Is it Time to Change the Humanities Requirement? Essay -- Expository E

Is it succession to Change the Humanities Requirement?The Universitys Humanities center field represents a vital though enigmatic aspect of the curricular philosophy. Considering that the Core seems so anomalous comp ard to the curricula of similar universities, it is interesting to note that the Humanities Core seems to accept an especially distinguished significance. For example, humanities is the only sequence which is taken just about uniformly by first year students it is also one of devil or three Core sequences that cannot be replaced by AP credits or placement tests. Perhaps most importantly, the humanities requirement may be the only part of the Core that seems to be almost universally perceive as having no application outside of the Ivory Tower. Thus we ar faced with the difficult question of what distinguishes the Humanities Core from other pursuits and wherefore it is that the University, an institution that prides itself on academic commitment and prowess, contin ues to place special accent mark on it. In order to confront this difficult question I will first consider the Humanities Core generally and flak to decipher its value in terms of content and then in terms of utility I will then turn my charge to a specific work studied in the Humanities Core and attempt to make sense of its inclusion in the curriculum.As a second-year student, I have pretty fresh memories of my experience in the Humanities Core. I took the auspiciously titled Human Being and Citizen, and although I lacked the perspective held by a student enrolled in, say, Reading Cultures or classical Thought, I believe that HBC provides an experience which is perhaps most easily generalize in regard to Universitys first-year humanities experience. This is because HBC s... ...t books course like HBC. Although the other sequences may address more particular issues, there is projectably an interest in tracing facets of the intellectual tradition which are free lance of cont ent or utility Philosophical Perspectives explores the pre-Socratic philosophical evolution which rigid the groundwork for our western philosophical tradition Readings in World writings examines the work of authorsToni Morrison, for examplewho have addressed enduring and complex literary questions in unique ways, thus affecting the way in which these questions are conceptualized. Perhaps having a frame of reference which incorporates these thinkers is necessary if we want to understand and shape our own surroundings and thus an indispensable part of a comprehensive education. NOTES*Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Translation by Martin Oswald, Prentice-Hall, 1962.