Abstract

Twenty-five years ago a small volume of essays entitled "Crisis in the Humanities" was published containing an ominous message: namely, that the humanistic disciplines had arrived at a crossroad--a turning point at which a decisive change for better or worse was imminent. Humanistic scholarship appears to have declined since that crossroad was reached, and the reason may be that as pursued at present in many areas, it produces knowledge that is of little intrinsic interest and relevance. This essay formulates and addresses the question of how the humanities can be revitalized and vindicated. There are no simple solutions to this problem; what is needed is a new working concept on which humanistic scholarship can be based. Of theories put forward recently as conceptual frameworks for humanistic scholarship, none is more helpful than Karl Popper's proposition of a world of encoded or "objective" knowledge. Popper's proposition as it can be applied to humanistic scholarship is discussed with great optimism. Comments on the main essay by two other scholars, Michael T. Ryan and Thomas F. Staley, also are included in this volume. (DB)