AustLit

'In defending themselves against the ever-more aggressive encroachments of utilitarian, market-oriented, skills-based demands for cost-effective education and research, the humanities often fall back upon a claim for the intrinsic worth of some scholarly pursuits: forms of academic inquiry that are per se valuable and need no justification beyond themselves. The close reading of a poem, the detailed annotation of an ancient manuscript, the philosophical parsing of a concept, are said to be valuable per se, in and for themselves.' (Publication abstract)