To celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Martha Nussbaum wrote an article emphasizing the importance of liberal arts education in today's world. In her article, she argues that liberal arts education is crucial because it develops critical thinking skills and nurtures empathy, which can help address global issues like diversity and cultural conflicts. One of the key essences of liberal arts education is its ability to cultivate critical thinking skills. It achieves this by encouraging the students to question and giving them tools to "think resourcefully" (Nussbaum, 2004, p. 5, par. 3. Then, the sand is sanded. According to Nussbaum, this type of education "requires opening the personality to change and questioning" (Nussbaum, 2004, p. 6, par 1). In other words, when students pursue liberal arts education, they are often asked not to take anything for granted and question everything, even their long-held values and beliefs. I believe when students question constantly and try to actively engage with a wide range of materials and ideas—thoughts, texts, concepts, problems, and solutions— for years, there is no doubt that it will eventually lead …show more content…
But Nussbaum calls this act of nurturing empathy "Cultivating Humanity" (Nussbaum, 2004, p. 4, par 2). This is done by incorporating both humanities and art subjects and teaching the students to put themselves in other's shoes (Nussbaum, 2004). While Nussbaum says it encourages students to think from a different perspective, I see it as more like students are forced to empathize with others in liberal arts education. What I mean by that is, that students need to take various subjects and they have to actively engage (think from another perspective) with the subjects. So it is more like they have to empathize to pass. Nevertheless, it gives the students the ability to truly understand and be compassionate to