The Humanities in the New College Program

Abstract

M OST of our colleges have revised and reorganized their courses for greater service in the postwar era. Science, because of its contribution to victory, enjoys a new prestige, but victory itself was for many of us beclouded by the employment of the atomic bomb, and those who make the college programs have not entirely escaped the general perplexity. There will be stronger science courses, but there will also be courses designed to counteract or mitigate the effect of scientific training. The Freshman of the future will take English A to make sure he can write with reasonable correctness. He will also take Humanities A to make sure he is reasonably humane. If Humanities A can do all that is expected of it, some of us will be surprised. We do not yet clearly envisage the material of the course, though we understand its purpose. The humanities were once secular studies, as opposed to studies in divinity. Since the Litterae humaniores of the Renaissance curriculum were Greek and Latin masterpieces, the humanities used to mean the study of the classical languages. But the makers of the new college programs do not ask us to revive the teaching of Greek and Latin. They merely share the universal desire for a return to civilized peace, to neighborliness, to brotherly love, to whatever else is included in the warm term humanities. Yet these virtues are not the content or subject-matter of the course listed in our new catalogue as Humanities A. In Humanities A, the student will be asked to read and discuss famous books. College undergraduates have met this requirement before. I myself once inaugurated a reading course in great books. I hope it increased the