To Measure, or Be Measured Unto: What Is Humanism in the Face of Artificial Intelligence? Or: The Instructor Function

This essay examines the potentially dire implications of artificial intelligence for the future of humanism, higher education, and the Humanities by introducing the philosophical conflict between Protagoras’ claim that humanity is the measure of all things and Plato’s competing assertion that the truest standards of value reside outside human experience. It argues that this tension continues to shape contemporary posthumanist, deterministic, and institutional modes of thought, all of which subordinate human judgment to external authorities, structures, or technologies. Drawing on examples from literary theory, the history of online education, and recent AI initiatives within the California State University system, the essay contends that artificial intelligence threatens to accelerate the standardization of teaching, diminish faculty autonomy, and redefine education in managerial and technocratic terms, which redefine faculty as an unnecessary expense. In response, it advances an inclusive humanist framework that affirms the intrinsic value of human experience, creativity, and judgment while calling for renewed faculty governance, intellectual independence, and a reaffirmation of the Humanities as indispensable to democratic and educational life.