Where's the Virtue in the Humanities?

How can the Liberal Humanities own up to – and promote – its public
service as a matrix of civic virtue? Whether in banks or on the
battlefield, in the NHS or in national newspapers, the need for
virtuous leadership is now patent. An education in the humanities
is, in fact, an education in virtues that are at once intellectual
and civic, underscoring its importance for non-economic public
flourishing. Such moral formation would be much more effective,
however, were it openly professed and discussed. But the
predominant liberal ideal, aspiring to neutrality on the Good Life,
tends to suppress such profession. How, then, can Liberal
Humanities own up to – and promote – its public service as a matrix
of civic virtue? Part of Humanities and the Public Good series
(www.torch.ox.ac.uk/publicgood)