Stanly Fish, summarizing Kronman: "We must turn to the humanities if we are to 'meet the need for meaning in an age of vast but pointless powers,' for only the humanities can help us recover the urgency of 'the question of what living is for.'
"The humanities do this, Kronman explains, by exposing students to 'a range of texts that express with matchless power a number of competing answers to this question.' In the course of this program – Kronman calls it 'secular humanism' – students will be moved 'to consider which alternatives lie closest to their own evolving sense of self.' As they survey 'the different ways of living that have been held up by different authors,' they will be encouraged 'to enter as deeply as they can into the experiences, ideas, and values that give each its permanent appeal.' And not only would such a 'revitalized humanism' contribute to the growth of the self, it 'would put the conventional pieties of our moral and political world in question' and 'bring what is hidden into the open – the highest goal of the humanities and the first responsibility of every teacher.'"
Fish: "Sounds great, but I have my doubts. Does it really work that way? Do the humanities ennoble? And for that matter, is it the business of the humanities, or of any other area of academic study, to save us? The answer in both cases, I think, is no. "