Eighteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

To revive the humanities, we must first understand this tail end of modernity and its historical purpose. This Age of Desires has led to extreme utilitarianism, the retching soul, epidemics of depression and addiction, loss of inwardness and self-knowledge, heightened body consciousness and death instinct, a consequent cynicism, and the ubiquity of therapy. But, it has also led to historically unprecedented levels of prosperity and income inequality, omnipresent technology, exploration of outer space, globalization, and a worldly cosmopolitanism. Although the historical purpose of modernity is to hone the “I” out of the traditional “we,” modern man does not yet know himself. Having lost inwardness, he has forfeited the power of conscious contemplation. He therefore needs the humanities as tools of introspection. But the humanities are on the fringe of college curricula – blinded by the glare of the techno-business spirit and overpowered by the sterile utilitarianism of the STEM fields and the social sciences. Students no longer have access to introspective tools – except psychology! Barely aware of their own sentience, they therefore run the risk of turning into utilitarian robots. Yet the humanities themselves have to change in order to become more meaningful to the world. They must rise above the sense-driven consciousness they now reflect, transcend worldliness to recover a near-extinct idealism, and subdue utilitarian principles beneath moral ideals. The purpose of this essay is to analyze why the humanities are failing, in terms of their academic content, and how they can recover their lost glory.