engleski

The Idea and the Ideal of Humanity in the Humanities

In my lecture, I ask what sense the humanities make today? Why does it or does it not make sense to study or do research in the humanities in today’s world? and what “use” the humanities have in today's world? in other words: what the humanities are “good for”? In recent years, policymakers in the area of research and higher education increasingly give the impression that the humanities are good for nothing . This point of view is underlined by growing emphasis on the economic value of college degrees, which manifests itself in a dual aspect: on the one hand, with regard to employability of college graduates in the humanities fields and, on the other, with regard to profitability of funding the humanities disciplines. The perspective on the humanities expressed in EU Policy on Research and Training, is taken as a case in point. Here, the humanities are last on the list of research areas and consistently grouped as a sort of stepchild together with and following after the social sciences, as if comprising a subordinate branch of the social science themselves. Across the board, the humanities, like the natural and social sciences, are required to “feed into the implementation and the adaptation of the Europe 2020 strategy and the broad external action of the Union.” “Full integration” of the humanities into EU economic, political, and research strategy, however, undermines a crucial role once assumed to be the area of competence and responsibility of the humanities, namely, that of responsibility for formation of judgment, for the purpose of acting as an independent, non- partisan, unalligned, critical instance, whose task is to question the meaning and justification of political strategies. In my paper, I draw into question the feasibility, wisdom and morality of the "Gleichschaltung" of the humanities striven for in EU policy.

humanities ; idea ; ideal ; EU policy ; judgment ; freedom ; critique

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