Obstacles and Pathways to Coherence in the Humanities.
What events and conditions have eroded the status and influence of the humanities in institutions of higher learning? Is there a "way of thinking" in the humanities that unites the learned disciplines? What responsibility does the humanist have to secure a restoration of the humanities as a force in formal education? These questions are intended to imply that humanistic studies are in a sorry state. After some twenty years of teaching humanities in a small college, I believe their condition is far more deteriorated than most academics or blue ribbon critiques are prepared to admit (22, p. 8). These days some optimists say that humanistic studies are on the upswing and that a revival awaits us around the corner. As evidence they usually cite efforts to stiffen "core" requirements and to tighten up the great loosening of the 1960s. These high expectations are the stuff of illusion and self-deception. It is clear to me that the humanities are on the brink of being given up as an influential cultural force, that there is no generally understood way of thinking among people who call themselves "humanists," and that these humanists, as custodians of the "great tradition," have defaulted on their responsibility and are now eating the bitter fruits. Reasons for these failures are complex. My thesis is that disruptive transformations in Western civilization and disarray among humanists, especially academic ones, account for the catastrophe which has overtaken humanistic studies, but that it is still possible to find a way out of the morass. In this article I sketch an account of conditions in