Various defenses of the humanities can be found in every era of Western civilization and follow a predictable formula.  Given the recent political attention cast upon the place of the Humanities in university education, however, a review and expansion of these arguments is necessary to remind us that the accusations of intellectual masturbation and lack of practical application are fraudulent claims.  The study of the humanities is and always has been relevant to the economics, culture, and politics of Western society and we would do well to remember the value of a total education rather than merely a vocationally-driven one.

Traditional Arguments

The study of the humanities typically refers to a specific set of subject matter.  The 1965 legislation that established the National Endowment for the Humanities describes the field as “language, both modern and classical; linguistics; literature; history; jurisprudence; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts and those aspects of the social sciences which have humanistic content.”  In simpler terms, the humanities target the history of the human experience via language, symbol, and art.  By their very nature, these studies are considerably more abstract and concept-based than their science equivalents and therefore develop different skills, philosophies, and critical methodology systems.

The development of communication-related skill sets are most commonly attributed to the study of the humanities.  Whether a student is studying literature, a foreign language, or the visual arts, there is a focus on the ability of the student to express ideas, form arguments, analyze rhetorical structures, and engage with the material in a critical way.  Textual analysis and essay-writing are the ear-marks of the teaching methodology, both of which force students to improve their vocabulary and ability to argue persuasively.  The articulation of an educated individual is, in essence, a primary goal.

The material studied, however, should not be overlooked.  The Humanities has banked its reputation on its foremost thinkers:  Plato, Bacon, Kant, Shakespeare. . . the list goes on.  The questions that have plagued mankind throughout the centuries are still relevant and play a role in the intellectual process that is difficult for science to accommodate:  What is truth?  What is justice?  Why are we here?  How do we determine what is real?  What can we know?  The question of pedagogy, epistemology, and methodology are important in any study – scientific or otherwise – but more than this, they help to organize the problems inherent in the human condition so that students can work through “big questions” and come to terms with life through the process of reason rather than indoctrination.

By studying said material in a university setting, deeper meanings within texts and symbols can be more fully explored, helping to break down the barriers of intolerance and otherism.  A great advantage to a comparative religion or introductory philosophy course is that alternative ways of organizing and perceiving the world are made accessible to a wide variety of students, allowing for discussion and debate.  By learning about other cultures, other religious or social values, systems of kinship or economics, or interpretations of art and literature, the concept of the Perfect Myth is systematically deconstructed.  When we realize that the world has not always subjugated homosexuals to second-class status, that questions of proper government and citizen’s rights extend beyond the democracy of Ancient Greece, or that interpretations of women’s roles in society have shifted, we are left with the core of humanity: a mass of biological organisms struggling to understand the world.

The New School Arguments

The advantages of a humanities-based education – communication and critical thinking skills, confrontation with the eternal questions of existence, and the potential to eradicate bigotry and intolerance from the human agenda – are easily translated into significant and relevant positions in 21^st century culture and politics.

Dr. William McKinney of Slippery Rock University has famously published on the intellectual attributes of the accomplished arts/humanities scholar.  According to his studies, four of the top ten highest scoring undergraduate majors on the LSAT come from philosophy, classics, history, and English backgrounds, with humanities-based students topping the charts in MCAT, GMAT, and GRE performance.  Furthermore, corporate executives and human resource managers list the specific skill sets acquired from a humanities curriculum – oral communication, reasoning, written communication skills – as the most desired and marketable “skills set” a potential employee can have.

In addition to standardized tests and business preferences, the past 30 years have also seen a significant push for the “Medical Humanities” as part of the standard med-school curriculum.  Because the humanities are focused on the human condition – a condition that includes illness, suffering, pain, and death – a study of the human experience has great potential to increase the standards of western medical care.  The spread of New Age and Holistic medicine suggests that patients want a health experience that extends beyond mere physical treatment; if standard western medicine wants to meet the demands of an increasingly dissatisfied patient constituency, an understanding of psychology could mean as much as an understanding of body chemistry.

David Billington, a professor of civil engineering at Princeton University, has written several books about the benefit of pairing studies of the humanities with physics and structural engineering courses.  The things that we build – bridges, sky scrapers, houses, etc. – have social and symbolic meanings in addition to their scientific construction.  To create a more effective product, an understanding of human history (what we perceive as beautiful and why) and psyche (how space or form affects us) are crucial for the movers and shakers of our future:   the Colosseum, after all, is equal parts engineering and art.

Finally, the study of the humanities is crucial for the total development of a student as a citizen and individual.  As Professor E.D. Hirsch of the University of Virginia was once quoted as saying, “no culture exists that is ignorant of its own traditions.”  Without a study of the development of western democracy, the history of scientific achievement, or the progression of cultural movements over time, the very integrity of the Western social fabric threatens to unravel.  The content encountered on the college campus influences the nature of the next generation’s social, cultural, and political goals.  Universities are not merely producing cogs in an economic machine but individuals whose decisions will have an impact on the kind of values that achieve prominence in our society over the next 30 or 40 years.  To deprive students of the opportunity to take place in philosophic or epistemological debates in a controlled setting, the ability of an entire class of students to grapple with the problems of their day inevitably suffer.

Conclusion

Though many of the advantages of a humanities-based curriculum are arguably not unique to the field and may, in fact, be encountered in a science or technology classroom, the specific emphasis placed upon verbal communication skills and textual analysis places the Humanities in a distinct education class.  Students will not do well in a biology course if they can’t read the textbook or write a cogent lab report.  What we need to do is bridge the gap between the fields and eradicate the hierarchy that society has superficially imposed upon education.  The Humanities present ample opportunity for the next generation to organize their values and recognize their place in the history of the Western world as part of a continuous timeline of development.  As the late philosopher Charles Frankel once said, “it is through the humanities that civilized society talks to itself about things that matter most.”  If we want to preserve the cultural legacy of the US, improve our standards of education, and produce a society of critical thinkers and activists, then a firm foundation in the humanities is key.