In the summer of 1995 during my first year in college, I came across the title of a book that appeared to me as inviting, to challenge perennial ideas and create spaces where to explore opposing traditions of thought. The book collected a set of different essays handed to the reader as a toolbox to understand key questions about globalization, society, economy and how these would evolve after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communism in the Soviet Union. Its title in Spanish was: “Pensamiento Unico vs. Pensamiento Critico”. I don’t think it was ever published in English so I will translate it to “Unidimensional thinking vs Critical Thinking”. The concept of Unidimensional thinking was first coined by Arthur Schopenhauer, but in this instance was more properly applied to Herbert Marcuse’s book “One-Dimensional Man” where in the context of the criticism of technologically advanced societies, he proposes that both communism and capitalism are creators of a one-dimensional way of behaving and thinking where critical thought withers away.

Over time Marcuse’s book and Nussbaum’s essay have met each other and revealed what we see today as a decline in the critical thinking ability of our modern societies. Of course Roth and Zachary raise this concern as well. I have been interested in answering some of the questions these sources propose and how the concept of unidimensional thinking has materialized over time in a “Silent Crisis” of Western ideals that originated during the Enlightenment. In this line of thinking Nussbaum and Roth seem to weave a common thread of conversation from the perspective of the usefulness of studying Liberal Arts, in essence reflecting on the value of some intellectual practices humans have been doing for centuries, the relationships we form and how and why we create them to understand our world.

Industrialized and technologically advanced capitalist societies have taught us efficiency, usefulness, consumerism, utilitarianism, immediacy, competition and return of investment, shaping minds to dispose from our lives the things that do not pay back, instantly reward or yield profit. This concept sounds overarching, very few minds will challenge it (except the ones that study Liberal Arts in RICE, of course!). Yes, businesses and economies thrive on profit but in recent decades this perception of profit has permeated into the social realm of life and into our behavior determining the way we act and decide upon other aspects of existence. At this moment in the XXI century it feels self-defeating to the human essence. Inspired by Rabindranath Tagore, Nussbaum says “forgetting about the soul”, losing the “faculties of thought and imagination that makes us human and make our relationships rich human relationships, rather than relationships of mere use and manipulation”.

Having reached the start of the first semester, the question posed to us in this context is how useful is spending time (and money) together exploring the Liberal Arts. In the past it was answering the dilemma we all faced when choosing a university degree and a productive career path. Another formulation following this same thread is Smiths beautiful essay, “Why Write?”, is that “Something to Do” like baking banana bread? Why should I visit a museum or read Marco Aurelius’ 2,000 year old book? How productive is learning arts or literature?

During thousands of years of presence in this world we have not thought for profit but for understanding and advancing in the cognition of the world. Consequentially innovation has happened. We are inspired by ideas that are greater than ourselves; we live, act and throughout we exist in denial of that unavoidable death, trying to leave behind us a heroic legacy through philosophical inquiry, scientific breakthroughs and artistic endeavors that will make life physically and spiritually better and more enjoyable for future generations. Unearthing our anxieties, our contradictions, and exploring what concerns us as humans is something not just necessary for our survival as a species but also crucial to achieve a happier and rewarding existence. The technological revolution we are immersed in represents an invitation to a more thoughtful human existence and while we predict a dominating role of technology in our future, we cannot obviate the purpose of human thought, of artistic creation, literary production and other forms of human expression. Liberal Studies are today more necessary than ever before. Not because are useful or profitable but because our survival, peace, well-being and progress depends on the understanding of the world around us together.

Nussbaum, Martha C. 2016. The Silent Crisis, Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities. Princeton University Press, United States.

Roth, M. 2014. Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters. New Haven; London: Yale University Press.

Smith, Z., 2020. Intimations : Six Essays. Penguin Canada.

The quest of comprehending the world we live in is a fascinating and beautiful adventure. Unearthing our anxieties, our contradictions and exploring what concerns us as humans is something not just necessary for our survival as a species but also crucial to achieve a happier and rewarding existence. I inquire myself sometimes about why humans do the things that we do: What does being human mean and what does that being demand us to do? The answers to many of our questions have certainly a response in the study of History, Philosophy, Political Science, Natural Sciences, Sociology or Linguistics. Solving ethical and moral puzzles that trouble us or interpreting the different realities we live in might lay in Music, Literature and Art, or also in the multiple schools of thought that for centuries have sought to address these problems in the minds of Hinduist India, Taoist China, Mesopotamia or Classic Greece.

I grew up in a quaint town in the Central Mountain Range in Spain. When I was born, Spain, with its splendid historical and cultural legacy, started to wake up from a long period dominated by self-centrism, isolation and repression of diversity in favor of national homogeneity. My grandparents lived the miseries and horrors of the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath during forty years of Franco’s dictatorship. At the end they had the reward to breathe the fresh air of today’s Democratic Spain. Their most valuable ideals were education and integrity. In the wake of the early democracy and reconnection with Europe and the ideas it represents my parents commenced their family embracing the same values as theirs by instilling in my six siblings and me the passion for study, knowledge, self-reliance, honesty, compassion and freedom of ideas.

At twenty I didn’t wanted to be happy and cozy at home, instead I wanted to go to sea and experience raw life and adventure, endure hardship, reflect upon life and learn the ancient art of sailing and navigation looking at the stars to locate myself in the immensity of the ocean like Ulysses did. Now I know that enduring months of solitude at sea require coexisting with oneself. It can be boring at times, others simply very hard, but I have never been bored when I am alone.

Some seamen have an aura of romanticism, adventure seeking, curiosity and free spirit. We cherish living in uncertainty and solitude, inspired by nature and human quest; we are made of a cloth devoid of fear or belonging. This curiosity came to me from the adventure books of Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville and Robert L. Stevenson that I read with my dad. I felt inspired by the XVI Century Explorers who traveled across the Atlantic and Pacific like Columbus, Magellan, Urdaneta or Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca across the Texas shores. My motivation came from the naval officers of the Enlightenment era like Jorge Juan, Malaspina and Churruca, who taught themselves in astronomy, physics, philosophy and engineering and fought naval battles against respected and glorious enemies like Horatio Nelson.

Today the technological revolution we are immersed in represents an invitation to a more thoughtful human existence. How we deal with machines poses some questions about the way we incorporate technology in our lives and what repercussions we will face. While we predict a dominating role of technology in our future, we cannot obviate the purpose of human thought, of artistic creation, literary production, and other forms of human expression. We should not neglect the value of hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution and what it means to us. Accordingly, we should furnish ourselves with a wealth of knowledge to answer the moral puzzles that will arise with the use of machines and instead satisfy our souls with worldly beauties that have enriched human existence for thousands of years.