and at the same time secure their peace of mind. Thus, in recent decades, Western engineering schools have included humanities in their curriculum in order that their graduates can handle their societies’ needs in an efficient way. Unfortunately, this change of perspective with regard to humanities has not occur at our universities. Now, it is time for us to remedy the situation by including humanities and social sciences in the educational program of our engineering schools.

Keywords

• engineering humanities encounter with the environment holistic approach