Thursday, April 8, 2021

'The Battle of the Classics'

'Author discusses his book on a 19th-century scholarly battle and its lessons for debates on the humanities today.'

Scott Jaschik interviews Eric Adler, author of The Battle of the Classics: How a 19th-Century Debate Can Save the Humanities Today, at Inside Higher Ed.

"Q: What is wrong with the Great Books as a prism through which to promote liberal education?

"A: Promoters of the Great Books approach to general education were understandably disturbed by the antihumanistic curricular anarchy ushered in the U.S. colleges after the fall of the old prescribed classical course. But, like the Renaissance humanists before them, they settled on a curricular foundation that was too narrow to fit the intellectual and moral needs of the present. By grounding general education in the study of Western works alone, they were ignoring major elements of contemporary humanistic study. The Analects of Confucius, African art, Japanese Noh drama -- these and so much more are part of the modern humanities. Why should they be left out of our general education?"

No comments:

Post a Comment