In answering this question, we will find it helpful to look to C. S. Lewis for insight. As such, Lewis wrote many incisive essays offering a number of reasons why the pursuit of a liberal education is truly indispensable. The first reason we study the liberal arts has to do with freedom. We act most human when we are reasonable, both in thought and deed. Animals, on the other hand, act wholly out of appetite.
Man is different.
Rather than follow our appetites blindly we can be deliberate about what we do and when we do it. The ability to rule ourselves frees us from the tyranny of our appetites, and the liberal arts disciplines this self-rule. It is the liberal arts, not vocational training, that preserves civilization by producing reasonable men and responsible citizens. A second reason we study the liberal arts is to avoid the prejudices of our age. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes.