On the AAAS Report on the Humanities and Social Sciences, 'The Heart of the Matter'

John S. Uebersax !o"ember #$ %

A few months ago, in June 2013, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences released a report 'The Heart of the atter' addressing the state of the humanities and social sciences in the !nited States today" #ts conclusions were e$pressed as three main goals% &1' to (educate Americans in the )nowledge, s)ills, and understanding they will need to thri*e in a twenty+first+century democracy,( &2' to (foster a society that is inno*ati*e, competiti*e, and strong,( and &3' to (e-uip the nation for leadership in an interconnected world"( The first recommendation made in connection with .oal 1 was to support (full literacy,( meaning /y that an ad*ancement of not 0ust reading a/ility, /ut also of the critical thin)ing and communication s)ills re-uired of citi1ens in a thri*ing democracy" That this is an e$cellent suggestion no one would dispute" The first recommendation associated with .oal 3 was to promote foreign language education, to ena/le Americans to enlarge their cultural perspecti*e" Again this is an e$cellent and welcome suggestion" 2ut here we ha*e e$hausted the list of the high points" The remainder of the report is filled with such du/ious assumptions and faulty reasoning that e*en the hungriest humanities teacher, clutching at the report as a sign of hope against the increasingly narrow emphasis on science and technology in our education system, ought to /e circumspect in heralding it as a great stride forward" The &art 'efore the Horse The fundamental pro/lem with the report, as # see it, is that it has re*ersed the traditional ends and means of the humanities &and, /y e$tension, of the social sciences, to the e$tent that /oth ha*e similar goals, # shall herein, howe*er, mainly address myself to the humanities'" The principle feature of the humanities is, almost /y definition &that is, to the e$tent that 'humanities' mean the same thing as 'Humanism'', that, in the /est meaning of the phrase, the proper concern of man is man% that what we are really aiming at is human happiness and self+actuali1ation, to empower man, to achie*e the telos latent in his potentialities, to o/tain what the ancients simply called the good life or beata vita" 3ow as to what constitutes this
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4alifornians for Higher 5ducation 6eform, www"caledreform"org"

good life, of course, there is some disagreement, /ut there is also considera/le agreement% we see) a life where human /eings are healthy, ha*e ample leisure time, opportunities for education, where they en0oy the arts, study and practice philosophy, and so on" #n the modern era it has /ecome an un-uestioned assumption that we should also ad*ance technology at a /ris) pace, and, partly as a means of doing this, that our commercial economies should /e ro/ust and growing as well" # tend to agree with this *iew, personally" 7et where # e*idently part company with the authors of the AAAS report is that # see the latter of these two goals 8 technological and economic ad*ancement 8 as su/ordinate to the primary goal of o/taining 'the good life'" That is, to the e$tent that technological and economic growth gi*es us anti+ malaria *accines, freedom from hunger, computers, solar energy, digital classical music, open access online li/raries, and so on, it is good" 2ut when it means pollution, constant stress and an$iety, ur/an sprawl, perpetual war, corporation+ run go*ernment, and a long commute to and from a mindless 0o/ pushing papers in a cu/icle all day long merely to earn enough money to continue on the treadmill, then # thin) we ha*e ample grounds for dou/t, and to consider forging for oursel*es a new *ision of society" ay we put wage sla*ery and mass consumerism on the ta/le as negotia/le, and consider organi1ing our society for the 21st century and /eyond in some more fa*ora/le way9 The gaping hole in the report's logic is that it presents, apparently without the authors' ha*ing any cogni1ance of its a/surdity, if not outright danger, that we should impro*e the humanities in order to impro*e our economies, when it ought to /e the other way around" :e are told that we should increase spending on the humanities and social sciences so that we may ha*e (an adapta/le and creati*e wor)force(, and that, presuma/ly to counter the economic threat posed /y 4hina or other de*eloping nations, we need (a new '3ational 4ompetiti*eness Act'(, which is somehow supposed to /e (li)e the original 3ational ;efense 5ducation Act"( That the authors would so deftly and unhesitatingly leap from (competiti*eness( to (national defense( 8 and all in a report addressing the humanities and social sciences 8 ought /y itself to alert us that something is not -uite right" 2ut lest there /e any dou/t, we need only consult the flag+draped co*er to learn that we need the humanities and social sciences (for a vibrant, competitive, and secure nation"( <underscore added= There you ha*e it% we need the humanities and social sciences for national security" ;o your duty% !ncle Sam wants you to read Sha)espeare> How else can we defeat the infidel third+world hordes greedily eyeing our huge piece of the glo/al economic pie9 The world economy /elongs to America, and our tic)et to continued hegemony is the Humanities>

