Liberal Arts

Welcome to the study of Liberal Arts at Mercer, where we aim to give you practice in valuable, in-demand understandings, skills and dispositions necessary for a successful life in a rapidly changing and challenging world. 
What Are Liberal Arts and Humanities? 

Mustering out of Ancient Greek inquiries into the means to achieve conceptions of the worthy aims of life for both individuals and societies, came a "desire for a universal understanding" ¹ that included but reached beyond particular locales and moments. Carrying this pursuit forward, the Romans, from whom our current fields of “liberal arts” is derived from their Latin terms, (artes liberales), especially “liberalis "noble, gracious, munificent, generous," literally "of freedom, pertaining to or befitting a free person," [and] from liber "free, unrestricted, unimpeded; unbridled, unchecked, licentious." ² While the understandings of what the liberal arts consist of, and their impacts on lived practices and experiences, have varied through history since, the through line is that in order for anyone to realize their full humanity as a person and as a member of communities, the cultivation of key knowledges, skills, values and habits is essential to realizing excellence, individually and relationally in their civic role. ³

An 18 ^th Century characterization of how to understand the aims of the liberal arts education is:

There are undeniably certain kinds of knowledge that must be of a general nature and, more importantly, a certain cultivation of the mind and character that nobody can afford to be without. People obviously cannot be good craftworkers, merchants, soldiers or businessmen unless, regardless of their occupation, they are good, upstanding and – according to their condition – well-informed human beings and citizens. If this basis is laid through schooling, vocational skills are easily acquired later on, and a person is always free to move from one occupation to another, as so often happens in life. ⁴

While this characterization is richly and substantively cast, it is hardly a perfected, dispositive capture or definition of the liberal arts. But there is plenty to it to stir up questions, recognitions, critiques and edits. The more. the better! Liberal arts vs. humanities: How are they different?   UIUC  January 23 2025.

As ongoing perennial and immediate issues, engaging in the studies of how to better understand human nature, our minds, knowledge, character, what’s good, right, just and upstanding, under which individual, relational and global conditions, broadly and particularly, today, Liberal Arts study is a way for all people to effectively claim the freedom —the confidence, standing and tools--to think, know, respond creatively, and speak and act in the causes of personal and common justice.

But make no mistake here! Just because MCCC is an American college in the ongoing sweep of Western civilizations’ history, this does not mean that the liberal arts does not necessarily include other cultures’ lives and engagement with these issues, as well our ongoing progress from our own storied roots. Indeed, we can hardly do otherwise! The people in the myriad cultures across histories and geographies that are currently called Africa, Latin America, Asia and Oceania - among other names - have traditions, schools and individuals that have been and are richly, productively and humanely committed to the shared, as well as their distinct, projects of being human beings. Further, as societal conditions are unfolding in many places, if unevenly, more voices and more different voices across communities, large and small, that have been variously absent and unheard, caused too often from the lack of even merely adequate circumstances to have access to, develop with and act from their own resources and the understandings and skills that the fields of liberal arts study explore, nurture and extol, have joined our courses of study as members of the chorus of being human amidst humans, and the world.

Liberal Arts learning at the college level serves as a basis for people to become well-rounded, thoughtful, informed, interdisciplinary, creative, resilient, global, articulate, ethical, civic, and collaborative thinkers who can make life better not just for themselves, but for everyone.

Browse through our LA in the News links  and visit the Career and Transfer page for more information on where you can go next with a Liberal Arts A.A. degree. If you’re looking for a 1-credit class to fulfill your 60-credit degree, check out our LAS 201 Special Topics sections below. Your faculty advisors are ready to help in any way, and so am I. We wish you well as you begin an exciting journey of continual curiosity, questioning, and revelation.

many faces from httpsimpakter.comart-can-win-the-war-employing-the-language-of-humanity

Philosophia et septem artes liberales, "philosophy and the seven liberal arts." From the Hortus deliciarum of Herrad of Landsberg (12th century)   What Are the 7 Classical Liberal Arts? Owlcation June 30 2025

The Global Studies concentration is a specialized version of the Liberal Arts degree at Mercer. If you are interested in working internationally or better understanding global culture, politics, history, and business, Liberal Arts: Global Studies is a great choice. As with the standard Liberal Arts degree, here we give you practice in valuable, in-demand skills necessary for a successful life in a rapidly changing world.

By fulfilling your Liberal Arts degree requirements with courses that are global in focus, you will be well prepared for whatever your future holds, wherever it may take you. Our degree program is set up to help you know, think, create, and speak effectively with passion and authority.