ABSTRACT

The mediaeval liberal arts are not adapted to the task of liberating men today; and the humanising arts are not the ‘humanities’, or the ‘social sciences’, or the ‘cultural sciences’, or any interdisciplinary amalgam in which humanists will learn the second law of thermodynamics and responsible governmental posts will be created for scientists. Some thought must be given, first, to discovering what arts liberate and humanise in the present world situation. More thought and invention must be employed, second, to develop those arts for use in the revolution in education which will transform our schools and colleges and graduate schools during the next few decades. (McKeon 1964, 172–3)