Science Tweaks, Humanities Transform the World

Almost daily, we see news of major discoveries in medicine, the science of our planet and the stars, or the human genome.

The public is conditioned to expect a steady stream of stories on science, technology, and health because the idea of discovery goes hand in hand with the idea of something “new”—a better treatment for HIV, the manufacturing of nano materials at the molecular level, development of genetically engineered foods, the potential of stem cells to generate organ replacement. Newspapers and magazines devote whole sections to science and medical news. And these discoveries are indeed important.

Overlooked, however, are discoveries that have shaped our lives and the world in which we live far more profoundly than a potentially better treatment for a particular disease or an improved understanding of a gene’s function. These are the discoveries in the humanities.

The structures of Western society— everything from our systems of commerce to our systems of government—are products of humanist exploration. Adam Smith was a professor of moral philosophy. And the very existence of the United States is owed to the “discovery” of the natural rights of man, the changing notion of what government means, and the underlying philosophies of freedom and responsibility now so taken for granted as to be like the air to most Americans.

Indeed, our very notion of what would seem fundamental—the nature of men and women—has changed profoundly over the last centuries, even the last decades, as a result of those humanists who challenged the religious definitions of the nature of being human, and more recently scholars in feminist, gender, and queer studies. The recent decision of the Supreme Court affirming the dignity and privacy of homosexuals was influenced by the research done by humanists on the history of homosexuality in the U.S. Those who celebrate and those who deplore the decision agree on one thing: it alters our society irrevocably.

Where would we be as a society without the work of the humanities?

We don’t have to read the voluminous articles in scholarly journals or the books published by university presses to be affected. The work done by humanists seeps into the popular culture and alters our world—the world most of us inhabit on a daily basis—far more significantly than the discovery of a new star or new software. Indeed, the great majority of scientific discoveries are incomplete and tentative, only possible pieces of a puzzle that someday may or may not fit together. The discoveries of the humanities—that is, ideas—often arrive complete and compelling, transforming the picture on the puzzle box.

Our world changes when our worldview changes. And humanities scholars do the research that alters those views. They test ideas for their sources, profundity, articulation, and coherence. Their work provides the in-depth understanding of the issues that underlie—or should underlie—virtually every major political and cultural decision facing our society.

Yet outside of the academy itself, the research done in the humanities is rarely even acknowledged as research.

(I wince when people talk about “research” in the sciences and “cultural enrichment” in the humanities.) While a great deal of minor research in the sciences is celebrated, much pathbreaking research in the humanities remains invisible to the public. It is past time to recognize that science does not have sole purchase on “research” and to acknowledge the truly profound significance of the research done in the humanities.

—Gary Wihl, Dean of the School of Humanities