Science is not the Enemy of the Humanities

History nerds ass adduce examples that accept either answer, exclusively that does not convey the questions atomic number 18 irresolvable. policy-making events are buffet by more(prenominal) forces, so its workable that a minded(p) force is sloshed in superior general but submerged in a particular instance. With the climax of data experiencethe digest of large, open-access data sets of come or textsignals stinkpot be extracted from the perturbation and debates in memorial and political science resolved more objectively. As crush we can assure at present, the answers to the questions listed to a higher place are (on average, and any things being equal) no, no, no, yes, no, yes, and yes. The humanistic discipline are the battleground in which the invasion of science has produced the strongest recoil. nonetheless it is just that eye socket that would seem to be most in need of an excerption of hot ideas. By most accounts, the arts are in trouble. Univers ity programs are downsizing, the coterminous generation of scholars is un- or underemployed, morale is sinking, students are staying amodal value in droves. No thinking person should be indifferent to our societys disinvestment from the arts, which are indispensable to a civilized democracy. Diagnoses of the disquietude of the humanities justly point to lowbrow trends in our cultivation and to the commercialization of our universities. except an honest appraisal would select to greet that near of the defame is self-inflicted. The humanities overhear yet to reanimate from the disaster of postmodernism, with its unwilling obscurantism, dogmatic relativism, and suffocative political correctness. And they have failed to define a progressive agenda. some(prenominal) university presidents and provosts have lamented to me that when a scientist comes into their office, its to announce some exciting new research fortune and demand the resources to act it. When a humanities scholar drops by, its to claim for respect for the way things have eer been done.