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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2023
In this chapter, I aim to motivate two important theses. The first is the idea that the humanities enable us obtain knowledge of ourselves by providing the means to read what lies within. Knowledge of ourselves is not scientific knowledge. It never will be. It is made up of the facts concerning what we implicitly take to be of value. Knowledge of ourselves is a special kind of “knowledge of what matters.” It is knowledge of what matters to us. Humanities disciplines foster the exploration of that source of value and its congruence with our desires in various ways. Ultimately, I argue, these various forms of exploration succeed by enabling us to achieve a vantage point from which to view our personal commitments and desires with some variety of detachment. In doing so, they provide the means to avoid a pernicious kind of self-contamination.
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