A Case for Liberal Arts

Ross Douthat recently interviewed philosopher Jennifer Frey on his NYT podcast "Interesting Times" to make the case for a “useless” education. The English Major in me did some digging. The original meaning of liberal is "befitting a free person." The original meaning of art is "skill, discipline, or method."

Liberal arts are the foundational skills humans need to develop agency. The goal was not just reading and analyzing Shakespeare or memorizing Newton, it was to learn to govern oneself, to be able to judge and discern right/wrong, like/dislike, good/bad. Deep reading, thinking, and analysis were the means to get to THIS end.

Frey believes "the need for self-reflection, self-knowledge, understanding — that cultivating the life of the mind is a basic human need."
In the age of AI, where raw intelligence is abundant, the ability to sit and wonder in ambiguity, ask the right questions and observe with all of our senses is what separates humans from very fast machines.

To borrow an analogy: AI is the elephant, and the human is the rider holding the reins of this massive animal, and left unguided, it can easily throw its driver and trample civilization.
In Haidt's original concept, a rational rider tries to suppress an emotional elephant. Here the elephant is the hyper-logical super-intellect. The human rider must prompt, guide, and cajole this giant not with more computing power, but with the very essence of our humanity: EQ, empathy, love, and community.

May 2026