The Anti-Hipster

Roger Scruton thinks the "true conservative cause, when it comes to the universities, ought to be the restoration of judgment to its central place in the humanities." He writes:

Subjects like English and art history grew from the desire to teach young people how to discriminate art from effect, beauty from kitsch, and real from phony sentiment. This ability was not regarded as an unimportant skill like fencing or horse riding, which students are free to acquire or not, according to their interests. It was regarded as a real form of knowledge, as vital to the future of civilization as the knowledge of mathematics, and more closely connected with the moral health of society than any natural science. It was only on that assumption that the humanities acquired their central place in the modern university.

Norm Geras rebuts.