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Jon Lamont
Professor Sarah Kleeb
ACMA01H3F
12 September 2013
Studying Liberal Arts: The Art of Molding People into Better Citizens
“There are lots of useless college majors… pretty much the entire repertoire of Liberal
Arts,” argues Nicholaos Jones, from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Alabama
(2). This bold claim is his starting platform for answering the question of whether or not we
should study Liberal Arts. However, there is more to this than that statement lets on. Jones goes
on to explain that Liberal Arts are not useless in the way we commonly view the term useless,
and their uselessness is, in fact, advantageous. Those who major in the Liberal Arts are better off
because of it. Another bold claim. If the Liberal Arts are useless, certainly we should not
continue to teach them in universities. The useless studies would be distracting. By removing
them, students would be forced into useful positions, providing society with more doctors, or
engineers, instead a bunch of useless philosophers and poetry majors. Through an analysis of
Jones’ arguments, it will be made clear whether Liberal Arts have a place in the classrooms of
the world.
Jones’ arguments outline three things; Liberal Arts are not useless in the commonly
accepted view of useless, Liberal Arts at its core is focussed on making one a better citizen, and
Liberal Arts Majors and Minors are better off because of their uselessness. To begin, many
assume that the Liberal Arts are useless because of Aristotle. Aristotle believed that to determine
whether an activity was useless, he must ask why it was being done (Jones 3). Based on this,
Jones would ask his students about their reasons for taking certain college courses. What it came
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down to was that “… [S]tudents are pursuing their college degree for the sake of making good
money…” (Jones 3). Based on this, and Aristotle’s theory, courses that did not lead into wellpaying jobs were useless (Jones 5). Liberal Arts do not have a clear cut career that the course
leads into. Jones explains that whatever you major in, that is what job you are going to get. For
example, an engineering student will become an engineer. This is not so with Liberal Arts, or at
least, it is not readily visible. Jones debunks this idea when he reveals that “… 95 out of 100
students with a Health degree get a job quickly after graduating… ‘only’ 90 out of 100 students
with a Liberal Arts degree get a job quickly after graduating,” (Jones 5). So a Liberal Arts degree
is not useless from an economic perspective. Instead, it is the lack of a name. Because one cannot
say “when I get my Liberal Arts degree, I will become a Liberal Artist,” it takes time and
creativity and exploration in order to figure out what one will do with a Liberal Arts degree
(Jones 7). That is what makes Liberal Arts useless.
One may inquire as to what exactly the Liberal Arts are. According to Jones, there are
two distinct features of the Liberal Arts; the Art, and the Liberal. The Art “is a craft which
applies principles and methods toward the achievement of a goal proper to the craft,” (Jones 8).
Each Liberal Arts course, whether its poetry, or humanities, is a craft with principles and specific
methods that lead towards a specified goal. The Liberal, defined by Jones as “worthy of or
suitable for a free person,” (9) refers to what crafts, or Arts, fall under the Liberal Arts. Crafts
that “[prepare] a person to be an active and responsible citizen, capable of participating
articulately and reasonably in civic and political activities,” (Jones 9) are considered Liberal, as
they shape the free person. Thus, the usefulness of Liberal Arts is not to aid others, but to shape
oneself into a better citizen. This is not useful to others, which is part of why the Liberal Arts are
considered useless.
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This uselessness is what makes Liberal Arts students so great. “Technical and vocational
disciplines… make people useful to others for specialized purposes; but they do not make people
better citizens,” (Jones 11). Jones explains that Liberal Arts do not make people useful for others
or for specific purposes. However, those well read in the Liberal Arts feel better off than those
who are not because of the valuable skills they learn. Skills like “reading with comprehension,
reasoning properly, communicating creatively and effectively, exploring possibilities,
interpreting and assessing, incorporating and weighing different perspectives, and sustaining
intellectual curiosity,” (Jones 12) are developed in the classroom, and then brought to life in the
real world. Some employers even prefer to hire people with these skills versus those more
specialised. Jones claims that because of this, those in the Liberal Arts are not worse off than
others in the career world, it is an even playing field. Where Liberal Arts has the advantage is in
the mundane activities of life. Those with degrees in the Liberal Arts are able to read into theses
mundane events and experience more in them than others (Jones 13).
Liberal Arts Majors and Minors are therefore at an advantage as they have developed the
skills to learn and experience all forms of things in even the most mundane of day-to-day
activities. However, is this sufficient reasoning for pursuing the Liberal Arts? This hinges on
whether or not Jones’ idea of an alternative meaning for useless is credible. Jones begins by
analyzing the usefulness of Liberal Arts through what is the commonly considered usefulness of
any secondary education degree; this is useful if it will enable one to get a job the pays well after
graduation. Because there are no readily available jobs involving the Liberal Arts, or at least very
few that are known to pay well, most people consider the Liberal Arts useless. What Jones does
is he acknowledges that there are different ways to analyze something’s usefulness, and then
analyzes accordingly. He analyzes based on the commonly accepted idea of usefulness, and then
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he looks at particular ideas of usefulness in ways pertaining to the developed skills from taking
Liberal Arts courses, to the way those skills help in one’s career, how those are used in everyday
life, and how these skills effect our everyday lives. Like anything, usefulness is attributed based
on purpose. The money in a wallet is useful for purchasing goods, but it is not useful as
notepaper for two hour university lectures. A computer is useful for checking email, but it is not
useful as a home furnace. A Liberal Arts degree is useful for providing people with the skills
needed to become better citizens, but it is not useful for giving people a specialized skill for
helping others. Given its own context, Liberal Arts is useful.
Liberal Arts should continue to be taught in universities and colleges worldwide.
Naturally, there will always be the naysayers who talk about the uselessness of the Liberal Arts,
but there will also be the Liberal Artists, those who have used what they have learned in order to
become better citizens, to further their experience in the mundane moments of life. Those who
have used their Liberal Arts skills to broaden their minds and analyze the various ways
something can be useful, and ultimately unearth the context that that thing is useful in. Jones is
one of those people who have broadened their minds. The Liberal Arts have a purpose; the
molding of people into better citizens.
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Works Cited
Jones, Nicholas. “Liberal Arts, and the Advantages of Being Useless.” Academia.edu. n.p. n.d.
Web. 5 Sept. 2013.