CommonApp エッセイ ~Wesleyan~

私が出願したエッセイをただただ記録のために載せていくシリーズです。参考までに。
「貴方にとってのLiberal Artsとは何か？」というシンプルな問いであり、何かと何かを掛け合わせるというわかりきった結論から抜け出すのが難しかったのを覚えています。
剽窃はありませんのでご安心を。

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2022 Wesleyan Supplemental Essay

Wesleyan President Michael Roth believes a liberal arts education is a pragmatic choice in these times. In what way do you see a liberal arts education having practical value? 

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Ohara, a professor who studies modern Japanese literature. I asked him the following question: How do you think literature can benefit society? Professor Ohara's answer was simpler than the technical and complicated explanation I had expected.

“Literature is a kind of thought experiment. Therein, we can see the folk beliefs and political and cultural backgrounds of the time."

The word "experiment" reminds me of Justice Bryer's "It's an experiment,” which he used to describe the judiciary and American society as a whole.

I am fascinated by the ways old and new values collide and evolve to shape the world we exist in today: our legal frameworks, our values, our art. From the photographs of Daido Moriyama and Saul Leiter to the conservatism of Edmund Burke, the democracy of de Tocqueville, and the Japanese political philosophy of Masao Maruyama, I come into contact with the lives and lifestyles of our predecessors and their ideas based on logical thinking. More importantly, though, each interaction gives a picture of the very lives they lived and the climate of their times. 

For me, "experimentation" in political science and art means to warmly accept individual ways of life, but also to connect and clash these values to create novel ideas and perspectives. In liberal arts more generally, we have the opportunity to learn “elements of thinking” instead of just right and wrong answers. This provides us with a framework for considering important questions for ourselves.   (250words)