Humanistyka: niedokończony projekt

Discussing four contemporary approaches to the humanities, those expressed by Marquard, Nussbaum, Rorty, and Fish, the author takes the side of those who believe that humanities have a political impact on society, regardless of what liberal partisans of the free market may claim. He defines the main goal of humanities as transformation of the social imaginary by making explicit the multitude of vocabularies used to describe human experience. As no vocabulary naturally prevails over any other, humanities should be understood not so much as a cluster of academic disciplines but rather as a critical disposition of mind that puts in crisis the ossified structures of thinking. Since this work is still dramatically needed in the contemporary academia, the modernising project of the humanities remains unfinished.