Liberal Education and Humanitarianism

Liberal education and the humanities, then, are not synonymous terms. The goals of humanism and any curriculum fairly called liberal have shot at neighboring targets. Although humanism did not don its familiar clothing until the renaissance, its ideals took shape two thousand years before. But prior to leisure or the liberal arts, came the articulation of the virtues. Goodness in the polis, but first goodness in individuals. Humanism selects. Humanitarianism doesn't.