Very nice piece and a rallying cry for the merit of the humanities. When you say, "If universities won’t offer a humanistic education anymore, we have to do it ourselves" I totally agree with you. I think the time for a punk, diy approach to the humanities is in order and looooong overdue. I think AI and it's pervasiveness in philosophy in particular is just the straw that broke the camel's back.
"The staying power of the Liberal Arts lies not within dust-ridden libraries or highfalutin verbiage, but rather in its vivacious, multi-faceted interpretation of timeless ideas.
Take the below:
Hellenistic schools of thought
Christianity
The Renaissance
Rationalism
The Age of Enlightenment
Each of these watershed moments in time sought to answer the question of “what truly matters” with its own ideas, thoughts, and input.
In this way, the Liberal Arts are a prism that refract our common human experience into many different directions, ideas, and colors. Far from obfuscating, this intellectual prism elucidates and allows multifaceted interpretations to color intellectual history.
These colored analyses force one to grapple with ideas and theories to master the art form that is critical thinking. This practice fosters a mental rigor that stretches one’s intellectual limits and comprehension of what is true.
Whatever age, gender, religion, education level, it’s never too late to work on being a better human. You have never reached the finish line because life has a way of delivering “gifts” that endlessly challenge us. Sometimes the humanities study provides an escape and sometimes a pathway to travel through. Sometimes both.
A society educated exclusively in the sciences, technology, engineering and maths may know how to develop a tool like ai, but not whether it should. For the ideas by which human kind can live, we need to turn to the humanities. If you can get hold of a copy of Small Is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher, his chapter on education is one of the most formative pieces of non-fiction I've ever read.
Forgive the lengthy quote, but I really love it: "What matters is the tool-box of ideas with which, by which, through which, we experience and interpret the world. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is nothing more than a working hypothesis suitable for various types of scientific research. On the other hand - a work by Shakespeare: teeming with the most vital ideas about the inner development of man, showing the whole grandeur and misery of a human existence. How could these two things be equivalent? What do I miss, as a human being, if I have never heard of the Second Law of Thermodynamics? The answer is: nothing.' And what do I miss by not knowing Shakespeare? Unless I get my understanding from another source, I simply miss my life."
I wish I had the time to join in your read along but I am swamped with coursework...because I don't use AI at all. I do my readings and my writings myself and Harvard is very unforgiving with its workload. Of course, knowing that humanities are dwindling elsewhere does put into perspective my degree program and while difficult to keep up with it, I am very grateful to have it.
I also agree with doing the education ourselves, I was homeschooled my entire life and even at Harvard I have a very independent learning program (I'm at the Extension School which is not the same thing as the rest of the university). Nearly everything is done myself with some guidance and that's essentially what you're doing. Encouraging others to educate themselves while offering some guidance.
I hope you have a massive turnout for your line-up of books and I also hope that I will find the time to join in one of them at some point.
Great piece! It's reassuring to see so many people taking the "DIY" approach to education. If academia continues on its current path, I think it will only increase the desire for the humanities outside the university system. Thousands of individuals and small organizations are already carrying on this work in the digital space. Hopefully this will spill over into real life. Perhaps new colleges and schools will be founded. We will preserve the fire!
Hey Jared, I totally agree with your thoughts on the use of AI for creation purposes. But I totally disagree with your sentiments on using AI as an educational resource. An AI teaching assistant that would be able to answer a student’s individual questions is much more helpful to the students. Students may use AI to summarize their readings but there’s a certain portion that would’ve never read any part of it that just got exposed to the concept. I love some nerdy shit like philosophy, art, and science but I don’t have the will to sit down and read Einstein to learn why he was so important or the brain power to understand it all and all the other references he might be making so why not be able to ask AI questions about it until I do understand in a way I could never do in real life. I like using ChatGPT to practice my Spanish with a personal instructor. I was also a pretty shit student in the American education system and I thought STEM and business education was more valuable than the humanities and so I mostly ignored it altogether. I think some students will take advantage of AI to get through college, but that’s not AI’s fault that’s our incentive system. Students have been making it out of college without really learning much there for generations and society has steadily experienced increases in living standards and art, ideas, literature all keep progressing and I don’t think AI will stop that.
Back in undergrad as an engineering student, I relished the opportunities I got to fit humanities into my schedule. It was always such a breath of fresh air getting away from the x's and o's of my technical courses. Each semester I would eagerly see what general elective I still needed to fulfill for diploma requirements and scroll through our course catalog simply picking whatever sounded the most interesting. It opened doors that would have otherwise remained closed. My degree was highly structured with the courses we had to take so this was the only time I really got to explore what else interested me. Math and Science will always be my first loves but my curiosity is insatiable and doesn't limit itself to the realm of STEM. To this day, my Intro to Asian Philosophy course still ranks amongst my favorite classes I have every taken.
