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The Erosion of Humanitas

On the particular and the universal in education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2018

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Extract

The role of higher education is crucial in a world that seems torn apart by cultural, economic, political and social differences, and yet is, at the same time, ever more closely drawn together by technology, travel, social and economic needs. Higher education offers no panacea for the disunity of this complex and confusing world. It should, however, contribute to a kind of understanding that spans the differences among the people of the world, or at least those within one country. In this connection liberal arts education is today in jeopardy, unsure of its competence to serve the ideal of humanitas that at one time was conceded to be both the stable ground and the ever elusive goal of higher education.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 1974

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References

page 35 note• For the purpose of this article and for simplicity, the term “ethnic” will refer to both racial and cultural identities.

page 35 note•• In Worldview, January, 1973. Richard Neuhaus, the object of Novak's criticism, replied: “If I did not know that the aspiration toward universality is, in Novak's ethnic dictionary, the very essence of sin, I would feel complimented.”

page 36 note• The delightful irony of Novak's insistence on ethnicity is brought out by Charles E. Cobb's blaming “the establishment” for foisting ethnicity upon the nation. “The establishment has found a vehicle for fragmenting the nation: ethnicity” (Christian Century, January 29, 1974).

page 36 note•• The study was made by the American Council on Education, Cooperative Institutional Research Program. The national average indicating that the development of a philosophy of life was essential or very important was 72.5 per cent of the responses to the sample questions.