This week we’ve had the pleasure of having Professor Thomas A. Heberlein here, who’s come all the way over from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the U.S. to be here with us!
He’s also the author to part of our course literature, and the best course-book that I’ve had so far during my soon to be 4 years at university, Navigating Environmental Attitudes.
What it really does well is presenting concepts from social science relating to conflict, policy, attitudes, beliefs and values in a way which appeals well to students who have started off in the natural sciences! In that sense, I might as well have called this post “Introducing students from the natural sciences to social science”.
As one teacher stated: “Social sciences are the hard sciences”.
In his book, Heberlein explains why:
“..when I had to explain attitudes, I felt like I was trying to describe a ghost. Where were they born? How much do they weigh? How fast do they grow? What is their position?”
A colleague to him responded:
“Well, I don’t believe in ghosts either… but I am afraid of them.”