Manuel João Quartilho, Joana Proença Becker and Carlos Carona

Abstract:

Recognizing the state of “permanent crisis” in the Humanities, considerations are made about the social and political fractures in post-war Western societies. The crisis of democracy, together with online social media, are associated with both an impairment to the common good and a “chaos” conditioned by the absence of control over information flows and the mechanisms of persuasion in an open society. Given this context, humanities and liberal education programs seem potentially useful for improving democracy. In addition, the role of medical humanities is highlighted in the construction of an ethically vigilant, reflective, resilient and intervening health professional. Finally, the present article presents critical references to the ideology of meritocracy of neoliberal societies, with negative effects in the processes of quantification and anonymous evaluation in Academics, as well as in the health of the professionals being discussed.

Keywords: democracy, liberal education, meritocracy, persuasion mechanism, Western societies