Thank you—No Offence Meant! The Humanities in Splendid Isolation

Abstract

“Thank you for your kind introduction,” “Many thanks for your stimulating comments,” “Thank you for those further references,” “Thank you, I shall happily take up your suggestions.”—Thank you, thank you very much, thank you so much. Such empty phrases seem almost inevitable on the conference circuit. They are written into our academic breviary already from our earliest student days.