Commentary: Humanities at the heart of a holistic education in a tech-driven world

In a commentary, Professor Tommy Koh – Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chairman of the Centre for International Law of NUS and Special Adviser to the Institute of Policy Studies – shared his views on the importance of putting humanities at the heart of a holistic education in a tech-driven world. He said that his good friend, Professor Lily Kong, Provost and President-elect of SMU, has written that, “Through literature and history, we see, for example, the martyrdom of self-sacrificing leaders as much as we see the viciousness of ambition. We gain insights into what it means to have a kindred spirit but also a cruel enemy. We witness the tenderness of human love, the pain of loss and the joy of reunion.” “In an age of hyper-technology, all the more reason why we need the humanities – to remind us of the glory and frailty of humanity, to retell the meaning of being human … Where robots can dispense medicines, and chatbots replace human conversations, the jobs that will withstand the fourth industrial revolution are precisely the ones that require an understanding of human nature and a reliance on human empathy,” added Prof Kong.