How does one justify funding the arts and humanities? It is clear which justifications are not available.

At one time justification of the arts and humanities was unnecessary because, as Anthony Kronman puts it in a new book,

it was assumed that “a college was above all a place for the training of character, for the nurturing of those intellectual and moral habits that together from the basis for living the best life one can.”

The premise of secular humanism (or of just old-fashioned humanism) is that the examples of action and thought portrayed in the enduring works of literature, philosophy and history can create in readers the desire to emulate them.

It’s a pretty idea, but there is no evidence to support it and a lot of evidence against it.

To the question “of what use are the humanities?”, the only honest answer is none whatsoever. And it is an answer that brings honor to its subject. Justification, after all, confers value on an activity from a perspective outside its performance.