Useless Majors: In Defense of the Value of the Humanities

Let’s face it, the Humanities and the Liberal Arts get a bad rep. I recall my freshman year

at University when I told a fellow student that I was majoring in Anthropology. After explaining

to him what Anthropology is: the study of people both culturally and biologically, he then

proceeded to impart his wisdom to me. He exclaimed:

“What are you going to do with that? Are you going to teach?”

I have encountered this gem of wisdom, not just from my contrarian classmate, but also

from many other people that I have met. Each contrarian has argued that the humanities are

useless and serve no practical purpose. At best this means that you should simply avoid pursuing

a specialization in the humanities, at worst, this means that the humanities ought to be dismissed

or discarded. This attitude is pervasive in American society and the ‘uselessness’ of the

humanities is self-evident and that you should rather study something practical such as finance,

engineering, health sciences, computer science, or a trade, and forsake the humanities as an

elective at most. Furthermore, some of these sentiments have been articulated by some public

officials.12 This popular belief ought to be scrutinized to see if it has any merits.

While it is certainly true that the ‘in-demand fields’ are integral to the functioning of our

society and many people are passionate about pursuing these fields and diving headfirst into their

crafts. These in-demand fields also include some of the fastest-growing career fields.3However,

1 Rick Seltzer, “Disparaging Interpretive Dance (and More)?”, Inside Higher Ed, September 14, 2017, accessed June 30th, 2018. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/09/14/kentuckys-governor-says-universities-should-think-about-cutting-programs-poor-job 2 Patricia Cohen, “A Rising Call to Promote STEM Education and Cut Liberal Arts Funding”, The New York Times, February 21, 2016, accessed June 30th, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/business/a-rising-call-to-promote-stem-education-and-cut-liberal-arts-funding.html 3 Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational Outlook Handbook: Fastest Growing Occupations”. United States Department of Labor, April 13, 2018, accessed June 30th, 2018. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/fastest-growing.htm

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one of the underlying premises behind this attitude is that we ought to pursue work that has the

most utility. This ‘model of utility’. The model of utility can be summarized as follows:

Premise 1: We live in a competitive economy, and resources and job prospects are

limited.

Premise 2: Since resources and job prospects are limited, you ought to invest time and

money wisely.

Premise 3: Dedicating yourself to one of the in-demand vocation is more likely to get you

employed and make more money. In contrast, getting specialized knowledge in topics

such as: Medieval Philosophy, the intricate details of Dutch Colonial History, Daily Life

in the Roman Republic, or applying Literary Criticism to works such as Finnegan’s

Wake, is less likely to lead to stable financial security.

Conclusion: One ought to be dedicated to practicing any of the ‘in-demand vocations’

and forsake or discard the humanities.

There is a common theme, and that is a belief in the primacy of utility to determine one’s

future vocation. Due to the competitive nature of the global economy, higher education is now

seen as an investment for a future vocation. You shouldn’t waste your money, and you want a

job after you graduate. Therefore, people will usually declare a major in a vocational field. So,

do fields such as: philosophy, anthropology, or any of the humanities have any value today? Are

they merely antiquated and esoteric forms of knowledge that served a great purpose in the past,

but today are irrelevant?

Bertrand Russell: The ‘Practical Man’ and the Value of Philosophy

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I contend that the humanities still have relevance, can provide practical knowledge to the

real world and towards the human condition. One thinker who made a case for the value of the

humanities (with an emphasis on philosophy) was Bertrand Russell (1872-1970). In Russell’s

small, yet approachable and dense book, The Problems of Philosophy (1912), the final chapter,

moving away from earlier topics on epistemology on towards questions on the value of

philosophy. Russell begins by describing ‘The Practical Man’ an individual who eschews

philosophy believing it to be ‘useless-hair splitting’ and ‘trifling’. ‘The Practical Man’ would

rather focus his energies on something with greater utility, such as becoming a craftsman or

working in finance. However, this attitude results from a misunderstanding of the ends of life

itself, as well as philosophy, and the goods that come about because of philosophizing. Russell’s

description of the value of philosophy can be more broadly applied to the humanities. Which, I

will return to the ends of philosophy and the humanities later.4

4 Mens et Manus (Mind and Hand). The motto of MIT. Russell’s ‘Practical Man’ may value the work of the hand (utility), while ignoring the value of the mind (inquiry). From MIT History: MIT Libraries Archives, “Seal of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology”, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, accessed June 30th, 2018. https://libraries.mit.edu/mithistory/institute/seal-of-the-massachusetts-institute-of-technology/

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One major reason for the respect that science is given in contemporary times is because

of the vast utility of its inventions and discoveries. Our world would be radically different

without the numerous inventions and discoveries in the sciences that have arisen in the last 200

years. Better sanitation systems. Vaccinations that have allowed us to combat disease at a greater

level than ever before. Commercial airplanes have revolutionized the way in which people travel,

migrate, and do business around the world. The Internet and electronic devices have radically

altered the way in which we interact with the world, and how we conduct our daily affairs. Each

of these inventions have benefitted humanity in some way. Everyone seems to love the physical

sciences, and there are now a multitude of STEM initiatives to train the future generation of

scientists.5 Some might even imagine a future in which our society is even governed by

technologists.

