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What is happening to humanities education
The theme of this article could have a different headline, for example, The Humanistic Crisis of Humanities Education. The interest in it is symptomatic. What is the reason for this? At first glance everything seems all right. In the past fifteen years the volume of humanities education has not diminished. Not a single department of humanities disciplines in the social sciences has been abolished. These disciplines have migrated from the Soviet era to the post-Soviet era under different names. New centers and major institutions focusing exclusively on the humanities have come into being, such as the Institute of European Cultures at the Russian State University of the Humanities, the Institute for Historical Theoretical Research in the Humanities at the Higher School of Economics State University, the journals Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie and Logos. An outwardly convincing appearance of progress in the humanities can be perceived in bookstores and the thematic plans of publishing houses. At times it seems as if all of the most important works of world culture have been translated into Russian and frequently reissued. Nonetheless, there are indications that all is not well in humanities education. What is the root of the problem?