Making the Case for Liberal Education

Narrowing the Liberal Arts Destroys Degrees' Value

by Robert A. Miller
published in the Democrat and Chronicle on July 24, 2002

Alfred North Whitehead, the great British mathematician and philosopher, wrote in 1929 that universities train "….the intellectual pioneers of our civilization-the priests, the lawyers, the statesmen, the doctors, the men of science, and the men of letters. They have been the home of those ideals, which lead men to confront the confusion of their present times."

Although written almost a century ago, these words resonate today for those of us who work in higher education. The purpose of a liberal arts education is to pursue truth, and to do so independently and freely. However, there is a growing belief today that the central purpose is to serve the economic development of a community through the training of students for immediate and specific business applications.

I'm concerned that this view has begun to erode the strength and vitality of the liberal arts in this country. At a time when our national economy continues to struggle, and the impact of this struggle on upstate New York is profound, we hear the theme of higher education serving the economy voiced with more and more urgency. In fact these editorial pages are increasingly devoted to this line of argument.

But in the face of this sentiment, it becomes all the more important that we preserve the integrity of the liberal arts education from often well intentioned, but all too often unwise, intrusions by economic and business interests.

Of course, it is vital for colleges and universities to contribute to economic development, and to collaborate with businesses, schools, and community organizations. The list of successful collaborations between higher education and the greater community is long and fruitful. But the primary purpose of an institution of higher education, and particularly for liberal arts institutions, is the free exchange of ideas in the pursuit of intellectual enlightenment. The university is ultimately weakened if that purpose is exchanged for one even so worthy as economic development.

It's through the study of the liberal arts that breakthroughs in knowledge have occurred throughout history which have fundamentally altered our lives and led to a standard of living envied throughout the world. It has also given us the technology to defend ourselves and become the most productive nation in the world. The technology of the information age grew out of the study of pure mathematics, inspired initially by a scholarly love of numbers and logic rather than out of concern for their applicability.

But I would also argue that the reason to preserve the purity of a liberal arts education is more than that it will eventually result in practical applications which will benefit our economy and our standard of living, but also in order to better understand ourselves as well as the world in which we live today.

In addition to a weakened economy, we are also confronted with other challenges. The threat from terrorism, at home and abroad, is real and immediate. Our response, if it is to be effective, must involve more than the exercise of military might and intelligence gathering. We need to better understand the many cultures and religious beliefs of the world, of which we as a nation are woefully uninformed. We need to understand the lessons that history teaches of the decline and fall of earlier civilizations and empires, and the nature of international political systems, and the degrees of stability and instability which each confers. These are the kinds of questions which are addressed through the liberal arts, and these are the kinds of questions we will need to address, with growing urgency.

Robert A. Miller is president of Nazareth College in Rochester, NY

The Presidents' Campaign for the Advancement of Liberal Learning is supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. For more information contact Bethany Zecher Sutton at 202-387-3760.