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Humanizing Humanity: The Global Significance of the Humanities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Fred Dallmayr
Fred Dallmayr*
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, USA
*
Fred Dallmayr, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. Email: Fred.R.Dallmayr.1@nd.edu
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Abstract

The essay seeks to vindicate the importance of the humanities or liberal arts deriving from their crucial contribution to the “humanization of humanity”. This vindication is timely in view of the wide-spread curtailment of humanistic or liberal education in many institutions of higher learning. It is also timely as a pedagogical antidote to the fascination with violence in our world (which often culminates in “crimes against humanity”). In a first step, the paper traces the historical development of the humanities or liberal arts in the West. Next, I highlight some crucial features of humanistic education: the emphasis on ethical and character formation; the fine-tuning of moral judgment; and the cultivation of a sensus communis. Another central feature is that such education offers a counterpoint to the overwhelming preoccupation today with career training and utilitarian objectives. In the words of Martha Nussbaum: it is “not for profit”, but serves an intrinsic good. In this respect, humanistic pedagogy bears a close affinity to the needed education for democracy and world citizenship.

Type
Articles
Information
Diogenes , Volume 60 , Issue 1: Universalism in a Multicultural World , February 2013 , pp. 27 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2014

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