Progress and Values in the Humanities: Comparing Culture and Science

Money and support tend to flow in the direction of economics, science, and other academic departments that demonstrate measurable "progress." The humanities, on the other hand, offer more abstract and uncertain outcomes. A humanist's objects of study are more obscure in certain ways than pathogens and cells. Consequently, it seems as if the humanities never truly progress. Is this a fair assessment?

By comparing objects of science, such as the brain, the galaxy, the amoeba, and the quark, wi...