Is it Time to Change the Humanities Requirement? Essay -- Expository E

Is it Time to Change the Humanities Requirement? The University’s Humanities Core represents a vital though enigmatic aspect of the curricular philosophy. Considering that the Core seems so anomalous compared to the curricula of similar universities, it is interesting to note that the Humanities Core seems to have an especially distinguished significance. For example, humanities is the only sequence which is taken almost uniformly by first year students; it is also one of two or three Core sequences that cannot be replaced by AP credits or placement tests. Perhaps most importantly, the humanities requirement may be the only part of the Core that seems to be almost universally perceived as having no application outside of the Ivory Tower. Thus we are faced with the difficult question of what distinguishes the Humanities Core from other pursuits and why it is that the University, an institution that prides itself on academic commitment and prowess, continues to place special emphasis on it. In order to confront this difficult question I will first consider the Humanities Core generally and attempt to decipher its value in terms of content and then in terms of utility; I will then turn my attention to a specific work studied in the Humanities Core and attempt to make sense of its inclusion in the curriculum. As a second-year student, I have pretty fresh memories of my experience in the Humanities Core. I took the auspiciously titled Human Being and Citizen, and although I lacked the perspective held by a student enrolled in, say, Reading Cultures or Greek Thought, I believe that HBC provides an experience which is perhaps most easily generalized in regard to University’s first-year humanities experience. This is because HBC s... ...t books† course like HBC. Although the other sequences may address more particular issues, there is clearly an interest in tracing facets of the intellectual tradition which are independent of content or utility: Philosophical Perspectives explores the pre-Socratic philosophical evolution which laid the groundwork for our western philosophical tradition; Readings in World Literature examines the work of authors—Toni Morrison, for example—who have addressed enduring and complex literary questions in unique ways, thus affecting the way in which these questions are conceptualized. Perhaps having a frame of reference which incorporates these thinkers is necessary if we want to understand and shape our own surroundings and thus an indispensable part of a comprehensive education. NOTES *Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Translation by Martin Oswald, Prentice-Hall, 1962.