what are the humanities

what are the humanities

Exploring the Significance and Impact of the Humanities

1. Introduction to the Humanities

The humanities consist of human actions created to explore, describe, and celebrate the world around them. In that sense, all actions of which humans are capable form some aspect of the humanities, whether they are internal or external, culture-forming or culturally formed. Some people use the term of languages, logic, and philosophy, because they consider the term denotes those aspects of humanities that have universal application rather than ones related to pluralistic cultures or the fine arts. There is no established explanation about any aspect of the set of Intangible Cultural Heritage that corresponds to the concepts of the humanities, mostly since these concepts engage several human activities and integrate the three domains of social sciences, physical sciences, and arts.

The humanities continue to be attacked and undermined, both from outside the academy and by others within it. While it would be easy to rant and rave against such attitudes (and, after all, who doesn’t feel like that now and then?), it is surely more important to explore for ourselves what is meant by the terms human and humanities and to recognize that what we do is not only worthwhile and significant but also has a huge and positive impact on our world. This section contains brief chapters where there is next to no text in the LaTeX file; we did this in order to capture as much content as possible.

2. Historical Evolution and Definition of the Humanities

Although a record that connects liberal with free has not been found before a.d. 1375, the relation was widely regarded by Aristotle, Empedocles, and others. They have written of the freedom which superior men possess only through education; but whether liberal implies that superior man was free as a citizen, as a freeman before the state, or as a free man even if a slave, narrowly, does not appear. The derivative use of liberal that refers to liberality and largeness of education dates from an even later time. Over a century earlier, at least since the death of Cicero, the derivative use that refers to literary or intellectual training had been well established povanto pedagogia. By the second century case, the word is known to have referred to anything that was partaken in by, or suitable to, a liber.

The scholarly problems and methods of the humanities have been called inductive, general, and analytical. They are sometimes referred to as the great books or noble study. As a formal term in the English language, the word humanities dates from the middle of the eighteenth century. Historical usage is earlier. The meaning of the term has throughout its history diverse as diverse suggestions for those social sciences and natural sciences that comprise the other divisions of the modern. The debate is pointless, since the division has come to be regarded as informal, useful, and somewhat temporary. Among the associative or descriptive synonyms and antonyms of the humanities, one frequently encountered term is the term gentleman, it being assumed that all gentlemen were liberally educated and that liberal education was synonymous with humane studies or humanities, a relation testified to by at least one other English word of the same meaning, that liberal may mean generous or open-handed.

3. Key Disciplines and Areas of Study within the Humanities

Since at least 2007 and the advent of the American Academy of Arts and Science’s Humanities Indicators, a list of fields associated with the humanities has been provided by an authoritative organization. The Indicators gives “the humanities” a large but limited meaning: “92 (or 75%) of the NRC’s 119 fields are included among the humanities by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators.” However, only 1 of the top 9 humanities fields (in terms of the number of people with PhDs in the field) specifically focuses on average citizens and their lives and work. The other 8 either produce knowledge for use by those in academically heavy positions or prepare students to obtain such knowledge.

Within the humanities, the following are the key areas of study: anthropology (including cultural, physical, linguistic, medical anthropology), history, languages and literature, law and politics, philosophy and ethics, religion, performing arts (music, theatre, dance), visual arts, social and behavioral sciences, and other. While this may seem like a long list, within most colleges and universities in the US (and in many internationally), only a portion of this list is included in the definition of the humanities used by administrators and faculty. For example, only the department areas mentioned in the American Academy of Arts and Science’s Humanities Indicators, e.g. “H14001 Anthropology”, “H2001 Comparative Literature”, and “H20002 English”, make the lists associated with administration, faculty, and students of the humanities. The contributions of the other areas of study indicated by the 1999 federal legislation that defines the humanities, such as the social and behavioral sciences, are excluded from discussions of the significance and impact of the humanities.

4. The Relevance and Importance of the Humanities in Contemporary Society

The first of these is, of course, how our world actually works: and this is an especially vital point to bear in mind in an era dominated by the hurly-burly of social media, news, text, and talk shows. The simple fact derived from history and allied disciplines like economics – that in reality, the paths countries and societies follow in order to reach the present day tend to be slow, chaotic, and unpredictable – is lost amidst the justified emphasis on the breaking news. This state of affairs is a fertile breeding ground for the rise of myths and misinformation, which is an increasingly potent prophylactic against populist agitation. It is surely no accident that in Eastern Europe, the current infused unrest is most prominent in countries like Hungary and Poland, where in recent years proud national myths are deliberately being promulgated and manipulated. And myths tend to be more compelling when their populist message is founded on the hard basis of tangible memories such as the sacrifices people made in fighting an occupying power or the greatness of a nation’s recent past. It is the duty of historians and their colleagues in other branches of the humanities to highlight the falseness and malign intent of such myths.

In our technologically driven societies, a fair bit of skepticism and a touch of nostalgia seem to define contemporary attitudes towards the humanities. To some, subjects such as history, languages, or philosophy may seem attractive, but what can one actually do with such knowledge? Aren’t we living in an ever more high-tech world in which the humanities count for less and less? In truth, investing in any such line of reasoning is completely mistaken, and not just because the vital skills provided by the humanities continue to be necessary in professions such as journalism, media, and the arts. We might briefly consider some key areas where the lessons taught at the level of the humanities are vitally relevant in contemporary society.

5. Challenges and Future Directions in the Humanities

The number and rate of publications in the humanities continue to grow. The audience for these publications similarly grows, while humanities funding has generally not grown as fast as the funds for research in other fields. Organizations and participants in the humanities and their audiences confront many challenges to keep making discoveries, to generate and communicate knowledge, and to provide and sustain education in the humanities. What are the best directions for the humanities in an information-rich age? What new roles should government play? What are the best analyses of the obstacles in the ways of progress that the humanities face? What are the most effective strategies for overcoming these obstacles? Are there lessons from analyses of the humanities that bear on other fields? What are the possible co-benefits for the humanities from research and teaching in other fields? After exploring the significance and impact of the humanities, the standing committee plans to explore intersections of the humanities with other fields. Potential topics for future activities include research in the humanities that relates to the learning sciences, that connects with other social sciences, or that bears on the performing arts.