Foundations of Humanities

Humanities used to be the study of art, religion, politics, law and a host of other disciplines through the lens of the human experience. There was a critical thinking component wrapped around each discipline like the snakes on a caduceus. Today the humanities are overrun with identity politics and post modernism is wrapped snake like around the institution.

When I was in college I was told to expose myself to all sorts of ideas I didn’t agree with. I didn’t begrudge that notion. I did the work and never had a professor say that I must interpret the reading in a particular way. They clearly had their own biases but I didn’t feel pressure to follow their prescription. As long as my work made sense and hit the necessary grammar rules I argued my point in papers and in class. 

 My professors weren’t vicious or unfair, I didn’t think. Some were Marxist to the core but I never felt I'd fail out of their class for having different opinions. On one occasion I wrote a review of a bell hooks article and criticized her pretty hard. The professor wrote “Whoaaaa!” in the margins but nothing else. I don’t know how much that is the same for everyone but my experience wasn’t too bad.

I wouldn’t recommend liberal arts at a public university now. After reading Jordan Peterson and watching Dave Rubin I’m convinced that universities need a high pressure washing to clean out the buildup of nonsensical studies or a complete system overhaul. Kids exit college with a degree in Inuit peoples studies or trans identity and culture. Humanities departments are stuffed full of silly courses with fill in the blank identity politics.

A few years ago three professors worried about approval of silly woke topics in the academy put together a hoax to prove it out. They created fake research papers to see if the journals would accept the topics. They managed to get 7 of 20 through before the scam (called Sokal Squared) was discovered, some were still in committee. My favorite paper was on rape culture in Portland dog parks. They must have had a good laugh.

This wasn’t some band of Baptist ministers concerned with the moral health of the colleges either. These are all liberal, free thinking, teachers who are concerned with the direction of higher education. Boghossian is a philosophy professor himself. He is also concerned with academic rigor or lack thereof at the university level. The colleges did not take this well. They got egg on their face and instead of tightening up standards of the journals that publish ‘research’ they attacked the messengers.

I’m not in higher education so my knowledge on the best way forward is limited. I think we have to tear it down in a metaphorical sense. The three hoaxers seem to believe it can be saved. My best guess is higher education sits atop a debris pile of bad philosophy. Jordan Peterson calls it post modernism, or the idea that the systems, institutions, and hierarchies are social constructs. Every system you observe from the family to the church and even corporations are arranged by power players. In this world power is the currency and identity is a wedge to separate. Even gender is a construct, reinforced by the patriarchy to keep people in place. 

When you view every human nature and language as artificial you see competing power structures in everything. Everything is political. NBA stars use basketball to promote their woke agendas. Disney remakes include empowered females (see Lion King, Aladdin). Comic books from Marvel include new “government assigned mentors”, Safespace and Snowflake, How fun? This isn’t parody. How does post modernism bubble up through pop culture? By redefining norms found in human nature.

Post modernism explains the trouble with gender confusion and pronoun requirements. 

These aren’t healthy aspects of a vibrant and free people. Human nature doesn’t change because you change the words. Yes there are always oddities to life but they are rare. People who feel they are in the wrong body need help. If post modernism is the culprit than it is a monstrous philosophy that cares nothing for human life and sound reasoning.

Even from a practical point of view, a philosophy built on shifting sand falls apart quickly.  How does a psychiatrist steeped in post modernism direct a patient with gender dysphoria? I’m using gender dysphoria because it’s a real mental condition people seek treatment for and we seem to have an explosion of it today. But we know on some level they are being told “gender is a construct”. This is just one example but you can image the long term damage to hurting people who get poor advice.

The foundations of our ideas should be concrete, same as a home or tall building. The foundations in higher education will eventually fall apart because they aren’t real. Can we stop it before it collapses on us, or can we restart in some way with a saner approach?   

If the humanities are to be saved at the universities they’ll have to get back to first principles starting with the statement “Human nature is unchanging throughout history” and go from there.