Science first, humanities later: logic and computer science beat Jane Austen and Shakespeare. From the editorial: Though Jane Austen and Shakespeare might be important, they are far less important than many other things that are more relevant to make an intelligent, continuously learning citizen, and a more adaptable human being in our increasingly more complex, diverse [...]
Humanities fed the soul in communist Romania: how the study of the humanities kept people alive, and allowed them to find truth when surrounded by falsehood. From the article: When I heard this story, I understood that the stereotype of the fluffy, useless liberal arts was a lie. If the study of literature or history [...]
Freedom of thought in twelfth-century Paris: how Latin learning (and love) left us a legacy of creative inquiry A good man asked the doctors of [twelfth-century] Paris if it were better to learn what one did not know or to apply what one knew, and when they approved the second, concluded upon them that they [...]
Transhumanism: what does the future hold? The Washington Post hosts a series of commentaries on the value and validity, the promise and peril, of transhumanism, with its promise to "transcend the human condition." So do we need the "transhumanities"? Or develop the next variant of digital humanities? From the introductory statement: Transhumanism, in its most extreme [...]
The problems a poet would solve. How does a poet respond to life's problems, in politics and otherwise? W.B. Yeats records one lyrical response to Thomas Mann. ‘In our time the destiny of man presents its meanings in political terms.’ Thomas Mann How can I, that girl standing there, My attention fix On Roman or on [...]
Free speech and the humanities: do the humanities foster, or inhibit, freedom of expression? The author decries the "identity politics" and "improper advocacy" among the humanities, which undermine open, rigorous inquiry. From the article: The problem of political correctness is intensified by the increasing fixation of humanities and even history departments on “presentism,” that is, a preoccupation [...]
An encounter with Renaissance art, and its consequence: Boris Pasternak reflects on culture and individual genius. The chief thing that everyone carries away from an encounter with Italian art is the sensation of the tangible unity of our culture, whatever he may have seen this in, and whatever name he may give it. How much [...]
Happy graduation, humanities students! "Better a few good scholars than many indifferent ones." You embody the meaning of George Washington's mandate to James McHenry, to paraphrase: it is infinitely better to have a few good scholars, than many indifferent ones. For the number of humanities majors has now decreased to the lowest level in a [...]
Triumph of the Advocates: a vision for this world, or the next. Lapidus. Hey you, Lepus! What are you doing there, sitting around? Are you stargazing? Lepus. Lapidus, what’s wrong? You look distressed. Lapidus. I’m tired, that is all. Perhaps that is the reason for my distress. I just dreamt the most amazing dream, a [...]
A scientist reads the book of life, without annotations, but through imagery To read the book of life can be a great delight and an edifying experience; but only if one abstains from decorating every page with annotations in the margins and with corrections, and, even more importantly, from tearing them out and throwing [...]
