Today, institutions of higher education are regarded purely as a means to an end. They have become places we go only to learn skills which will lead us to monetary gain, places we only go to for earning degrees and qualifications. Society has developed the view that studies that do not lead to monetary gain are inherently useless. Particularly, the humanities are now thought of as outdated and irrelevant. Obviously, it is the case that employers are looking for individuals with skills that produce wealth and not backgrounds in literature and theology, but what has been forgotten, is that there is much more to life than monetary gain. Fortunately, at Geneseo, we have made Humanities a required course, which is a wonderful effort to not only teach…show more content… As an institution of higher education, Humanities 1 aids in accomplishing perhaps the most important goal of an institute of higher learning. That is, Humanities helps create good citizens by not only providing the students a background in western thought, but by teaching them what it means to have civic virtue, why we should have civic virtue, and the detriments of failing to be good citizens. The authors who have the most to say about this topic are Plato and Dante respectively. Plato demonstrates why we should be civically virtuous and how it is important to both our country and ourselves. On the other hand, Dante with his inferno depicting an inverted version of Plato’s soul, demonstrates the dangers to both society and ourselves if we fail to act the way Plato advises. Plato’s model of how to be civically virtuous begins with his tri-partite model of the soul. As this model has been observed, it is arranged in an upward formation from appetite, spirit, and reason, in that order. This model reflects Plato’s ideal model of the city which is arranged in
