In addressing the condition of the humanities in the modern world this paper begins by challenging the coherence of the concept itself. In so far as it has a continuing relevance, it is a term that refers to a contingent cluster of disciplines with a common institutional situation and a shared set of attitudes towards the transformation of the core functions of the University.
Arguing against a defeatist or nostalgic approach to these changed realities, the paper suggests ways of defining the interests of the humanities in terms of the social structure of knowledge and our broader social investment in the notion of the public.

This paper was given as the keynote address to a conference on The Future of the Humanities, St Hugh's College, Oxford, March 2004.