Humanities and the Public Good (original) (raw)
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Introduction: The Humanities and Citizenship
The discourse of the knowledge (-based) economy constitutes a particular challenge for the humanities: where the role of the university is thought of in purely economic terms, the humanities must strive for legitimacy exclusively on the grounds of their ability to contribute to economic and technological development. This discourse fundamentally disempowers the humanities by neglecting their specificity and socializing function. The articles contained in this special issue seek to expand the paradigm within which the role of the humanities, both in the academy and in society more broadly, is conceptualized. Central to this is examining the changing functions which the humanities have fulfilled in different historical and cultural contexts.
The old question of the humanities' relation to humanity continues to bedevil, bewilder, and bemuse. Intellectuals like Stanley Fish perform mental acrobatics to justify their lifepursuits. 1 Do art and the humanities tend to ennoble? Does immersion in them make moral, elevated, broad-minded, and empathetic? Does it give one a greater appreciation of "life's meaning," or greater understanding of other minds and cultures, or greater capacities for publicspirited and informed citizenship? Does it give one the mental habits and resources with which to live well and resist modern dehumanization? What, in the end, is the humanities' value at all? Or are the naysayers right that this sphere of study and creation is not only economically unproductive but also elitist, solipsistic, socially disengaging, and in general useless, even harmful? Given the age in which we live, it seems that a clear and forceful statement of the value of the humanities-if indeed we decide they have value-is in order. That creating and studying humanistic works need not make humane is shown by the caliber of so many people who create and study these works. "Humanistic" intellectuals are perfectly capable not only of being cultural decadents, contemptible narcissists, and personally immoral obscenities (pedophiles, sadists, abusers of women, whatever you want), but also of being enthusiastic fascists, Nazis, and semi-Eichmannian bureaucrats. The scholarship of Zeev Sternhell, for example, shows how the ideological seeds of fascism germinated in the fecund soil of alienated turn-of-the-century European intellectual culture. 2 George Steiner's thoughts are worth quoting at length: The simple yet appalling fact is that we have very little solid evidence that literary studies do very much to enrich or stabilize moral perception, that they humanize. We have little proof that a tradition of literary studies in fact makes a man more humane. What is worse-a certain body of evidence points the other way. When viewing the world, and it can even contribute to such things as democracy, civic engagement, and other populist values our society pretends to uphold. In particular, if their spirit is properly imbibed, the humanities can instill a healthy and moral disgust with capitalism, consumerism, arbitrary authority, irrational thinking, war, and all things inhumane. At their heart, art and the humanities are essentially moral, the very jewel of human creativity and moral awareness.
On the Utility of the Humanities
Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, 2013
Humanities have already been criticized for enclosing themselves in a self-referential world that needs to interact with other fields of knowledge in order to accomplish its original aim: to make human life meaningful. Based on The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann and on the concept of Narrative Medicine by Rita Charon, this essay sheds light on the role of Humanities in the world today and the importance of discussing this issue.
AmeriQuests, 2012
What is the worth of humanities teaching and research? This collaborative report, based on meetings at McGill and Vanderbilt Universities, argues that humanities researchers and teachers help make an historical, public, meaningful world. It outlines the character of the relationship between the humanities on one side and artistic and political work on the other. It suggests several challenges facing the humanities and provides a short list of recommendations.
2013
Humanities have already been criticized for enclosing themselves in a self-referential world that needs to interact with other fields of knowledge in order to accomplish its original aim: to make human life meaningful. Based on The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann and on the concept of Narrative Medicine by Rita Charon, this essay sheds light on the role of Humanities in the world today and the importance of discussing this issue.