The Liberal Arts Are Not Broken—They’re Powerful

By Mary Ruiz

“There is a tone of ugliness creeping across the world, as democracies retreat, as tribalism mounts, as suspiciousness and authoritarianism take center stage.” — David Brooks, The New York Times

“What’s threatened by the new savagery is not just the college campus but also the Enlightenment in its most capacious sense: the values of skepticism, empiricism, scientific and philosophic rigor, and the tolerance that affords individual liberties.” — Robert Weisbuch, Inside Higher Ed

Both of these observations were written in 2016. Since then, the terrain has only become more treacherous for those of us who work in education and particularly in the liberal arts.

Those of us dedicated to higher learning and civic inquiry are not naïve. We are aware that the culture warriors' efforts to reshape education are not simply about curriculum or viewpoint diversity. They are about power. The liberal arts are not being targeted because they are weak, but precisely because they are powerful.

At their best, the liberal arts teach people how to ask questions, to examine evidence, to follow curiosity where it leads, and to articulate ideas with nuance, clarity, and humanity. They sustain the values of a pluralistic society: creative thinking, critical reasoning, and inclusive dialogue.

The global campaign—whether overt or subtle—to wall off certain histories, subjects, or literatures is ultimately an effort to replace reflection with rigidity. It is based on the fear of open minds leading to open societies.

That fear has precedent. Athens sentenced Socrates to death when the city saw what happened when young people were taught to think for themselves. He was not condemned for immorality. He was condemned for rooting out complacency.

The fight for liberal arts education is, in every real sense, a fight for freedom: the freedom of thought, the freedom to learn, and the freedom to dissent.

That’s why this work matters.

AltLiberalArts is proud to present five disruptive principles that reflect the liberal arts as they ought to be: dynamic, inclusive, and open to reinvention. We commissioned a series of essays from five scholars—Drs. Robert Benedetti, Dan Chambliss, Stephen Miles, Juliana Pare Blagoev, and Eric Schikler—each highlighting one of these principles as they were practiced at the historic New College.

These scholars were joined by an extraordinary group of contributors: Pat Okker, Mike Michelson, Jim Feeney, Miriam Wallace, Sarah Hernandez, Gil Klein, KimBoo York, and myself.

Later this year, we’ll bring these ideas to a broader national and global audience. But it starts here—with all of you. The liberal arts have never belonged to a closed society. They are tools for thinking freely, together. Let’s use them.