Was just writing about The Republic and Plato's proposed censored education in aesthetics for its citizens. In a way, I couldn't agree more with him, despite the censorship. The humanities are what give us the right motivations to be better people, not some finance class. Surround yourself with the beautiful and your output will be beautiful, and the best sort of education "ought to end in the love of the beautiful [kalon]” (403c, The Republic)
We are still in the novelty phase of AI, where for most people, it’s all about generating content—a picture, an essay, a song in the style of something. AI is seen more as a creative tool than a collaborative one. But once people begin to understand its potential as a learning companion, the concerns about AI taking over the education system will fade. AI can be more than just a tool to create; it can help us learn and grow.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in online learning were supposed to bring a paradigm shift in education—making it more accessible to everyone. Having taught online for a year, I saw the benefits and the challenges. One of the most promising aspects was the democratization of education, offering quality learning to students who might not have access due to socioeconomic reasons. Yet, as soon as we could, we rushed back to the classroom, proclaiming how bad online learning was. But remember, we were all adapting on the fly, learning as we went. One thing that stood out to me was how quiet students, often reserved in traditional classrooms, began to thrive in the online environment. These weren’t just isolated cases.
This brings me back to AI. The latest models are becoming even more powerful, and features like the new ‘advanced voice mode’ in ChatGPT bring us closer to life-like conversations with AI—complete with natural intonation, pauses, and all the hallmarks of human speech. This is where AI can truly help self-motivated learners tackle complex ideas independently. I use AI daily for learning, writing, and research. But my relationship with it is not about making things; it’s about viewing AI as a companion—a powerful tutor that turbo-charges the learning experience.
AI will be the paradigm shift. We just need people to see how it can enhance their lives, both personally and academically.
As a high school English teacher, I can confirm the decline in students' attention spans. It's alarming that every single year, the students come in with lower literacy skills and lack basic reading comprehension. We spent the past month reading Frederick Douglass, which is about 25 pages per week, and at least a third of the AP Lang students would not do the reading.
I had a do-it-yourself humanities education. After spending far too much time in the world of the Arts, my son, upon high school graduation, encouraged me to start reading many of the books and writers you mention - he's way smarter than me. I was almost 50 at the time and thought I knew everything. 😉 Well, like you, I could "feel" myself getting smarter, like my brain was literally growing. Strangest thing, it was. I agree. Humanities is totally where it's at if we don't want our future generations to be stupid idiots. I'm making sure my other kids get a big heaping of humaties while they're still in the house.
Very nice piece and a rallying cry for the merit of the humanities. When you say, "If universities won’t offer a humanistic education anymore, we have to do it ourselves" I totally agree with you. I think the time for a punk, diy approach to the humanities is in order and looooong overdue. I think AI and it's pervasiveness in philosophy in particular is just the straw that broke the camel's back.
I like the concept of a DIY humanities education!
Well said! As I recently wrote in Stop Tweeting, Start Thinking (https://www.whitenoise.email/p/stop-tweeting-start-thinking):
"The staying power of the Liberal Arts lies not within dust-ridden libraries or highfalutin verbiage, but rather in its vivacious, multi-faceted interpretation of timeless ideas.
Take the below:
Hellenistic schools of thought
Christianity
The Renaissance
Rationalism
The Age of Enlightenment
Each of these watershed moments in time sought to answer the question of “what truly matters” with its own ideas, thoughts, and input.
In this way, the Liberal Arts are a prism that refract our common human experience into many different directions, ideas, and colors. Far from obfuscating, this intellectual prism elucidates and allows multifaceted interpretations to color intellectual history.
These colored analyses force one to grapple with ideas and theories to master the art form that is critical thinking. This practice fosters a mental rigor that stretches one’s intellectual limits and comprehension of what is true.
Whatever age, gender, religion, education level, it’s never too late to work on being a better human. You have never reached the finish line because life has a way of delivering “gifts” that endlessly challenge us. Sometimes the humanities study provides an escape and sometimes a pathway to travel through. Sometimes both.
A society educated exclusively in the sciences, technology, engineering and maths may know how to develop a tool like ai, but not whether it should. For the ideas by which human kind can live, we need to turn to the humanities. If you can get hold of a copy of Small Is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher, his chapter on education is one of the most formative pieces of non-fiction I've ever read.
Forgive the lengthy quote, but I really love it: "What matters is the tool-box of ideas with which, by which, through which, we experience and interpret the world. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is nothing more than a working hypothesis suitable for various types of scientific research. On the other hand - a work by Shakespeare: teeming with the most vital ideas about the inner development of man, showing the whole grandeur and misery of a human existence. How could these two things be equivalent? What do I miss, as a human being, if I have never heard of the Second Law of Thermodynamics? The answer is: nothing.' And what do I miss by not knowing Shakespeare? Unless I get my understanding from another source, I simply miss my life."
I’ve always been grateful for my liberal arts education.
I wish I had the time to join in your read along but I am swamped with coursework...because I don't use AI at all. I do my readings and my writings myself and Harvard is very unforgiving with its workload. Of course, knowing that humanities are dwindling elsewhere does put into perspective my degree program and while difficult to keep up with it, I am very grateful to have it.
