The misery of measurement: Humanities and the loss of mystery

Drawing for inspiration on Raymond Gaita s article To civilise the city published in Meanjin in 2013, this paper is a work - or a thought - in progress.1 In particular, it bounces tangentially off Gaita s ideas to explore the idea that the decline in the prestige of the Humanities in Western societies is a result of an increasing fixation with measurement arising from the almost complete departure of mystery from everyday life. Gaita argues that academics must engage with wider society from a position of unworldliness if they are to contribute a new voice to public debate and thereby regain their relevance. Reiterating his call for universities to become havens of difference from the mainstream, I argue that this is not, however, possible until Western society re-embraces mystery.