What distinguishes the value of the sciences compared to the value of the humanities is

that the latter is intrinsically valuable. This is because fields such as: philosophy, history,

anthropology, literature, and the arts impart unto us a wealth of information. The humanities

teach us about our past, our present, and allow us to gain insight into our possible future. The

humanities teach us about the richness of the human experience, and the sweetness of pleasure,

the bitterness of pain, joy and despair, and many other feelings have only been best described in

literature and the arts. People such as myself didn’t major in philosophy or anthropology because

we thought that we would become wealthy, (though some people who were once humanities

majors certainly are wealthy)6. We majored in the humanities because we wanted to experience

the richness of the human experience, which we consider to be wealth in-itself.

5 Teach for All, “Global STEM Initiatives”, Teach for All, accessed June 30th, 2018. https://teachforall.org/global-stem-initiative

6 Peter Thiel comes to mind as a case example. The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, s.v. “Peter Thiel,” accessed June 30th, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Peter-Thiel

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Furthermore, the physical and natural sciences are the children birthed from philosophy.

Science was once Natural Philosophy but split along with several other fields because they had

shared paradigms and customs for research. Newton did not think of himself as a scientist, but a

natural philosopher. Descriptions of causation, motion, and a belief in a purpose (telos) of the

natural world formed the essence of natural philosophy. It was only until the early modern

period, and the Enlightenment that science became increasingly professionalized and thus more

esoteric. Contemporary fields in the sciences such as: Physics, Psychology, Astronomy, and

Biology were all once a part of Natural Philosophy but have since become their own separate

fields.

The Intrinsic Value of Inquiry

In The Problems of Philosophy, Bertrand Russell proposes to the reader a thought

experiment. The thought experiment is a classic staple in philosophy in which we perform an

experiment inside our own minds. The thought experiment Russell proposes is as follows:

If all men were well off, if poverty and disease had been reduced to their lowest possible point, there would still remain much to be done to produce a valuable society; and even in the existing world the goods of the mind are at least as important as the goods of the body. It is exclusively among the goods of the mind that philosophy is to be bound; and only those who are not indifferent to these goods can be persuaded that the study of philosophy is not a waste of time.7

What Russell is trying to illustrate here is a problem of value that is raised. What do we do now?

What remains in this hypothetical scenario is that we still have normative questions to tackle

about fundamental topics in human existence. How should we organize our societies? What is

the good? Does God exist? It is these questions that only philosophical enquiry can wrestle with,

and an appreciation for the necessity of enquiry is a prerequisite. The ability to engage in serious

thought and to take value in uncertainty is one of the benefits of philosophy, and the humanities 7 Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, (Mineola, New York, Dover Publications, Inc., 1999, o.p. 1912), 112.

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overall. Uncertainty and ambiguity are common themes, not just in the humanities, but ambiguity

is a product of the human condition. There are many unsolved problems, not just in more abstract

fields such as: philosophy, and theology. But there remain many unsolved problems in fields

with many practical applications, such as: Chemistry, Physics, Computer Science, Cosmology,

Mathematics, Medicine, etc. Uncertainty is abundant and one of the chief tasks of the humanities

is to acknowledge and engage with uncertainty.

So, what else can philosophy do that is good for us? According to Russell, it can “Free

our minds from unwarranted prejudices”.8 Philosophy and the humanities are subjects which

suggest a variety of possibilities in our world. Both philosophy and the humanities can be viewed

as therapeutic. When we view beautiful art, whether it be visual art, literature, theater, film, etc.

We feel moved at a deeply personal level. We sympathize with the emotions, the plights, and the

achievements of the characters in great literature. Through history, we can gain an appreciation

for nuance, and interpretation as applied to the historical record. We can also gain insight into

how people before us lived and attempt to understand their world. Through reading

ethnographies, we can travel to different lands and understand the life ways of other humans as

distant strangers, yet distant relatives.

Upon reading the great works of philosophy, one can engage in problem-solving as well

as diving into the abyss of the unknown. Many philosophers of the past have attempted to

establish first principles and methods to achieve foundational knowledge (such as Descartes and

Kant, among others). Are there any limitations to these methods or to their overall projects? Only

through a commitment to enquiry and a deep appreciation for knowledge can we properly come

to understand the purposes of philosophy and the humanities as a whole. Russell argues that

8 Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, 114.