?n page @A we are treated to a photo of a !S soldier in full com/at gear who loo)s li)e he might /e instructing his comrades in the finer nuances of Afghan culture and how to persuade the locals to rat+out the Tali/an" 7es, definitely e$pand our id+Asian Studies programs, so that our future military occupations might /e more effecti*e than they ha*e /een of late" ?r may/e the idea is that /y studying foreign cultures /etter, we'll ha*e more success in instigating, funding, and arming re/el insurgencies to displace regimes antithetical to our economic interests" Materialism "s. (dealism The tragedy of the report is that it see)s to promote the humanities without the *aguest idea of what Humanism is, or e*en an awareness that this is something people ha*e made some serious effort to define o*er pre*ious decades, centuries, and millennia" 3ow, to my mind 8 and #'m scarcely alone in this opinion 8 Humanism of necessity implies some sort of transcendent orientation" :hat ma)es human /eings distinct and uni-ue in the order of creation is that they are not only material, /iological organisms, /ut contain something di*ine" This is the classical, the 6enaissance, and the religious /asis of Humanism" 3ot all humanists would agree, and # respect that" 2ut at least could we agree to ac)nowledge that the effort to define Humanism is something that ought to occupy our attention9 #s it as)ing too much to cite at least a single /oo), report, or article on the topic in a report that presents itself to /e e$pert and authoritati*e9 # would rather see atthew Arnold, 4ardinal 3ewman, or Blato in the /i/liography than 5mmy+Cou Harris, .eorge Cucas, and John Cithgow in the panel of e$perts whom the report consulted" :e are told, for e$ample, nothing of the 1ADE 3ational 5ndowment for the Humanities report &'To 6eclaim a Cegacy% A 6eport on the Humanities in Higher 5ducation'' authored /y :illiam J" 2ennett" That report, while not as la*ishly produced as the present one, nonetheless had a little more intellectual heft, at least insofar as it connected itself with traditional principles of Humanism, classics, and li/eral education" A natural -uestion to as) is whether the effort to renew the humanities initiated /y the 1ADE report wor)ed" Apparently not too well, or we wouldn't need a new initiati*e" 2ut unless we loo) at that earlier report and e$amine what happened since, how can we understand what went wrong &or right', or )now whether the present plan will fare /etter9 ;espite a /it of lip ser*ice paid to ethics and morals, the *alues of the report are materialistic and mercenary" Small wonder, then, that the solution proposed is to throw more money at the pro/lem" :e'll /uy /ac) the heart and soul of America" 2ut did it e*er occur to the authors that we already ha*e the raw materials for a new cultural renaissance, and that what is wrong is not lac) of money /ut wrong *alues9 #nstead of throwing money at the pro/lem, couldn't we simply persuade 3

people to start reading .reat 2oo)s9 And without a prior shift in fundamental *alues, how can simply funding interdisciplinary research centers or de*eloping a (4ulture 4orps( &yes, they seriously proposed that' accomplish anything9 A more minor point, /ut one ne*ertheless worth ma)ing, is how sua*ely the report dismisses the tuition and student loan crisis in the country today" 3ot a crisis, we're informed, more li)e an incon*enience" The point the authors miss is the effect that placing college students deeply in de/t has on their educational goals" ?ne's not li)ely to pay off a FG@,000 student loan any time soon /y ma0oring in American literature or ancient history" And the de/t+/urdened graduate isn't li)ely to wander around 5urope or Asia for the sheer pleasure of /roadening ones cultural hori1ons" 2etter to ma0or in accounting and hope to land a 0o/ with 2an) of America" #ronically, the report succeeds, after a fashion, in its failure" #ts deficiencies themsel*es spea) *olumes a/out the decline of the humanities in the American uni*ersity system" The report is the product of a higher education industry that has systemically neglected li/eral education for at least 100 years" That we need to address this pro/lem is a/undantly clear" 2ut to gi*e more money to an education system not wise enough to understand what the humanities are and mean scarcely seems li)e the answer" The report is all window dressing and the only real message is (gi*e us money"( 2ut the heart is not /ought"