If you had to pick one, who do you think is greater in terms of their contributions to the Western world: British physicist Isaac Newton or Greek philosopher Aristotle? Chances are that you’d find it hard to make a decision, at least right away. But somehow, when it comes to picking a major at college, the decision couldn’t be easier: Science majors – the likes of technology, engineering and math – are the “wiser” choice because they’re considered to be useful, while studying liberal arts majors – language, music and philosophy – is believed to take you nowhere. But if we take our eyes away from job skills for one second and look at liberal arts from a different perspective, we can see how important they are. In the BBC’s new documentary Civilizations, for example, presenters take us to 31 countries on six continents to appreciate human creativity, like Angkor Wat ( 窟 ) in Cambodia. To Simon Schama, one of the presenters, human civilization isn’t just about technological inventions, but also “those moments when human beings first began to create things that were not purely for food or shelter, but were there to be seen, and to leave a mark of their existence for future humans to witness and admire”, he said. In fact, by comparing science and liberal arts, we’re drawing “an artificial line” between the two. But to some of the greatest innovators in history, this line never existed in the first place. Leonardo da Vinci, for example, was just as successful a scientist as he was a painter. Then there’s Steve Jobs, who, despite being an engineer, was also an artist on the inside. “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough – it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing.”