What are the Liberal Arts?
The first section in Scheuer’s article “Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts” attempts to define and explain the liberal arts to the audience. Within this explanation, there is an underlying tone of advocacy for the liberal arts as Scheuer’s article is a defense against those in opposition to the studies. He starts by explaining some of the history and origins of the arts, alluding to dated Latin writers and Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. He also goes into the origins of the term itself, the meaning coming “from the notion of freeing the mind” (Scheuer 2), and goes on to state what the arts consist of, “grammar, rhetoric, and logic, combined with the medieval quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. As early as the twelfth-century renaissance, […], those “arts” were supplemented in the curriculum by philosophy, jurisprudence, theology, and medicine” (Scheuer 2). These anciently important and inclusive studies are also found in the Core Handbook under requirements like Core Explorations and Creative Arts. These focuses of study also convey the idea that the liberal arts is intended to educate and form well-rounded citizens and society members. Scheuer states three main liberal arts conceptions in this section: an integrated curriculum, exclusion of the sciences, and a main focus of the humanities. Connecting to his earlier references to ancient philosophy and how it contributed to the formation of the liberal arts, Scheuer states that “philosophy is the mother of liberal learning”. Basic knowledge, theories and ways of thinking have changed drastically over time, especially since the time of Greek and Roman philosophy. Scheuer concludes this section by elaborating on the notion that the liberal arts is a system that is intended to free, grow, expand and evolve, along with the young people who study it.
Why Do We Need the Liberal Arts?
In the second section of Scheuer’s article, he introduces the key concepts and ideas of his article: critical inquiry and citizenship. He first defines citizenship as “a social ecology involving a range of activities symbiotic with democratic communities” (Scheuer 2). He describes this ecology as consisting of three dimensions: economic citizenship, which simply involves making productive contributions to the economy whether through doing something like running a factory or being a critical consumer; traditional civic citizenship, which encompasses any form of participation in the public sphere (ex. voting); lastly there is the cultural citizenship, which can be defined as the easiest with its requirement that one immerses themselves into many different areas of culture in the community and in cultures around the world. Scheuer talks about how these dimensions interrelate “to foster vibrant and prosperous communities with broad and deep participation, in public conversations, marked by fairness, inclusion and intellectual rigor” (Scheuer 3). He concludes this section by acknowledging the fact that society needs people who are career educated for positions like being a pilot, but how society also needs liberal arts scholars for other professions, “we need pilots, farmers and hairdressers as well as managers, artists, doctors, and engineers. But we all need to be well-informed, critical citizens” (Scheuer 4). While some peers find this statement, as well as Scheuer’s argument to be aggressive and condescending against those in favor of a career-based education, I find it to simply advocate for the importance of studying the liberal arts, in the defensive and firmly-worded way that any persuasive piece should be written.
What is Critical Thinking?
In this section, Scheuer immediately defines critical thinking as “the set of mental practices that lends breadth, depth, clarity, and consistency to public discourse” (Scheuer 4). Critical thinking is an important skill to have when studying the liberal arts as it involves looking at the concepts and ideas being studied from multiple angles and perspectives, and those other perspectives are taught and found in the other areas of study included in a liberal arts education. Some critical thinking skills that Scheuer takes note of are identifying assumptions, drawing inferences, distinguishing facts from opinions, drawing conclusions, making sound arguments and recognizing our own human tendencies to make biases and misperceptions. The most distinguishing characteristic of critical thinking in contrast to any other types of thinking, is that it emphasizes the importance of looking at a topic from all sides and angles that would affect our understanding of the topic. Scheuer then acknowledges the truth of the matter that not everything is an opinion, or needs to be seen from multiple viewpoints to construct a decent understanding, “We still have to conjugate verbs, understand economic cycles, and listen to stories” (Scheuer 6). Scheuer concludes this section by stating that all of the critical thinking skills and benefits are the direct result of a liberal education, driving forth his strong position of advocacy for the arts.
The Importance of Critical Inquiry.
In the last section of Scheuers essay, he begins by stating the concepts that critical inquiry commonly calls into question, “[…] truth, nature, value, causality, complexity, morality, freedom, excellence, and […] language itself, as the principal medium of thought” (Scheuer 6). Scheuer goes on to say that these concepts are spread out through all branches of knowledge and applying them to our learning will ultimately broaden our understanding and intelligence of any topic. He also describes these concepts as being open and available for making connections to more concepts and ideas. Scheuer concludes with recognition of the importance of STEM disciplines, but ultimately advocates for the critical thinking, inquiry and citizenship that he argues are important and a direct result of a liberal arts education. One of my favorite connections that Scheuer discusses is how multi-faceted every academic topic can be, particularly when he explains that linguistic, or language, problems are simultaneously philosophical understanding problems, “they are problems about meaning, knowledge, reality, and our minds, not just about words” (Scheuer 6). This connection emphasizes how studying and developing and understanding of a variety of subjects can help you recognize factors of other topics and better conceptualize them.
Write 4-5 sentences drawing a connection/relationship between something specific in Scheuer and something specific in both the Core Handbook and Ungar.
The four Core Themes of an undergraduate education at the University of New England in the Core Handbook are Environmental Awareness, Social and Global Awareness, Critical Thinking: Human Responses to Problems and Challenges, and Civic Engagement. The importance these focuses have in a liberal arts education are frequently being conveyed in both Ungar and Scheuer’s pieces. First, Ungar discusses the importance of the benefits of liberal learning in his argument against a “career education”, stating that “[…] the ‘career education’ bandwagon seems to suggest that shortcuts are available to students that lead directly to high-paying jobs— leaving out “frills” like learning how to write and speak well, how to understand the nuances of literary texts and scientific concepts, how to collaborate with others on research” (Ungar 2). Ungar recognized the importance of how a multi-faceted conceptual awareness of multiple topics and areas of study develop an awareness and higher level of thinking in any student. Scheuer’s commentary on the liberal arts was much deeper and clearly more thoroughly understood. He systematically explained the significant role that Core Values like critical thinking and civic engagement play in a liberal arts education. In the end, he also describes how these values can influence each other, “[Critical thinking skills] heightens our abilities to speak, listen, write, and think, making us better learners, communicators, team members, and citizens” (Scheuer 6). As the Core Handbook is the layout for our liberal undergraduate education, it is inclusive of all the qualities that education experts like Scheuer and Ungar advocate for so passionately.
