What we call ‘the humanities’ are those traditions and modes of thought, evolved over millennia, which collectively reflect on, constitute, and transmit our sense of what it means to be human.
As human beings we are fundamentally interpretative and evaluative in our responses to the world and to each other. We seek meaning; we look for ultimate ends, not just intermediate means; we value irreducible experience, not just concepts and goals.
Philosophy, history, the study of languages, cultures and literatures, music and the fine arts: these are distinct, rigorous, and coherent ways of expressing our evaluative responses to human experience. From ancient song to modern political theory, these have been the speculative, expressive, and formative stories we have told ourselves: how we have explained and, in some measure, made ourselves – including, vitally, as custodians, responsible to those who come after us for the quality of the culture we pass on.
When we speak of ‘humanity’ today we typically have in mind ‘kindness’ or ‘understanding’. The classical Roman conception of humanitas was more comprehensive, encompassing education, civility, and character more generally, including compassion.
Our current, limited conception of humanity is marginal, in practice. Our society has ceded the centre ground to competitive ‘interests’, driving what too many assume to be our ‘real’ affairs: our economics and politics. Can we, today, attain a more complete sense of our common humanity?
The economic and the political, those means to an end, are also part of the human condition, of course, but they diminish us if we allow them to become ends in themselves. And that is precisely why we need a liberal education: to reflect and transmit, as best we can, what it is to be human.
The humanities are the conversations that bring coherence, meaning, and value to all human life-worlds, including the sciences, politics, and business. They are our inheritance — and our legacy.