Checkbook Math, Chocolate, and the Decline of Rigor in the Liberal Arts

Abstract

To save the liberal arts, we need to abandon efforts to “modernize” them or make them more appealing to students. Instead, the author argues that we consider restoring the sense of rigor that has until recently defined such fields as philosophy, English, and math. Hundreds of years ago, philosophers were the scientists of the world, making new discoveries and inventing mathematical disciplines such as geometry and calculus. The undemanding nature of contemporary philosophy has resulted in endless squabbles over hypothetical thought experiments that are largely irrelevant to everyone else. A similar fate has befallen their colleagues in English and mathematics, who would rather teach classes in video games and comic books or design courses in “checkbook” math than hold themselves and their students to the high standards that formerly prevailed in those fields. Making the liberal arts more rigorous is the only way to ensure their survival for another thousand years—at least in a form that can still be recognized as fit for free, and free-thinking, individuals.