Na semana passada, o Los Angeles Review of Books  publicou a resenha de dois novos livros que discutem o lugar e o papel das Humanidades nas universidades e, sobretudo, na própria sociedade.

Um dos ensaios que compõem um dos livros assevera:

Scholars in the humanities as a dying race, epigones of a tradition they will continue to defend bravely but hopelessly, eventually foundering in a sea of technocratic indifference.

Ainda que de uma maneira mais polida, é o mesmo que diz S. Hawking em seu livro de 2010:

We each exist for but a short time, and in that time explore but a small part of the whole universe. But humans are a curious species. We wonder, we seek answers. Living in this  vast world that is by turns kind and cruel, and gazing at the immense heavens above, people have always asked a multitude of questions: How can we understand the world in which we find ourselves? How does the universe behave? What is the nature of reality? Where did all this come from? Did the universe need a creator? Most of us do not spend most of our time worrying about these questions, but almost all of us worry about them some of the time.

Traditionally these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead. Philosophy has not kept up with modern developments in science, particularly physics. Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge.

Mas Hawking também andou falando umas bobagens por esses dias. O que eu mesmo penso vai na linha do que diz Bill Vallicella, o qual citei num outro post sobre o assunto no qual, inclusive, comento outro dos livros principais sobre a questão.

E então, qual o futuro das Humanidades?