Fikri Fahrul Faiz

CRITICAL REVIEW: CRITICAL FACULTIES

Liberal education is a system of education that allows people to pursue knowledge for their
own sake. This critical review examines an article that links liberal education and economic
growth. The article, Critical Faculties was written by Martha Nussbaum 1, a philosopher
from the United States. The article claims that the value of liberal education is currently being
threatened by the development of the economy in the world. The current trend of economic
growth, the author believes, has a negative impact on liberal education that people have the
tendencies to think on economic gain rather than to learn something that they love. The
article has a goal to raise the importance the survival of liberal education to protect
knowledge and democracy.
The author mentions that liberal education is essential in the system of education. It
encourages people to freely learn what subject they love. By doing so, liberal education can
help the students to have creativity and critical thinking. However, the demand for economic
growth, the author says, becomes the main enemy of liberal education. It influences education
policy in the world, determining the values of education used as tools for the sake of
economic growth. For example, she describes that many countries demand that higher
education must make nations competitive in the global marketplace by training people who
know how to apply what they learn to the creation of short-term profit. 2 In doing so, the
author criticizes the politicians who admire the economic growth in China and Singapore and
push educators to imitate them without recognizing that these states are non-democratic states
1 Martha Nussbaum, Critical Faculties, New Statesman (May 2010), p. 40-41.
2 Martha Nussbaum, Critical Faculties, New Statesman (May 2010), p. 41.

who do not have intention in training democratic citizens to think and to act freely for
themselves. Thus, the author believes, authoritarian regime is a negative impact in liberal
education because they are best served by the absence of liberal education.3
To evaluate this article, the author makes a strong argument in describing that liberal
education is under attack by economic growth. She mentions that in the current era, people
are interested in the short-term profit as their main purpose in education. Similarly, Arthur
Levine, a former president of Teachers College at Columbia University, says that current
students are more pragmatic, having main reason for getting higher education to get training
and skills that will lead to a job, and let them make money.4
However, the author makes an overarching generalization, claiming that authoritarian regime
has an impact on threatening liberal education by prioritizing economic interest. In fact, even
in democratic states, people have changed their interest in education toward economic gain.
For example, Moreover, according to Jerry Logan and Janel Curry, in the United States,
students think that education is no longer about learning for the sake of learning, but rather
learning for career preparation.5 Thus, the type of regime, whether democratic or
authoritarian, has no direct impact in threatening liberal education.
To sum up, the author has a strong argument in explaining the importance of liberal education
which can encourage the students to have a critical culture and creativity that now is under
threat of economic growth. However, the author makes a generalization in saying that
3 Martha Nussbaum, Critical Faculties, New Statesman (May 2010), p. 41.
4 Tamar Lewin, Digital Natives and Their Customs, The New York Times
(November 2nd, 2014), available in
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/arthur-levine-discusses-thenew-generation-of-college-students.html?_r=1, accessed at August 10th, 2016.
5 Jerry Logan and Janel Curry, A Liberal Arts Education: Global Trends and
Challenges, Christian Higher Education Volume 14, Issue 1-2 (2015), p. 66-79.

authoritarian regime who has no interest in training democratic citizens can threaten liberal
education. In fact, the changing interest of students in education has become a driving factor
that threatens the survival of liberal education, even in democratic states.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lewin, Tamar. Digital Natives and Their Customs, The New York Times (November 2nd,
2014), available in http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/arthur-levinediscusses-the-new-generation-of-college-students.html?_r=1, accessed at August 10th, 2016.
Logan, Jerry, and Curry, Janel. A Liberal Arts Education: Global Trends and Challenges,
Christian Higher Education Volume 14, Issue 1-2 (2015). p. 71.
Nussbaum, Martha. Critical Faculties, New Statesman (May 2010). p. 40-41.