518
STEVEN MARCUS
and discontinuities with both the past and the future, the purpose and
usefulness of the humanities will become sufficiently clear.
II
The foregoing series of remarks may be regarded as a kind of
substantive problematic. It is only one of several that might be put
forward, and it can be dealt with from a variety of perspectives in
almost unlimited ramifications. In the light of the present discussion I
should like
to
add the following observations and suggestions in order
to bring my part of our discourse-if not to a conclusion then to a
stop.
As for humanists themselves, I have been implying all along what
I will now at the risk of hyperbole undertake to state directly.
It
seems
to me that there exists today a widespread if quasi-conscious doubt
among humanists about whether in fact they have a culture to trans–
mit. This doubt may be only partly articulated, but it is not
to
be
confused with the poised and critical skepticism that characterizes the
humanist tradition at its moments of strength. This kind of doubt may
express itself differently at different levels of the system of higher
education and in the society and culture at large, but it is distinctly
perceptible among the elite groups at the great universities and the
larger cultural enclaves with which they are symbiotically connected.
If in fact humanists cannot sustain their belief in the value of the
culture they have inherited-and which is professionally within their
care-or in the value of its values both immanent and overt, then it
seems
to
me to follow that they will be severely hindered in arriving at
judgments and decisions about priorities within their own disciplines
and judgments and decisions about allocations of resources in both
research and teaching-about curriculum, the structure of advanced
degrees and other internal matters-not
to
speak about judgments
and decisions that pertain to the substance of their own continuing
work and vocation.
The belief that seems to be passing, as I have said, is the belief in
the intrinsic or transcendent value of a historical culture and in the
intrinsic and transcendent values that attach to the activities by which
it is sustained, transmitted, reproduced, internalized, and modified.
The erosion of such beliefs undermines the humanities in particular if
