Waubonsee Community College

The battle of the classics, how a nineteenth-century debate can save the humanities today, Eric Adler

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

The battle of the classics

bibliography

1153648776

Eric Adler

how a nineteenth-century debate can save the humanities today

"The Battle of the Classics criticizes contemporary apologetics for the humanities and presents a historically informed case for a decidedly different approach to rescuing the humanistic disciplines in American higher education. It uses the so-called Battle of the Classics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a springboard for crafting a novel foundation for the humanistic tradition. The book argues that current defences of the humanities rely on the humanistic disciplines as inculcators of certain poorly defined skills such as "critical thinking." It finds fault with this conventional approach, arguing that humanists cannot hope to save their disciplines without arguing in favour of particular humanities content. As the lacklustre defences of the classical humanities in the late nineteenth century help prove, instrumental apologetics are bound to fail. All the same, the book shows that proponents of the Great Books favour a curriculum that is too intellectually narrow for the twenty-first century. The Battle of the Classics thus lays out a substance-based approach to undergraduate education that will revive the humanities while steering clear of overreliance on the Western canon. The book envisions a global humanities based on the examination of masterworks from manifold cultures as the heart of an intellectually and morally sound education"--, Provided by publisher

Introduction: The sick man of higher education -- Skills are the new Canon -- From the Studia Humanitatis to the modern humanities -- A college Fetich? -- Darwin meets the curriculum -- Humanism vs. humanitarianism -- Toward a truly ecumenical wisdom