[What follows is a response to the British Academy panel discussion, entitled The Humanities Under Threat? which took place on Wednesday, 20 July 2011.The event was chaired by Simon Blackburn, Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. The speakers were: Jonathan Cole, former Provost and Dean of Faculties of Columbia University; Stefan Collini, Professor in English Literature at the University of Cambridge; Michael Crow, President of Arizona State University; Robert Post, Dean of the Yale Law School; Martin Rees, former President of the Royal Society and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge; and Adam Roberts, President of the British Academy and Senior Research Fellow, Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford University.]
The humanities and the sciences do not have equal status in public discourse. Consider that all three 2010 election manifestos emphasised the importance of science education, and none mentioned the value of studying the humanities. It doesn’t matter whether politics is mirroring public opinion or whether opinion is reflecting politics. All that matters is that it rings true – doesn’t it? – that “we” care more about science than about the humanities.
This is a different problem to that diagnosed (invented?) by C.P. Snow in his Two Cultures: humanities scholars, by and large, take an admiring professional interest in the work of scientists and vice versa (or so they say). So nowadays the problem is about public perception, not internal rivalries. Even if scientists and scholars in the humanities may be too sensible to compete for the public’s favour, the competition takes place anyway. The trouble is that no one is quite clear what the value of humanities is, whereas it is perfectly obvious that science produces laser eye-surgery, DVDs and barcodes.
Are the humanities threatened by the impoverished public discourse about their value? The British Academy panel seemed divided on this. On the one hand, there was a blithe confidence in the fact that you’d have to be inhuman or deranged actually to wonder what is the value of the humanities. On the other hand, there were deep concerns that humanities scholarship is being measured against values alien to it, and that this is producing radical threats: from the tyranny of the ‘social and economic impact’ agenda, to the fickleness of marketplace fashions, to the burden of debt faced by potential post-graduates and the consequent diminution of research culture.
Why is it so difficult to fight off these threats by offering a convincing and consistent story about what is the ‘public good’ offered by the humanities?Narratives and rhetorical flourish are bread and butter to scholars in this field, aren’t they? If so, shouldn’t they be able to articulate a compelling public vision of their own importance? (So, at any rate, asked a member of the audience).
One answer is that there is a stranglehold on the public understanding of value: if it can’t be measured economically, its value is largely invisible. But it may be, though, that the humanities themselves harbour a self-destructive urge. Many academics in the humanities seem to think that in their field there is no such thing as a ‘discipline’, characterised by technical methodologies, a specifiable expertise or mastery of a subject. The power of the humanities, on this view, is akin to the “charismatic authority of art”. Turbulent, anarchic moments of genius are the prized outputs of this conception of humanities scholarship.But this denial of “disciplinarity” entails a corresponding denial of value: if you can’t already appreciate the value of anarchy, you can’t be brought to appreciate it by mastering a methodology, vocabulary or technique.
Humanities departments need to get over their post-modern hangover, and do it quickly. They are not purveyors of take-it-or-leave-it opinions. They are the guardians of the kind of expertise and understanding that can resolve this modern muddle about value, if only they tried harder.
Owen Gower
Senior Fellow
To comment on this blog email comments@cumberlandlodge.ac.uk
To return to the blog index click here>>
