Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education

Multiculturalism is often attacked in higher education as either a bankrupt moral relativism or an anti-white-male power play. In Cultivating Humanity, philosopher Martha Nussbaum draws on some dead white males, namely Socrates, Seneca, and Cicero, to defend diversity studies in higher education. Nussbaum examines diversity programs in universities across America and finds that by coupling diversity studies with rigorous philosophical inquiry the programs are quite successful at accomplishing their mission: to turn out citizens well-grounded in their own culture and with the rational capacity and empathy to understand and explore differing points of view. For anyone who questions the necessity of a liberal education in a university curriculum, Cultivating Humanity is required reading.