Freak(manities): Freakonomics and The Humanities

I think that this blog will soon be split into a Russia blog and an interesting video and idea post-Russia blog. With that said, I stumbled onto an interesting article that criticizes the way that academic economics have been transformed by the popularity of "freakonomics" that reduce the breadth of what economists study to almost freakishly particular case studies, ie. Information control as applied to the Ku Klux Klan and real estate agents. The article can be found here and the quotes presented are taken from the same text.

Sometimes I regret that my humanities education doesn't allow me to pursue virtually any mathematics. It'd be cool to see Briercrest continue to expand what it offers. I can only dream of the day when the first math major graduates from the college.

What the article made me consider though was the relationship between an interesting subject and the necessity of studying it academically. Reading a blog by Briercrest professor Eric Ortlund provides a bit of context for the quotes I'll be mentioning shortly.

I find these quotes to be quite insightful on the nature of acadamia. Are there no X-Box 360's in our Ivory Tower's?

"It is exactly like postmodernism in the humanities," he groans. "What is there to say about Beethoven anymore? ... Every moron can’t understand technical orchestration, doesn't know the history of music. So you write about him having a gay affair with his nephew."

[Working on a P.H.D. Thesis in Economics] also happened to be one of the most tedious experiences of my life. So tedious, in fact, that previously tedious exercises--like reading scholarly works of history or The New York Review of Books--suddenly seemed like pleasant diversions. Increasingly, I felt oppressed by the prospect of spending years on some intractable problem. I chafed at the obligation to do "socially useful" work. I wanted the freedom to pursue whatever seemed interesting and to drop whatever didn't. ...

When I raise this issue with Levitt, he is almost apologetic: "There needs to be a core for work on the periphery to make any sense. I don’t think we would want to have a whole profession with dilettantes like me out doing what I do." But, in nearly the same breath, he adds: "The simple fact is that it's hard to do good research. ... To the extent that you can do interesting research that teaches us something about the world, and entertains along the way, that's not so bad."

I thought it was a cool idea. If you read through the entirety of this blog you most likely think so as well, that or you are my Mom. Thanks Mom.