The Liberal Arts Are the Future
Quillette | Auguste Meyrat
An argument for liberal arts (while others describe a crisis in the humanities). “Nations that exclusively prioritize STEM end up with unimaginative, conformist cultures led by unimaginative, conformist oligarchs. They may be materially wealthier, but they are also morally and spiritually impoverished… Eliminating the liberal arts leads to mass self-objectification.”
“Heavier loads of math and science have not produced more competent graduates, better prepared to enter the workforce. On the contrary, students today are just as unprepared to handle the vicissitudes of today’s economy as before, if not more so,” Meyrat argues.
“They might have had hard skills in the hard sciences, but that hardness made them inflexible in a rapidly changing environment. Those who reject the liberal arts never learn how to be independent… They don’t create, they merely operate in what’s already been created…”
“It may sound paradoxical, but if Western nations and their citizens want to succeed in an increasingly scientific, technology-driven world, they need to preserve and empower their humanity. That means educating their people in the liberal arts first and foremost.”
