The Future of Humanities

Catherine MALABOU

Kingston University , United Kingdom

Dorota CHABRAJSKA

John Paul II Institute, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin , Poland

Abstract

The author postulates that the frontiers between the humanities and science must be redrawn, since science is gradually becoming a discourse on frontiers and limits, which used to be the traditional domain of the humanities. According to the author, the humanities, especially continental philosophy, are not longer able to accurately think their own plasticity, and their dialogue with neurobiology, in which the concept of plasticity (under the name of neuroplasticity) is central, remains a must. In order to explicate the necessity of the dialogue in question, the author analyzes two philosophical texts, both devoted to the question of the future of the humanities, namely Michel Foucault’s essay “What is Enlightenment?”, and Jacques Derrida’s lecture “The Future of the Profession of the University Without Condition,” and confronts them with Immanuel Kant’s famous opinion on “What is Enlightenment?” expressed in the survey made by Berlinische Monatsschrift in 1784.

Summarized by Dorota Chabrajska

Keywords:

the humanities, future of the humanities, plasticity, limit, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Enlightenment, Kant, neuroscience, plasticity of the brain