Stanley Fish, an academic humanist, makes a bold claim about the utility of the humanities. He argues that their main purpose is to provide individual pleasure. They don’t reform, they don’t humanize, and they don’t help us understand the meaning of life, Fish asserts, because if they did, your English, philosophy, music, and history professors would be among the best people on earth (and you already know that they aren’t!).
Is Fish right? Scholars of history make war, writers of novels commit crimes, and gifted creative artists lose their lives to drugs and alcohol. And yet, it was a pamphlet that helped launch the American Revolution, it was music that helped empower a generation to oppose the Vietnam War, and a painting like Picasso’s Guernica is considered a national treasure in Spain.
What do you think? Can training in the humanistic disciplines do anything more than give us individual pleasure?
J.
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5 comments:
I believe that studying humanistic approaches can do more than merely give us pleasure. From just reading a pamphlet or observing a painting one may gain a different insight and from that insight one may be swayed to do something, such as start a revolution.
Maybe Fish was saying that a revolutionary war invokes pleasure?
-Lisa
I do believe that the humanities can do more than give individual pleasure, but I do not think that the humanities can do this for everyone. I think that it all depends on the person. To some, training in the humanistic disciplines may do nothing more than give individual pleasure. To others, the humanities may help to better understand what life is worth living for. Every person is unique and if people do not ever train in the humanistic disciplines then they will never know what they can get out of them.
Although I understand what Fish is saying and I do agree that it is an impossibility that all people in the humanities are the best possible humans, I don't believe that the humanities is just for personal pleasure. There is a significance behind novels and literature and other humanities. They help us escape our lives and learn more about a variety of things. However, I do not believe that this is only in the humanities, but rather that all types of learning can do these things. Without all the types of learning we have today, we would not be well rounded.
Fish is partially right when he argues that the main purpose of the humanities is to provide individual pleasure. We like things that are enjoyable and shy away from those that aren't (unless we are given some form of compensation for enduring unpleasantness). Sadly for some, the compensation of individual pleasure has been outweighed by the unpleasantness of unsatisfying pay for jobs in the humanities field, forcing people into other work and allowing them only to dabble in the discipline they enjoy. What about the people who stick with the humanities, but barely make ends meet? For them, there must be some form of motivation, besides mere enjoyment, that helps tilt their scales back in favor of the humanities. For instance, an artist pushes herself through hard times because hopefully one day she will reach the skill level of one of the great masters. That fulfillment will be worth all the pain she suffered. In doing so she will not only gain self-realization, but show the world what a human is capable of doing. The disciplines of the humanities uphold the standards of human potential.
I believe that training in the humanistic disciplines does give us more than pleasure. It give us the ability to understand the meaning of life. Although Fish states that humanities “don’t help us understand the meaning of life,” I completely disagree with that. Humanities can teach us many things in life and it depends on the person if they choose to be open-minded or not. We are hear to make mistakes, learn, and become a better person. Yes, a gifted artist will lose their lives to drugs and alcohol but you cannot classify all artists in the same category. Each person is a unique individual and you cannot classify them all as drug and alcohol abusers. Therefore humanities can teach us many things, lead us anywhere and everywhere and merely give us more than pleasure.
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