Human Nature, the Humanities and Neoliberalism

Abstract

What is the purpose of studying the humanities? This paper suggests we need to revisit this fundamental question by reclaiming an older, pre-Enlightenment vision of the humanities – a vision premised on a different view of human nature and invested in the notions of contemplation, wisdom, virtue and universality. These are not amorphous notions but are associated with traditions through which they are practiced and realized. And when applied to the sphere of late modernity, they tend act in opposition to features characteristic of this modernity. Specifically: contemplation as against the commoditizing of ideas; wisdom as against information without terminus; virtue as against subjectivity defined in terms of rights; and universality as against identity politics. It is our view that this older vision of the humanities – and the key to its ‘relevance’ today – is that it provides a refuge against, and a challenge to, the corrosive onslaught of a dehumanizing neoliberal modernity.