What We Lose When We Lose the Humanities

In the U.S., the proportion of undergraduate students studying the humanities dropped approximately 30% between 2005 and 2025. According to Statistics Canada, student enrollment in the humanities in Canada has been declining precipitously since 2008. Humanities enrollments in universities have dropped by 50% over the past 30 years.

The humanities—history, languages, literature, fine arts, philosophy and music—complement the STEM world in which we live. If science, technology, engineering and mathematics dominate the world of the practical and the physical, the humanities remind us of the immaterial, the spiritual, the imagination and the aesthetic. To ignore the humanities is to neglect the world within each and every one of us.

History gives us background knowledge of how we got to where we are, context for current events and perspective on behavior through time. Fine arts and music develop appreciation of the aesthetic, the world beyond words. Philosophy shapes our vision of ourselves and our world. Languages open vistas on other cultures and illuminate the unexplored corners of the world. The stories of literature reveal not what happened but how life was experienced and what it felt like to live in the time of Shakespeare and Charles Dickens and Mark Twain.

The idea that the humanities have no “use” in the workforce has been debunked by experts in business and industry. An article in the New York Times by Aneesh Raman, a workplace expert at LinkedIn, and Maria Flynn of Jobs for the Future, asserts that “there will be new categories of jobs that emerge as a result of AI’s capabilities … and that those jobs will be anchored increasingly around people skills.” Their conclusion “comes down to whether we believe in the potential of humans with as much conviction as we believe in the potential of A.I.”

Daryn Lehoux of Queen’s University writes that “the point is to prepare students to tackle the complex, unpredictable and novel situations [they] will encounter in the world after graduation.” He adds that the humanities stress “the close examination, careful analysis, creative reconfiguring and constructive debating of challenging questions that have no easy right or wrong answers,” which he calls “critical job skills.”

So much for the idea that the humanities are a frill, useless in the marketplace, a luxury in a “real world” of business, science and technology. In an increasingly mechanistic world of algorithms and robot workers, human skills, fueled by the study of the humanities, will still be indispensable.

In an increasingly mechanistic world of algorithms and robot workers, human skills, fueled by the study of the humanities, will still be indispensable.

The humanities are the bulwark against the dehumanizing of our world and ourselves. They are the opposite of programmed machines and algorithmic conditioning. They embody the creative spirit and human imagination. The sculptor, the writer, the composer, the artist have a vision of life and shape that vision and share it in art, architecture, novels, poetry and music. The humanities are part of a meaningful life. They are the soul in the body of life. The humanities denounce, protest, inspire and illuminate—the very soul of the human enterprise.

Given the current situation on university campuses, it is hard to make the case for universities, whether in the humanities or STEM subjects. Woke culture, in which western democracies and Israel are portrayed as colonial oppressors, is a virus attacking the simple-minded. It is political correctness on steroids. Every subject is politicized and taught through the lens of western civilization, which is portrayed as corrupt. It will eventually fall into disrepute and go the way of all shallow fads that are crushed under the weight of their own obtuse bias.

Bret Stephens in The New York Times reminds us that universities “were not meant to be a collection of antagonistic interest groups presided over by a vast administration” or “a battle ground for political conflicts imported from beyond the campus gate.” We should not “forsake knowledge-seeking for advocacy.”

Students should focus on attending universities that have not been infected by the virus of politics masquerading as traditional courses, as well as universities in Israel where courses are taught in English, and they should include humanities courses in their programs.

In the meantime, the rest of us can attend concerts, read books, visit art galleries and museums and experience the glory of the civilization that has been bequeathed to us. Their value has proven itself over the centuries and continues to inspire and elevate us. Now, more than ever, when our culture is prey to the superficial and the automated, we need the human in the humanities.

Dr. Paul Socken is Distinguished Professor Emeritus and founder of the Jewish Studies program at the University of Waterloo.