Let us carry some proverbial owls to Athens or coals to Newcastle, that is, revisit issues that have been discussed and examined by so many different voices in the past and the present. However, those issues by themselves are so powerful and important, so urgent and difficult that we must never tire of examining them always anew because they pertain centrally to our own human existence and prove to be the defining factors for our survival as a species. Why do we need the humanities as an academic discipline in the university, or in our educational system at large? What role do the humanities play both inside and outside the academy? Most universities in this world somehow acknowledge the importance of languages, literatures, music, art history, philosophy, religion, and education. But when it comes to basic financial issues, the humanities tend to be the first victims of budget cuts, if we disregard specifically liberal arts colleges that focus on the humanities above all or exclusively. [...]
References
[1]
The relevant research literature on this topic is immense; see, for instance, Sarah Curtis, Space, Place and Mental Health. Geographies of Health (Farnham, Surrey, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010); Walter M Bortz, Next Medicine: The Science and Civics of Health (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011); Available online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Mens_sana_in_corpore_sano (accessed on 7 September 2011).
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W. Von Humboldt. Prospects: The Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, XXIII, no. 3/4, pp. 613–623. Available online: http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/publications/ThinkersPdf/humbolde.PDF (accessed on 7 September 2011). Wilhelm Von Humboldt (1767–1835).
[3]
For international perspectives, see Albert Rolls, International Perspectives on Education. Reference Shelf, 79, 4 ([Bronx, NY]: H.W. Wilson Co., 2007). As to liberal arts, see Bruce A. Kimball, Orators & Philosophers: A History of the Idea of Liberal Education (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1986); Gregory S.Prince, Teach Them to Challenge Authority: Educating for Healthy Societies (New York: Continuum, 2008).
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W. von Eschenbach. “Trans. with Notes by Cyril Edwards. With an Introduction by Richard Barber.” In Parzival and Titurel. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006, Volume Book XVI, section 795, p. 333.
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M. Nussbaum. Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press, 1997.
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“I Have a Dream.” Available online: http://ia700402.us.archive.org/29/items/MLKDream/MLKDream_64kb.mp3 (accessed on 7 September 2011).
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M. Lejbowicz, ed. ““Une conquête des savoirs: Les traductions dans l’Europe latine (fin du XIe siècle milieu du XIIIe siècle). Colloque organisé à la Fondation Singer-Polignac le jeudi 27 novembre 2008”.” In Rencontres Médiévales Européennes, 9; Turnhout: Brepols, 2009.
