Seven salutary warnings for the humanities: a brief glimpse into how the liberal arts have fallen from grace

Resumen

A decimation of the liberal arts is under way. The study of the humanities has steadily declined globally in the past decade along with a dire blend of internal and external crisis. On the one side, the dwindling financial aid and the ascendance of business and technology are playing a vital role in this ruin; on the other, the very soul of arts and culture is increasingly starved of the core values of liberal thought. The School of Humanities is being plagued by the rise of victimhood culture, dysfunctional pedagogical models, and an unprecedented weakened sense of commonwealth and freedom of expression. Extricating the humanities from this quagmire is no easy task, but it has to be done presently, as the supremacy of science and technology is no bill of rights for any nation. For the avoidance of this, the objective hereby is to afford a brief glimpse of the main reasons why the humanities have fallen from grace. Looking specially at the internal, self-sabotaging factors, seven salutary warnings will be issued as pertinent to departmental decision-making. Chiefly, not limiting the analysis of human nature and affairs to epistemological postmodern relativism and radical constructivist theories would signify a little progress. But more drastic changes have to be made. The School of Humanities needs to get rid, among other things, of its institutional stiffness and the vicissitudes of redemptive ideologies. A more diversified curriculum and a politically balanced faculty have to be pursued. And the Socratic method of learning and teaching could work as an antidote to the disciplinary malaise of today’s academy.