Through a set of reductionist procedures, the default pyLDAvis model set of topics beneath the red conditional topic distribution bubble of topic 110 may be reduced such that all documents in each topic distill down to a single topic sentence and then to a single word. The resulting words might be thought of as the most concise approximation of the representation of each corresponding document. Utilizing pyLDAvis, for words similar to ‘crisis’ within correlated topics we have “stress,” “sustainability,” “trump,” “poverty,” “criticized,” “economic,” “terrorism,” and we have the following correlations:
looking at T223, ‘stress,’ we have T104 related
looking at T82 ‘sustainability,’ we have T37 related
looking at T85, ‘trump,’ we have very many topics related.
looking at T65, ‘poverty,’ we have T118 and 90 and 64 most related
looking at T134, ‘criticized,’ we have T240 most related
looking at T110 ‘economic,’ we have T245 most related
looking at T163, ‘terrorism,’ we have T178 most related
Where all reductions may be further reduced to the single word “problems.” And, the words “laughter,” “Freud,” and “humanities that oppose crisis might be considered as solutions:”
looking at T90, “laughter,” we have T97 (life, love) most related
looking at T118, “humanities,” we have T34 and T90 most related
looking at T69, “Freud,” we have T146 most related
For clarity, examples of the above opposition follow: Freudian analysis resolves personality crisis; humanities discourse addresses and resolves human problems; laughter rejoices on behalf of being alive. And, many of the reviewed topic documents related to the word “humanities” are arguments on behalf of the humanities.
Conclusively, humanities discourse represents a high level of rhetoric that attempts to position the humanities as a worthy pursuit in a world of high tech and science. Rather than humanities discourse found in (university) humanities curriculum, the reading of topic documents reveals argumentation on behalf of the humanities. Positive justifications for the humanities and a sense of crisis often going hand in hand, and the rhetoric confirms some need that humanities academics have for resolving varying perspectives into a crisis in the humanities.
Using Qualtrics module 4.c to compare the words humanities with problems
For the first word, “humanities,” the topics and top documents convey friction, a state of high energy of human concern, that attempts to dissipate its state through a synthesis with the sciences and less problematic academic curriculum. Thus, a focused study of the sources of tension likely leads to better solutions. In other words, a close reading of documents within the listed associated topics-with-words (semantic relations) reveals “how crisis-related words relate to the humanities in public discourse.” Proceeding with this assumption, the documents of topic 191 appear to provide a recommendation to a “crisis” in the humanities in general. The top documents of topic 191 for which I labeled “Humanities and Science,” contain the following :
Top Doc 1: “As Dr. Chun will suggest, now is a perfect time for scientists and humanities scholars to come together to answer the hard questions about how to solve the most pressing problems of our world.”
Top Doc 2: ‘ ''The Hubris of the Humanities'' (column, Dec. 6): Nicholas D. Kristof correctly argues that Americans need a better diet of science to meet the complexities of civilization. His argument rests on a division between a liberal arts education and one based on science.’
Top Doc 3: ‘Intellectually we seldom venture outside our comfort zones unless forced to. Humanities students fulfill their physical sciences requirement only under duress while future computer scientists disdain having to sit through one ethnic studies class.’
Top Doc 4: ‘People generally see philosophy as impractical, unnecessary or entirely subjective. They say philosophers ponder the meaning of life and other abstract questions but contribute nothing to ?society’
Top Doc 5: ‘ABSTRACT [...] cutting requirements would decrease the number of social studies teachers, and would therefore decrease the number of electives available to all students. [...] social studies is not only fascinating, it is some of the most practical knowledge you can acquire.’
Top Doc 6: ‘The Ohio Department of Education's over-complicated and over-detailed new standards include a 40-page "Learning Standards" for Social Studies, as well as "model curricula" for each grade K-12. Four "strands" (history, government, geography, and economics) with included "skill topics" illustrate the broad scope of Social Studies and seem like a good formula for living (if actually taught and experienced in the classroom).’
Top Doc 7: Of all the non-useful things people believe, have no proof of but perpetuate, I'd like to put one to rest: ‘"You can't do anything with" (fill in the blank) an English degree, a degree in philosophy or anything in the general vicinity of the humanities or social sciences. But that belief is just false, false, false - especially today.’
It follows that whenever a topic where all the documents must contain the term “humanities,” and “science” and or STEM like terms the topic will mostly contain rhetorical discourse that argues in favor of more or different humanities curriculum and/or a synthesis of both humanities and science curriculum.
Second New Default 250 Topic Model Qualtrics Survey and Reddit
Topic 9, “Problems,” became the most substantially weighted topic in the new default model. This is not a coincidence since it is the critical state of all problems that the new model through its key search term “humanities” is in conversation with. Etymologically speaking, crisis, as documented in the HTOED as “< Latin crisis, < Greek κρsσις discrimination, decision, crisis, < κρsνειν to decide), and “critical” as documented in the OED as “Critical 5. Of the nature of, or constituting, a crisis: a. Of decisive importance in relation to the issue. spec. critical path: the most important sequence of stages in an operation, determining the time needed for the whole operation; frequently attributive” manifest as either “critical” conditions or “crisis” conditions of particular problems found in the corpus. In either case, critical (related words critic, criticism and critique) and analytical thinking found throughout humanities discourse are necessary and paramount to addressing all problematic issues we as humans face.
