The decorated humanist and professor Martha Nussbaum spoke Monday on the importance of humanities in democracy, kicking off UW-Madison's ""Year of Humanities.""
In an effort to ""preserve, interpret, and change the cultures that make us who we are,"" UW-Madison and the Arts and Humanities Strategic Planning Council named 2009-10 the ""Year of Humanities"" to showcase the diversity, breadth and relevance that the arts and humanities must continue to provide in our education and society.
Nussbaum discussed the importance of training in the arts and humanities, saying training is crucial to a citizen's development of the ability to think critically, and therefore contribute positively and independently to society.
Nussbaum worries about the neglect of the arts and humanities in educational curricula, and the resulting inability of citizens to, ""create a decent world society ... capable of addressing the world's most pressing problems.""
She said these problems will not be solvable in a society where economic growth is the only measure of success.
Nussbaum said the ability to think critically is essential to forming a society of citizens who cooperate with one another.
""Critical thinking is particularly crucial in a society that needs to come to grips with the presence of people who differ by ethnicity, class and religion,"" she said.
According to Nussbaum, this approach, cultivated by the integration of arts and humanities subject matter, asks people to acknowledge the importance of effective communication and mutual understanding.
Nussbaum stressed the importance of self-criticism, accountability and independent thinking rather than submissively deferring to authority in an effective democracy.
She said these methods are unfortunately ignored in contemporary society, because their pursuit ""does not lead to enrichment,"" and because ""moral imagination too often becomes numbed under the sway of technical mastery.""
According to Chancellor Biddy Martin, Nussbaum's ideas expose a critical debate, and her work has done much ""not just for the humanities, but for humanity.""
UW-Madison's ""Year of Humanities"" will continue Thursday with a lecture by Alan Shapiro titled ""Re-fashioning Anakreon: Songs, Symposium and Sexuality in the Age of Perikles.""
