The article discusses the nature of humanistic knowledge. Analyzing the relation between aesthetic judgment, literacy and knowledge as defined by the French seventeenth-century Jansenist school of Port-Royal, the article argues that Port-Royal's interpretation of the enthymeme can be used to define the cognitive basis of aesthetic judgments in the various disciplines of the humanities. The article concludes with arguments that the literacy provided by the humanities explains their value as a necessary foundation for understanding the global world.