The Failure of the Humanities

I'll admit, I used to have a pretty low opinion of those studying the humanities. For me, the biggest strike was the lack of accountability. If you made up a totally bs story, it would have to receive the same consideration as the most well thought out of treatises. Heck, in the AP English and History tests in school, you could write any number of crazy ideas in your paper, as long as you followed the format and used (or abused) the appropriate sources.

However, looking back, the true failure of the humanities was convincing me the humanities are important. After all, communication, persuasion, and art all fall under the humanities. Would it be too much to ask that the fields use their own powers to defend themselves?

I'm not sure why that's the case, but I have a few theories. Chief among them is the fact that those in those fields don't want other people to learn them. It's become a part of their identity, and having other people share in the study of their subjects violates their sense of self. It's a well known fact that mathematicians deny the applicability of their studies while physicists and others would beg to differ. I imagine the same can be said of those in the humanities.

It could also be that those who teach humanities can't relate to the type of person who could use some humanities studies but isn't as interested. Instead of showing how the humanities could be used to forge one's own identity or interpret history and modern events, classes are spent fetishizing obscure passages by long dead authors, with only passing context given. While I'm sure the instructor finds the subject interesting, it doesn't exactly give a strong lead in interest.

I did have a class in college which I thought gave a great introduction to philosophy, but the professors real favorite topic was the deep introspection of a medieval author, and suffice it to say I declined to even find out when it was scheduled.

Another theory is that bs is not challenged enough. Often writing assignments were one off papers, so even controversial topics were never really explored. Some comments might come back in the margins of the paper, but there was never any deep critical analysis that could have sparked true introspection.

It's a real shame, because looking back at my education, even though I only took two humanities courses, they were easily more thought provoking than many of my scientific ones. Perhaps if someone had shown me the true power of history or philosophy or english earlier on in my schooling I would have given them more of a chance in college. Now I can only stumble through such topics, like a child that never truly learned to walk.