What does a Greek “champion” of the humanities do for the past 13 years at one of the world’s leading technology institutes, the well-known Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)? Exactly what every academic institution teaching the sciences should be doing, nurturing the young researchers who will push the world forward and the ones who will one day lead Big Tech: teaching tomorrow’s scientists to communicate their ideas properly, to make scientific findings clear and accessible, and to make the case for their value in the right way.

In other words, Dr. Andreas Karatsolis, assistant professor and director of MIT’s Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication program, teaches more than 4,500 students a year how to give dry diagrams and equations a pulse strong enough to reach the hearts, and ultimately the lives, of everyone who stands to benefit from scientific progress. That means all of us.

The Need To Bring Humanities And Science Together

That’s why this conversation with MIT’s resident humanist proves instructive on every front, at a time when public health crises, conspiracy thinking, and the rise of artificial intelligence pose enormous challenges for states and societies. As the conversation shows, the push to bring humanities tools into the sciences actually came from MIT’s own students.

“When students were systematically asked what further skills they needed, they consistently put science communication and teamwork at the top of the list. So we built a program in writing, rhetoric, and professional communication that’s woven directly into the technical courses. Because scientists often assume that communicating well, writing compellingly, is a talent they simply don’t have. We explain to them that it isn’t talent at all, it’s ‘engineering with words.’ With the right training, anyone can master the skill of communicating science well.”

This blending of the humanities and the sciences has already produced measurable results. “Now not only do emerging scientists present their ideas more compellingly in job interviews at major companies, but companies themselves reach out to MIT looking specifically for students who’ve been through this program.”

In The Beginning Was Character

Zooming out from companies to the bigger picture that includes all of us, the general public seems to want the same thing: to have scientific findings delivered without the arrogance of authority, in a way that’s understandable and, above all, delivered with integrity. That’s what a study led by Dr. Karatsolis and his colleagues found after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We analyzed the political and scientific language used in different countries to persuade people to get vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic virus. We found that of the three main means of persuasion defined in Aristotle’s Rhetoric, logos, pathos, and ethos, meaning logical argument, emotional appeal, and credibility, it was ethos-based rhetoric that won people over the most. The public didn’t just want dry logical arguments, and it didn’t just want emotional appeals. It wanted to feel that trustworthy people were using trustworthy language for its benefit and protection.”

That’s why Dr. Karatsolis argues that when the next public health crisis arrives, and it inevitably will, “those in charge should study Aristotle closely if they want to communicate well with the public, something that is critical to saving lives.”

Could this all be idle rhetoric at a time when more and more people don’t even write or read anymore, since AI does it for them? Are the fears that AI will “wipe us out,” because we’re giving it so much power, actually justified?

The Greek expert dismisses those fears. “For one, I use AI tools myself when writing, since they help me gather information, always under my own control. We used to fear the internet and the information it gave us; now that conversation has shifted to artificial intelligence. Since AI isn’t going away, the real question is how we use it to our advantage, offloading the tedious tasks so we have time to be more productive and creative. The public needs to be trained to use AI effectively, with the right critical skills. And that has to start in school.”

The Education Model Needs To Change

The MIT professor firmly believes that the key to unlocking AI’s real potential lies in changing the education model. “The big question isn’t whether AI shows up a little or a lot in schools. The big question is whether we have teachers who can use AI as a tool that helps students think, instead of wasting time gathering information or memorizing facts and dates they probably won’t even remember the next day.”

Constructive dialogue and metacognition also need to start being built from school, the expert stresses. “Constructive dialogue means building trust between people through strategies like active listening, focusing on what the other person is saying, really listening to them. Dialogue doesn’t mean agreeing on everything, but it does mean that through different viewpoints, we can move the conversation forward until we find the best possible solutions for whatever project we’re working on, whether it’s a school assignment or a major professional undertaking.” A lesson like that could probably use a wider audience, from political panels to personal relationships.

The Role Of Metacognition

When it comes to metacognition, it’s another key pillar for each of us to develop our potential in the best possible way. “Metacognition means learning how we learn. It means not worrying so much about whether we’re learning math or history or physics, but looking beneath the surface of each subject to recognize its underlying patterns, so we’re able to solve, say, any physics problem because we’ve learned the pattern, the approach that makes that field work.”

According to Dr. Karatsolis, all these tools aren’t just individual assets, they’re a shared inheritance. “If everyone masters the art of rhetoric, because it is an art, then communication becomes more effective at every level. And in the end, we’ll all build something better together than what we found in this world. Isn’t that the whole point of our existence?” Each of us should answer that not just with knowledge, but with metacognition.