Roche, Mark William. Why Choose the Liberal Arts?

Kelly, Brian

ROCHE, Mark William. Why Choose the Liberal Arts? Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010. x + 198 pp. Paper, $20.00--The title of this book is a good question that is rarely answered well. Administrators are preoccupied with the practical concerns of running and funding their institutions, and in an age of specialization, many faculty members are incapable of taking a sufficiently global view to formulate a response. In this fairly svelte volume Mark William Roche delivers a thoughtful and heartfelt defense of liberal arts education, appealing to broad theoretical reflections, empirical data, and his own personal experience.

While the titular question is often asked from the perspective of one approaching education as a professional investment, the author insists that the first and most fundamental response must focus on the value of learning for its own sake. He proposes that the habits of soul acquired by the diligent pursuit of the arts and sciences are intrinsically beneficial. He says, "The habit of learning and thinking is what matters most, and that habit is not simply an intellectual value but a life value and its own reward." In the face of an increasingly distracted culture, Roche claims that the liberal arts student is in the best position to recapture a genuine sense of leisure and wonder. Without leisure, we are not able to ask and contemplate the great and recurring questions; and the less we reflect on such questions the less human we are.

Next he defends liberal arts education from a practical perspective. Liberal education is intrinsically worthwhile, but it can also be of great practical benefit, as Thales attempted to show when he invested in olives. A good liberal arts education cultivates intellectual competencies essential for success and advancement in business. Roche highlights especially the habituation to critical thinking and problem solving and the development of communication skills. He gives persuasive support to his argument by appealing to surveys of CEOs and liberal arts graduates themselves. Even though Roche claims that the highest end of liberal arts education is learning for its own sake, he thinks that this is a relatively weak defense in today's marketplace. For those who agree, this chapter will be an important resource for providing a response when parents ask what good will come of studying the liberal arts.

Roche then invokes a third argument in defense of the liberal arts, making the case that such an education inculcates virtue and helps the student to develop a sense of the ultimate purpose or meaning of life. In liberal studies the disciplines are pursued in a way that connects them to questions of meaning rather than function. By taking a more global and less utilitarian vantage point students grow more aware of what kind of person they are and what kind of person they would like to be. Roche makes his claim clearer when he gives examples of particular virtues, such as humility and diplomacy, which are developed in the process of liberal learning.

Finally, Roche attempts an integration of these three arguments, that is, the intrinsic good of contemplation, the practical benefit of such study, and the growth of virtue and vocation. For, though we discuss them separately, the student does not experience these fruits abstractly. It is natural that contemplation should lead to a greater ability for action and love of others. Roche says, "A great liberal arts education brings forward not only smart and knowledgeable persons, but also good persons, with a sense of mission."

Roche has written a helpful book for anyone involved in or contemplating the issue of liberal education. He provides a strikingly broad defense of the whole endeavor, but there is an additional feature that makes this book especially attractive to instructors and administrators. As he discusses the various benefits of a liberal arts education, Roche suggests ways that these alms could be more perfectly realized. Because of his experience as a student, teacher, and Dean, his proposals are particularly insightful.--Brian Kelly, Thomas Aquinas College.