About this episode

The episode explores the relevance and necessity of the humanities in the modern technological age through discussions with three scholars.

“What in God’s name are the humanities,” Lewis Lapham asked in a commencement address he delivered at St. John’s College in 2003 , “and why are they of any use to us here in the bright blue, technological wonder of the twenty-first century?” His answer—the humanities are not luxuries akin to “the country club membership or the house in Palm Beach” but liberating necessities—harmonizes with the answers proposed by the three guests on this special, two-part episode of The World in Time , which commemorates the anniversary of the Quarterly’ s revival . Today’s three guests are all scholars—“card-carrying, old-school metaphysical humanists”—who have dared to do what Lewis Lapham did nearly two decades ago: launch a nonprofit that brings the humanities and the arts into the American agora, the public square.   Zena Hitz, tutor at St. John’s College, is the founder of the Catherine Project , a nonprofit that, through online seminars and reading groups, makes the study of “the great books” available for free to all. She is joined by two returning guests: Justin Smith-Ruiu, professor of philosophy at the Université Paris Cité, editor of the Substack magazine The Hinternet , and…

People in this episode

Host: Lapham’s Quarterly

Guests: Zena Hitz, Justin Smith-Ruiu, D. Graham Burnett

Topics covered

• humanities
• education
• philosophy
• public discourse
• nonprofit organizations

Keywords

• humanities
• technology
• education
• philosophy
• nonprofit

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: St. John’s College, Catherine Project, Université Paris Cité, The Hinternet, Hinternet Foundation, Strother School of Radic

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