The State of Humanities in Spain

Abstract

Humanities have been in crisis for a long time, because they continuously need to grow and to be updated, which is not necessarily always negative. This crisis in the humanities has a strong relationship with cultural changes. During the 20th century the concept of culture has been revised for several times, especially during the sixties, but it has not been until the book of Lyotard Postmodernity when “globalization” has started to play an important role in this area. The key points of the current crisis of the humanities are consequence of a strong criticism (which comes from the period of Descartes and Kant, who settled the basis of this crisis), of the lack of authority, and of the common culture. The solution has to be searched in the creation of new reactions towards the power of these pressure groups. In this paper, we will analyze the repercussions of all these factors in the Spanish humanities, and we will study the solutions which are being offered to organize that reaction, such as the creation of literary prizes, the foundation of philosophical communities, the defence of human rights and law studies, the development of cultural inheritance, the increase of social conscience (non-profit organizations), the proliferation of activities related with the Arts, and religious development. All these strategies have three common aims: to flee of authoritarian or imposed solutions, to look for concrete and positive expressions, and to boost concrete and local cultural projects. As far as the situation in Spain is concerned, although the perspectives are not very dark, they can suffer changes due to political conflicts and interests, which can damage severely the future of our national thought.