Some people say that it’s a waste of time to study the humanities because what young Americans need is job skills. Others say it’s a waste of time (or worse) because the humanities mostly involves the thinking of dead white males, some of whom owned slaves, and none of that can help young Americans understand our modern, multicultural world.

So, should we yawn as these courses gradually disappear or are taken over by multiculturalists? In this Pope Center piece, Jane Shaw states her case in favor of the humanities as traditionally taught. Her reasons are “modest” and Hayekian in nature. The humanities are part of our cultural heritage, which consists, Hayek observed, “of a complex of practices or rules of conduct which have prevailed because they made a group of men successful.” Therefore, Jane writes, “understanding, preserving, and sharing the great ideas of the past may be more important than we think, since we have profound ignorance of what made societies successful.”

She also maintains that universities should preserve the humanities because they’re a key part of the “great debate” between those who believe they can design society to perfection and those, like Hayek, who argue that such efforts will inevitably lead to poor if not disastrous results for humanity.

“It seems reckless to discard the intellectual traditions that have supported us for so long,” she concludes. I agree. While the percentage of students who have an interest in the humanities is no doubt rather small, it’s nevertheless important to keep this intellectual tradition alive for those who do.