The Importance of the Liberal Arts

Ahmad Khawaja

Featured illustration: A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts by Sandro Boticelli | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

“‘What will you do with that degree?’ This question is invariably asked of students majoring in the Liberal Arts, as if the purpose of college was solely a utilitarian one. In the question, the philosophical roots of our crisis reveal themselves.” — Hamza Yusuf Hanson

“The true college will ever have but one goal—not to earn meat, but to know the end and aim of that life which meat nourishes.” — W.E.B. Du Bois

While many recite the financial merits of the Liberal Arts in their defense, those who ask about the economic utility of these disciplines are often those who need it most. Their misunderstanding likely involves the confusion of the purposes of education with those of training. Education, they would say, is to prepare students to enter the workforce. False. This is training, and a stark contrast exists between being trained and being educated. Most people can be taught to follow instructions, to show up on time, to insert data, but to liberate yourself from the need to be taught what to think and to master the tools of knowing how to think is an entirely different gift. Education is not an extended four-year job training regimen. The aims and purposes of this brand of education are about making a life, rather than simply making a living.

Consider the outcomes of the recent United States presidential elections or the British “Brexit” vote. While a plethora of reasoned opinions exists as to why these events unfolded the way they did, the Oxford Dictionary’s selection of “post-truth,” an adjective defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief,” as the word of the year is indicative of the effects a waning of the Liberal Arts’ influence can have. The complete lack of nuance in socio-political discourse and the descent of the ruling class into demagoguery is symptomatic of the intellectual health of the public. To be clear, a Liberal Arts education is not designed to produce “liberals” or adherents of any other particular political ideology. “Liberal” in this context refers to “liberation,” as in to liberate oneself from dogmatic restraints, and, through study of logic, develop the tools necessary to correctly evaluate reasoning. A public equipped with the means to identify logical fallacies and to examine perspectives from different points of view would not only create a more refined public, but create a more refined political class. As citizens become more immune to the seductions of eloquence, politicians would be required to adopt positions that favour substance over style.

The ability to recognize flawed arguments is necessary but not sufficient. Logic can give you the tools to construct a sound argument, but it can’t make the argument for you. A heightened sense of sophisticated and empathetic thought that can readjust and re-apply its mores in novel situations is only developed through what Northrop Frye calls “The Educated Imagination.”  In order to implement a particular vision or model of the world as it ought to be, it needs to be thought of or “imagined” first, and in order to train or improve the imagination, the study of literature is required. Frye describes literature as being the “language of the imagination” because it allows people to experience the heights and depths of what the mind can conceive and transfers its “imaginative energy” from its pages to the reader. Frye continues:

“Literature keeps presenting the most vicious things to us an entertainment, but what it appeals to is not any pleasure of these things, but the exhilaration of standing apart from them and being able to see them for what they are because they aren’t really happening. The more exposed we are to this, the less likely we are to find an unthinking pleasure in cruel or evil things. As the 18th century said in a fine mouth-filling phrase, literature refines our sensibilities.”

It is common to hear those well-versed in the great literary canon describe world events as Orwellian or Shakespearean, for example, as they are able to clearly identify the themes of these works playing out in the world around them. These individuals, Frye argues, would be less inclined to the vices characters fell victim to in the books they have read. Lastly, literature instills an appreciation for two of the foundational disciplines in the Liberal Arts: grammar and rhetoric. Grammar provides the tools for effectively comprehending what is meant in any given context, and rhetoric presents the means to effectively communicate thought from any range of complexity. It is the mastery of both that make poets and authors so effective at relaying their message and moving hearts into action, while ignorance of the two, as Confucius warns, results in stagnation: “If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone”.

Modern schooling with its intense focus on the empirical often neglects the intangible. Beauty, wisdom and happiness all fall outside the realm of quantification. It was the Liberal Arts historically that joined the “natural sciences” and the “humanities” together, in fact never viewing them as a dichotomy. The trivium—logic, grammar and rhetoric—enabled the study of the quadrivium—arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy—with each art studied holistically rather than as an individual, isolated discipline. With the transformational ability of music and astronomy and the awe-inspiring reaches of arithmetic and geometry contributing to the overarching theme of intellectual liberation, the coming-together of these arts finally prepares one for the deeper questions of life and purpose.

While the product of a Liberal Arts education may actualize uniquely in each person, figures like Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr. shed light on its potential. These are men whose education led them to live lives fighting for ideals rather than for simply improving economic productivity. The result of their education was transformation, the ability to submit to and act on truth when recognized. This is not to suggest that students should avoid seeking out a vocation—a university is known as an “alma mater,” or “nurturing mother,” for a reason. It is meant to strengthen and develop the student until they are ready to engage the world on their own. The rapid changes in technology are changing the nature and requirements of work. A career that requires specialized training may soon become obsolete, and a liberal education will prepare students to adapt to the unknown. The argument that high-paying STEM-stream careers, which are arguably at the greatest risk of mechanization, yield the greatest sociopolitical influence pales in comparison to the evidence of the number of liberally-trained heads of state and individuals with the highest social media following. Great music, film and literature continues to hold a greater influence on thought than any doctor, lawyer or engineer. While these are all noble pursuits, the real purpose of an education and a career is not about how much land a person may need, but to know how to respond to the breezes of a higher calling when they descend.

My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future’s sakes.

— Robert Frost