Here is an interesting article on what ails the humanities. The claim is that humanities professors have inflicted a lot of damage on themselves. The piece is rather optimistic about the public attitude toward humanities, one person remarking that “I don’t think our civilization is so degraded that we have to defend giving attention to what is excellent.” The problem, rather, is two-fold. The first problem is related to overspecialization and the popularity of various approaches (deconstruction, postmodernity, anti-colonialism, feminism, marxism) in the academy. One fellow in the article noted that “What matters to the public is Shakespeare, not the ‘logic of theatrical representation.’” Ordinary people recognize that Shakespeare is a value. We are not so lost that we have to argue that great things deserve attention. The problem is that humanities faculties too rarely teach the great things, and when they do it is without proper respect (they are busy just “deconstructing” them). If that is your college exposure to Shakespeare, you are going to either not take university faculty seriously, not take Shakespeare seriously, or perhaps both.
Related to this is the failure of humanities professors to speak Continue reading ““Branding” the humanities – what is ‘critical thinking’?”
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