Cultivation as Internalized Evaluation: A Structural Model of Normative Self-Regulation

This paper examines why "liberal arts" or cultural refinement continues to function as a normative good despite longstanding critiques emphasizing its role in exclusion and stratification. Rather than assessing its intrinsic value, the analysis reconceptualizes liberal arts as an externally given evaluative norm embedded within specific social communities. Building on recent work on evaluability and the structural limits of evaluation, the paper proposes a minimal formal model in which individuals choose actions under both intrinsic preferences and internalized evaluative pressure. The model shows how behavioral distortion can arise even without explicit sanctions, as individuals rationally adjust their conduct to avoid anticipated evaluative costs. The analysis explains why liberal arts norms rarely appear coercive despite their regulatory effects: evaluative standards are experienced as self-chosen criteria, while their arbitrariness remains invisible. The paper thus reframes debates over liberal arts as conflicts over evaluative structures rather than disputes over substantive values.