Twenty-second International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God, God, How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world!” [Hamlet, Act One, Scene Two, 1-6] Abstract: This paper addresses the many ways that modern education has become weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable, and the personal and societal consequences of that flattening. It begins by identifying the principal agents of this destruction, the “flatteners,” in various forms, principally through aesthetics, but also in social and educational philosophy, and then describes the consequences and possible alternatives to that flattening. Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who was haunted by a ghost, is higher education’s haunting ghost and the host to our exposé. We see in his hauntings what haunts the modern American university, its intellectual and institutional practices, yes, but also its weak defenses against barbarism. From there, we can reimagine and reclaim spirited education, something that could have reanimated the dour Dane, while avoiding the pitfalls along the way. In addition to Shakespeare, we will use aesthetics (principally in architecture, painting, and sculpture) as a rigorous critical means, and include passionate and articulate critics of modern education, including, Wendell Berry, Neal Postman, C. S. Lewis, C. K. Chesterton, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rosaria Butterfield, Roosevelt Montas, Paul Johnson, Roger Scruton, and George Steiner.