The real value of the humanities

We all owe a debt to the humanities. The debt has been accumulating for thousands of years. It is not calculated in dollars and cents, but in ideas. Our form of government, our social institutions, and our way of life rest on a foundation laid by the humanities. Of course, we may regret some aspects of our history, but this does not mean we should ignore, erase, or cancel the past. Instead, we should learn the lessons that history can teach us.

Even grumpy old Karl Marx understood this. "Men make their own history," he said, "but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances … transmitted from the past."

Marx was wrong about many things, but he was certainly right about this. If we want to build a better future, we must first learn about the good and bad ideas that brought us to where we are today. Preserving and transmitting our shared inheritance is the humanities' job-and the true value.