From "The Plight of the Humanities—A Special Report" in the May 1965 issue of Johns Hopkins Magazine:
Image credit: Jon Krause
With the greatest economic prosperity ever known by Man; With scientific accomplishments unparalleled in human history; With a technology whose machines and methods continually revolutionize our way of life: We are neglecting, and stand in serious danger of losing, our culture's very soul.
This is the considered judgment of men and women at colleges and universities throughout the United States—men and women whose life's work it is to study our culture and its "soul." They are scholars and teachers of the humanities: history, languages, literature, the arts, philosophy, the history and comparison of law and religion. Their concern is Man and men—today, tomorrow, throughout history. Their scholarship and wisdom are devoted to assessing where we humans are, in relation to where we have come from—and where we may be going, in light of where we are and have been.
Today, examining Western Man and men, many of them are profoundly troubled by what they see: an evident disregard, or at best a deep devaluation, of the things that refine and dignify and give meaning and heart to our humanity.
Posted in Voices+Opinion
