Debating with an Artist, or the Humanities in Ruin: An Essay Not Only Pro Domo Sua

Dariusz SKÓRCZEWSKI

Chair of Theory and Anthropology of Literature, Institute of Polish Studies, Faculty of Humanities, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland , Poland

Abstract

The essay reflects on the present condition of the humanities in Poland and the prospects of the humanities’ survival in the contexts of: the commercial and corporative approach of Polish government to university, the crisis of science and research funding, the demographic crisis in Poland, and the severe devaluation of university in the present-day liberal model of education which severs the relationship between the university and the national life. Reflecting upon the management of Polish humanities on both governmental and university levels, the author points to some mental effects of postcolonial inferiority complex and some traps of nominalist thinking manifested in a magical belief in the reparatory upshots of the standardization of the teaching process.

Keywords:

university, humanities, reform of higher education, science and research funding, liberal education