Religious Views: Liberal Arts

I can’t say I know exactly what I’m doing in college, although I know I’m here to learn, and to prepare myself for later stages of life. But Liberal Arts majors don’t get that straight, paved street to a cushy job. Everything looks more like this:

At least it does for me.

Maybe I haven't fully embraced my English major yet because I still envy the "sound, extensive, and practical scientific knowledge" (334) that some of my friends are receiving. The linear, precise quality of science/math/vocational training appear comforting and safe next to the indefinite, almost whimsical-seeming world of literature with its open interpretations and apparent lack of concreteness. Without the laws, limits, and clean lines of the other disciplines, the Liberal Arts can seem so convoluted and unnavigable.

I think that's why the English Department notes the importance of "informed aesthetic and ethical judgment" (339J) in their Mission Statement. Judgment is the anchor of literary studies--without careful and critical meditation, a piece of literature's force and raison d'être are partly lost. The English Department's focus on the creation and cultivation of individual ethical judgment links with W.J. Bate's idea that "literature and morality are psychologically dependent on each other" (339C).

Unfortunately, the breadth, complexity, and ambiguity of judgment and morality all add a seeming indefiniteness to the Liberal Arts, unlike the stream-lined and precise Natural Sciences/ vocational areas. But the limitlessness of the Liberal Arts and its bedrock of choice, opinion, and imagination create the suitable environment for the individual construction of morality. Thus, the Liberal Arts student finds his or her own way of leading "a life of decency, justice, and dignity" (321) by relying on internally cultivated and critically designed values rather than going along with external, usually outdated, social cues.