Model analysis to answer the question “How prevalent is ‘humanities crisis discourse (discourse about the crisis in the humanities) as compared with other ways of talking about the humanities (again, within specific contexts)?’ reveals a small number of topics related to the words ‘crisis,’ and ‘critical.’ Humanities crisis discourse is little when compared to the fact that every document of the corpus is in conversation with the "humanities" search term.
A quantitatively similar observation in the Reddit corpora shows that comments confirm that crisis discourse compared with overall discourse about the humanities is small. The following procedures taken prove the above conclusion:
Using grep -o -i "\bcrisis\b" Reddit-All-Humanities-2006-2018.json | wc -l, grep -o -i "\bcrisis in the humanities\b" Reddit-All-Humanities-2006-2018.json | wc -l, and grep -o -i "\bhumanities crisis\b" Reddit-All-Humanities-2006-2018.json | wc -l
Within a total of 270,784 comments that include the search term “humanities,” “crisis” appears 1562 times, “crisis in the humanities” appears 24 times, and “humanities crisis” appears 12 times.
Using grep -o -i "\bcrisis\b" Reddit-Liberal-Arts-All-2006-2018.json | wc -l, grep -o -i "\bcrisis in the humanities\b" Reddit-Liberal-Arts-All-2006-2018.json | wc -l, and grep -o -i "\bhumanities crisis\b" Reddit-Liberal-Arts-All-2006-2018.json | wc -l
Within a total of 243,476 comments that include the search term “liberal arts,” “crisis” appears 822 times, “crisis in the humanities” appears two times, and “humanities crisis” appears one time.
Using grep -o -i "\bcrisis\b" Reddit-The-Arts-All-2006-2018.json | wc -l, grep -o -i "\bcrisis in the humanities\b" Reddit-The-Arts-All-2006-2018.json | wc -l, and grep -o -i "\bhumanities crisis\b" Reddit-The-Arts-All-2006-2018.json | wc -l
Within a total of 287,335 comments that include the search term “the arts,” “crisis” appears 1029 times, “crisis in the humanities” appears 0 times, and “humanities crisis” appears 0 times.
The word “crisis” appears a total of 3,413 times within 801,595 comments for a corresponding representation within the corpus of 0.00425776: 1 out of every 235 comments contains the word “crisis.“ Similar to topics 93 and 143 discussed above, “crisis” is again more often related to financial matters and not related to the humanities.
“Crisis” is an integral “gloss” in humanities discourse most often addressed, at lower value levels of “a crisis in the humanities,” under the guise of the words “problem” and “problems.” Since a “problem” is a condition, and “problems,” are conditions along paths where critical points are stationed to prevent a crisis or to resolve a crisis, the listing of the number of times “problem,” and “problems” appear alongside the three search terms in Reddit comments follows:
Using grep -o -i "\bproblem\b" Reddit-All-Humanitiesl-2006-2018.json | wc -l
reveals that within a total of 270,784 comments that include the search term “humanities,” “problem” appears 20,060 times, and “problems” appear 10,501 times.
Using grep -o -i "\bproblems\b" Reddit-Libera-Arts-All-2006-2018.json | wc -l
reveals that within a total of 243,476 comments that include the search term “liberal arts,” “problem” appears 14,508 times, and “problems” appear 5,980 times.
Using grep -o -i "\bproblem\b" Reddit-The-Arts-All-2006-2018.json | wc -l and grep -o -i "\bproblems\b" Reddit-Thel-Arts-All-2006-2018.json | wc -l
reveals that within a total of 287,335 comments that include the search term “the arts,” “problem” appears 14,036 times, and “problems” appear 6,578 times.
Out of 801,595 comments that include the three search terms “problem” and “problems” appear 71,663 times or 0.089400508. Therefore approximately one out of every eleven comments contains the words problem or problems. Whereas crisis discourse is one comment out of 235 comments, “problem” terms are 21.35 times as prevalent. This fact complicates the question of how prevailing crisis discourse is and “crisis discourse” depends on how close the problems discussed in the documents approach definition as crisis problems.
Despite the assumption that "humanities crisis discourse" is not that prevalent, an examination of the relationship between humanities discourse and crisis discourse more broadly shows that conceptually these discourses are very intimately related in a broader intellectual sense. Humanities curriculum addresses the issues surrounding the condition of being human, of which the ultimate crisis is death. "Humanities" discourse is always critical, and, in some way in conversation with "crisis," especially when art makes a statement through performance. Like science, humanities discourse clears the forest with ever higher forms of awareness, and makes all that exists more than historically possible. Thus, humanities discourse is the act that overcomes the greatest crisis in humanities: non-existence; through critical analysis, the humanities disciplines work toward the goal of superseding the human condition. Therefore, humanities discourse is always at varying value levels of “a crisis in the humanities.” The most critical point is located at the apex of a “crisis”, and critical points exist in each step along the way to resolving a crisis. Tension first builds to a crucial point and then dissipates, breaks down, or resolves in some way. In this sense then, critical thinking enters almost every document written argumentatively as well as to rhetorically convey meaning via problem resolution. The what, how, and why of college essay writing as well as published problem resolution articles inherently contain some level of crisis.
In summary of the Qualtrics survey 4c, observation of the model with the above perspective in mind suggests that "crisis” language, especially through relationships to the word(s) “problem(s),” exists inherently as a “gloss” or ghosting of the meaning of “crisis” that enters into the four reviewed topics, T93, T134, T2, and T42.
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