Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities (review)

How does one review a Manifesto? That is what Martha C. Nussbaum has written (p. 122) and the subtitle says it more clearly than the title: “Why Democracy Needs the Humanities.” Her opening sentence: “We are in the midst of a crisis of massive proportions and grave global significance” makes the danger very clear (p. 1).

Nussbaum weaves three related arguments through her book: that the arts and humanities are crucial to education “for” democracy, that they are endangered because science and technology are favored as disciplines that bring more external money into the academy and the state (the “profit” motive), and, consequently, that democracy here and abroad is at risk.

A substantial portion of the book (Chapters 3 and 4) concerns her own explication of the progressive forces in educational development from, roughly, Rousseau and Pestalozzi to Mann and Dewey. This history will interest many readers but is not crucial to her argument.

Additionally—and correctly in my opinion—Nussbaum addresses not merely the United States, but the entire world (Chapter 5). Hence, her discussion includes her personal interest in India and the educational reforms of the great Rabindranath Tagore in the early 20th century as well as in the strong Indian economic growth in the last half century.

Most humanists in academia would, as I do, endorse Nussbaum’s emphasis on humanistic education as “the ability to think critically; the ability to transcend local loyalties and to approach world problems as a ‘citizen of the world’; and, finally, the ability to imagine sympathetically the predicament of another person” (p. 7).

Nussbaum’s sense of urgency varies depending on whether she is discussing the United States, India, or Europe. I was taken aback, as I suspect many readers will be, by her relative satisfaction over the state of the liberal arts in the United States. Of course, in Chapter 1, Nussbaum comments that a “focus on schools, colleges, and universities is justified . . . because it is in these institutions that the most pernicious changes have been taking place, as the pressure for economic growth leads to changes in curriculum, pedagogy, and funding“ (p. 9).

In her concluding chapter, however, she writes clearly that the “type of education I recommend is still doing reasonably well in . . . the liberal arts portion of U.S. college and university curricula” (pp. 122–23) and notes that, arguably, liberal arts education in the United States is doing better than it did 50 years ago (Chapter 7, esp. pp. 122, 132–33). Still, she cautions against complacency.

I agree more with Nussbaum’s finding that “pernicious” changes have taken place in the academy than with her cautious satisfaction with the place of the humanities in American higher education today. It is clear to any dean that funding in the United States for the arts and humanities is woefully low, especially at public institutions. Research in the humanities is generally funded by the government, private foundations, and universities.

One very clear measure of government support for the arts and humanities is the amount of funding allocated annually for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). These two government agencies are comparable (in title and theory, but not in practice) to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to name the two best-known (and best-financed!) institutions. Annual funding for NEH and NEA is about three hundred million dollars while funding for NSF and NIH is over thirty billion dollars. Hence, an increase or, more usually, decrease in funding for NEH and NEA is less than the rounding error in the budget for NIH and NSF.

Why the disparity? Ostensibly, it exists because research in science, technology, and health is seen as more necessary and important as well as more expensive. This attitude stems in part from two radically different ways of perceiving higher education. In the first mode, many see government support...