Why Study the Humanities?

Yesterday, as I was listening to my lecturer in biomedical ethics, he mentioned an opinion piece to us in The Age written by Peter Singer, a very famous University of Melbourne professor of philosophy and ethics, who also spends time teaching at Princeton as well. As my ethics professor mentioned the name, I vaguely remembered passing a book signing going on at the Arts Centre on campus last semester with a Dr. Peter Singer, so I was interested to read what this man had to say.

His opinion piece describes his discontent with the emphasis that Australian universities have put on teachers to publish more papers, teach more students and apply for more research grants in efforts to demonstrate the value of what they study. He lifts up many of the American universities that place more emphasis on undergraduate education of a liberal arts kind where the teachers don't have as much pressure to publish and can focus on teaching. Words like Singer's always fill me with pride and make me all the more thankful I was able to attend an institution such as Singer describes. For all Centre folk reading, I think you'll enjoy the article.