The system under which students spend their first two years in the separate college of liberal arts is now being abolished in the university reform movement. Kyoto University, where I lectured for a week last July, used to have a liberal arts department, but the Department of Integrated Human Studies has taken its place. This phenomenon can be observed all over Japan. The phrase does not connote freedom to study anything at all, but rather, arts and sciences fit for a liberally educated person. A liberally educated person is able to think independently, without relying on others for his or her opinions.
Liberal arts are the arts and sciences required to make a person a liberally educated person.
This type of education began with the Greeks and became a tradition in Europe. In ancient times, liberal arts referred to the study of languages and mathematics. The world was regarded as constructed from numbers, so mathematics implied philosophy, and that included astronomy and music, which offered mathematical perspectives of the world. ICU adopted this European tradition of liberal arts. My field is philosophy, so I planned to include some philosophical observations in my speech today.