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philosophy, not only serves a therapeutic function in that it meets our emotional and spiritual

needs. Philosophy can further be used as a cure for political dogmatism and religious

fundamentalism. Both political and religious dogmatism are to be viewed as vices due to their

epistemic inflexibility and lack of nuance. To be dogmatic in one’s political and religious beliefs,

is to be firmly grounded in a worldview that is nearly impossible to change. An unwavering

belief in the fixedness of a worldview seems antithetical to the project of philosophical enquiry

itself. As Russell claims, enquiry ought to have a degree of impartiality and a desire for truth,

which he claims is deeply connected to freedom itself.

The mind which has become accustomed to the freedom and impartiality of philosophic contemplation will preserve something of the same freedom and impartiality in the world of action and emotion. It will view its purposes and desires as parts of the whole, with the absence of insistence that results from seeing them as infinitesimal fragments in a world of which all the rest is unaffected by any one man’s deeds. The impartiality which, in contemplation, is the unalloyed desire for truth, is the very same quality of mind which, in action, is justice, and in emotion is that universal love which can be given to all, and not only to those who are judged useful or admirable.9

The Humanities and skills for the 21st Century

The value of the humanities is not simply limited to the intrinsic values of gaining knowledge of

the ancient world, or appreciating art, literature, and philosophy. The humanities actually provide

many transferrable real-world skills. These include: the ability to perform research, analytical

thinking/critical thinking. Expressing yourself through writing and speaking. Performing difficult

reading, and an ability to adapt to learning new material. For many of my papers in my

undergraduate years, I had to do extensive research for each of my papers that were longer than

9 Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, 116.

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10 pages. This involved me searching in a database for several different articles that were

relevant for any of my essays. I also had to search for key passages in all of the articles and

books that proved relevant for my research papers. Upon gathering all of this information, I

would synthesize the information and type my thoughts into a Word Document. Later, I would

edit it so that the paper was ready to become a rough draft, and then a final draft to hand in.

Writing, as well as giving presentations on these subjects required learning and growing

in very specific skillsets. In order to craft strong papers, and give good presentations, you have to

be good at constructing strong and sound arguments and articulating them coherently. It also

requires an ability to conjure up objections to various arguments and an ability to come up with

strong replies. This is where the analytical thinking skills come into play. Reading texts in

philosophy, history, anthropology, literature, and other subjects can be fairly difficult. Difficult

reading will help you to understand work documents more easily. And, get this…It will help you

write better too. It is for these aforementioned reasons that the humanities can provide you with

skills such as: excellent writing skills, excellent public speaking skills, strong analytical and

research skills, and an ability to learn new skills quickly, among many others. These skills will

have applicability to a diverse number of careers. Paralleling the diversity of human thought and

the human experience.

I hope that I have made the case that the humanities are rich subjects that are worth

studying for their intrinsic value and insight into the human condition. Further, studying the

humanities allows you to gain skills that are transferrable to a variety of different fields. Even if

you choose to study a more ‘practical’ field, please don’t dismiss or forsake the humanities. For

the world is far richer with the humanities. If you do choose to study the humanities, know that

in the end, studying the humanities really is worth it. Sapientia melior auro!

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational Outlook Handbook: Fastest Growing Occupations”.

United States Department of Labor, April 13, 2018, accessed June 30th, 2018,

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/fastest-growing.htm

Cohen, Patricia. “A Rising Call to Promote STEM Education and Cut Liberal Arts Funding”,

The New York Times, February 21, 2016, accessed June 30th, 2018,

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/business/a-rising-call-to-promote-stem-education-and-cut-

liberal-arts-funding.html

10 Philosophia et septem artes liberales. From the Hortus deliciarum, of Herrard of Landsberg. circa 1180 C.E., Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons, accessed June 30th, 2018. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Septem-artes-liberales_Herrad-von-Landsberg_Hortus-deliciarum_1180.jpg

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MIT History: MIT Libraries Archives, “Seal of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology”,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, accessed June 30th, 2018,

https://libraries.mit.edu/mithistory/institute/seal-of-the-massachusetts-institute-of-technology/

Russell, Bertrand. The Problems of Philosophy, Mineola, New York: Dover Publications Inc.,

1999, o.p. 1912.

Seltzer, Rick. “Disparaging Interpretive Dance (and More)?”, Inside Higher Ed, September 14,

2017, accessed June 30th, 2018, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/09/14/kentuckys-

governor-says-universities-should-think-about-cutting-programs-poor-job

Teach for All, “Global STEM Initiatives”, Teach for All, accessed June 30th, 2018,

https://teachforall.org/global-stem-initiative

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, s.v. “Peter Thiel,”

accessed June 30th, 2018, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Peter-Thiel

Wikimedia Commons, Philosophia et septem artes liberales. From the Hortus deliciarum, of

Herrard of Landsberg. circa 1180 C.E., accessed June 30th, 2018,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Septem-artes-liberales_Herrad-von-

Landsberg_Hortus-deliciarum_1180.jpg

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