Many a college student has said, “Why should I bother reading some book about ancient stuff?” To many, liberal-arts courses seem like a waste of time on things they’ll never need to know.

In today’s Martin Center article, Professor Art Carden, who has often heard that complaint, replies that the liberal arts are useful in ways students cannot imagine.

Carden writes, “The ideas you encounter, consider, and adopt shape the kind of person you become. Liberal education is not about helping you sound impressive at snooty parties. It’s about you becoming a particular kind of person: reflective, analytical, and capable of sound evaluation and sound judgment. To this end, college means a few years marinating in the best that has ever been thought and written by the greatest minds our species has produced.”

There is much wisdom to be gained in reading great books, wisdom that the student may very well incorporate into his own decision-making. Reading and discussing those books helps to prepare the mind for life.

Carden believes the case for “reading Plutarch, Dostoevsky, Eliot, and Shakespeare” is not that “they will teach you specific technical skills.” It’s something deeper than that. Read the whole thing here.