I also agree with doing the education ourselves, I was homeschooled my entire life and even at Harvard I have a very independent learning program (I'm at the Extension School which is not the same thing as the rest of the university). Nearly everything is done myself with some guidance and that's essentially what you're doing. Encouraging others to educate themselves while offering some guidance.
I hope you have a massive turnout for your line-up of books and I also hope that I will find the time to join in one of them at some point.
I wish you well with your studies. Harvard Extension is by no means an easy degree to obtain.
Great piece! It's reassuring to see so many people taking the "DIY" approach to education. If academia continues on its current path, I think it will only increase the desire for the humanities outside the university system. Thousands of individuals and small organizations are already carrying on this work in the digital space. Hopefully this will spill over into real life. Perhaps new colleges and schools will be founded. We will preserve the fire!
Hey Jared, I totally agree with your thoughts on the use of AI for creation purposes. But I totally disagree with your sentiments on using AI as an educational resource. An AI teaching assistant that would be able to answer a student’s individual questions is much more helpful to the students. Students may use AI to summarize their readings but there’s a certain portion that would’ve never read any part of it that just got exposed to the concept. I love some nerdy shit like philosophy, art, and science but I don’t have the will to sit down and read Einstein to learn why he was so important or the brain power to understand it all and all the other references he might be making so why not be able to ask AI questions about it until I do understand in a way I could never do in real life. I like using ChatGPT to practice my Spanish with a personal instructor. I was also a pretty shit student in the American education system and I thought STEM and business education was more valuable than the humanities and so I mostly ignored it altogether. I think some students will take advantage of AI to get through college, but that’s not AI’s fault that’s our incentive system. Students have been making it out of college without really learning much there for generations and society has steadily experienced increases in living standards and art, ideas, literature all keep progressing and I don’t think AI will stop that.
Back in undergrad as an engineering student, I relished the opportunities I got to fit humanities into my schedule. It was always such a breath of fresh air getting away from the x's and o's of my technical courses. Each semester I would eagerly see what general elective I still needed to fulfill for diploma requirements and scroll through our course catalog simply picking whatever sounded the most interesting. It opened doors that would have otherwise remained closed. My degree was highly structured with the courses we had to take so this was the only time I really got to explore what else interested me. Math and Science will always be my first loves but my curiosity is insatiable and doesn't limit itself to the realm of STEM. To this day, my Intro to Asian Philosophy course still ranks amongst my favorite classes I have every taken.
Was just writing about The Republic and Plato's proposed censored education in aesthetics for its citizens. In a way, I couldn't agree more with him, despite the censorship. The humanities are what give us the right motivations to be better people, not some finance class. Surround yourself with the beautiful and your output will be beautiful, and the best sort of education "ought to end in the love of the beautiful [kalon]” (403c, The Republic)
We are still in the novelty phase of AI, where for most people, it’s all about generating content—a picture, an essay, a song in the style of something. AI is seen more as a creative tool than a collaborative one. But once people begin to understand its potential as a learning companion, the concerns about AI taking over the education system will fade. AI can be more than just a tool to create; it can help us learn and grow.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in online learning were supposed to bring a paradigm shift in education—making it more accessible to everyone. Having taught online for a year, I saw the benefits and the challenges. One of the most promising aspects was the democratization of education, offering quality learning to students who might not have access due to socioeconomic reasons. Yet, as soon as we could, we rushed back to the classroom, proclaiming how bad online learning was. But remember, we were all adapting on the fly, learning as we went. One thing that stood out to me was how quiet students, often reserved in traditional classrooms, began to thrive in the online environment. These weren’t just isolated cases.
This brings me back to AI. The latest models are becoming even more powerful, and features like the new ‘advanced voice mode’ in ChatGPT bring us closer to life-like conversations with AI—complete with natural intonation, pauses, and all the hallmarks of human speech. This is where AI can truly help self-motivated learners tackle complex ideas independently. I use AI daily for learning, writing, and research. But my relationship with it is not about making things; it’s about viewing AI as a companion—a powerful tutor that turbo-charges the learning experience.
AI will be the paradigm shift. We just need people to see how it can enhance their lives, both personally and academically.
As a high school English teacher, I can confirm the decline in students' attention spans. It's alarming that every single year, the students come in with lower literacy skills and lack basic reading comprehension. We spent the past month reading Frederick Douglass, which is about 25 pages per week, and at least a third of the AP Lang students would not do the reading.
I had a do-it-yourself humanities education. After spending far too much time in the world of the Arts, my son, upon high school graduation, encouraged me to start reading many of the books and writers you mention - he's way smarter than me. I was almost 50 at the time and thought I knew everything. 😉 Well, like you, I could "feel" myself getting smarter, like my brain was literally growing. Strangest thing, it was. I agree. Humanities is totally where it's at if we don't want our future generations to be stupid idiots. I'm making sure my other kids get a big heaping of humaties while they're still in the house.
The instincts “just feed the system” and “just game the system” run DEEP.
I just picked up Mrs. Dalloway not long ago, but haven’t cracked it open more than a few pages. What auspicious timing!