An interesting piece in the New York Times:
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/

What do people think?

I see his points but I disagree with the idea that humanities have no external value beyond itself. After all we all would concede that works of art, music, literature do have commercial value in the wider world.

I also would query his points about humanities not needing to justify themselves, as anything academic needs to warrant why it should be funded/ studied.