Humanities study serves understanding and enrichment beyond practical utility

Evidence

It was believed in the past, there may still be some remote and isolated places where it is believed in the present, that for the humanities their own intrinsic intellectual merit is sufficient, and their study is its own more than adequate reward. By now this is very much a minority point of view, but it deserves to be reiterated. Through philosophy and history we may hope to achieve some understanding of our place in the universe and of our experience in the past. Through the study of language and literature, in themselves historical records, we may be able to receive and be enriched by some understanding of what the great minds of the past have achieved, the experiences our predecessors recorded and transmitted for our guidance. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1854

Categorization

• DEFINE: Argues for humanities’ intrinsic merit against the now-dominant practical-utility justification.
• XREF: connects to: Humanistic critique dissolves mental constraint and enables reflective understanding — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 37
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Humanistic critique dissolves mental constraint and enables reflective understanding — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 37