Humanities and Other Modes of Human Inquiry

Humanities and Other Modes of Human Inquiry and Expression

• Define the term humanities

Humanities are a term that encompasses many individual study and sciences. There can be a two way classification of all human knowledge. First is the knowledge of the space around us, but not directly linked to humans. For example, the study of physics, botany or astronomy does not involve expressions from human emotion and nor do they reflect human behavior or needs. They are more or less functional knowledge that can be used as technical knowledge for building and creating things or understanding nature. They have specific rules, methods and human thoughts have no place in the system. For example, in classifying plants, the human feeling of the beauty of a rose has no meaning. On the other hand this knowledge has no meaning either unless the knowledge serves humans. (Austin, 2009)

But the humanities is an order that excludes this division to incorporate all other branches of study that relates to and stem from emotions and thought of humankind, scientific or otherwise. Yet the differentiation does not still give a complete picture and there is a struggle to define the term. Some definitions attempted included all subjects that deal with humans and expressions of everyday life. For example, according to the definition given by the Humanities Council of Washington, DC, "the humanities are the disciplines that help us understand and define cultures, and human experience, including history, anthropology, literature, art history, ethics, philosophy and jurisprudence." (Austin, 2009)

Again in a larger circle the Illinois Humanities Council describes 'humanities' includes study of language, literature, history, law and jurisprudence criticism, philosophy; archaeology; c religion; ethics; all the arts; and more importantly all the subjects that have some 'humanistic content and employ humanistic methods'. (Austin, 2009) Therefore as divided, all the fields that touch human existence or activity is humanistic study. There are multiple disciplines that are not connected with humanist views and definitions. But the line is thinning.

• Distinguish the humanities from other modes of human inquiry and expression

Humanities thus are a parcel of knowledge that has the human activities, thoughts and expressions, needs as its base; other sciences do not depend on these qualities for their study. For example an astronomical study of the planet Saturn and recording its data is purely scientific and it does not matter to humans whatever the results are. A human view on the planet -- as being the abode of the god of destiny for example -- is not relevant to the science of astronomy. However, it is pointed out that astronomy grew out of the wonder of astrology which is based on human feelings and intuitions -- which is more humanity based.

The difference is that while astronomy as impersonal science has verifiable parameters, humanistic studies do not have such boundaries. There are multiple disciplines that make up the spectrum of humanities. Humanities is the general method of understanding "normativity in the broadest sense; humanistic study leads to a textured, penetrating comprehension of diverse valuative matters and concerns." (Jacobs, 2009) This also is essential to understand the reality as it is, and appreciate the value of thought that is not centred on value creation alone. The part of study that research the humane side of things, even mundane things like manufacture will for example create a deep understanding of diverse kinds of significance of any activity to human beings.

• List a current example of each type of the following humanities and explain why each example you give reflects current developments in politics, socioeconomics, and technology:

Art is a result of a human expression that maybe created by the mind and the social setting in which the mind explores its emotions. Thus artistic expressions are the key to the human emotions. Thus the study of human behavior and humanity as a whole can begin with artistic expressions and the modern art-based research -- ABR has now become a part of the general social science research. (McNiffa, 2011) The fact that art has attained value and has its own codes have created value for it and as an example the proliferation of electronic media can be seen. Electronic media per se is not humanities. It is a pure science, and the gadgets and technology has however affected all human thought and expression in every branch of study. (MacKenzie; Wajcman, 1999)

Music has been around ever since the first ape beat rocks with his cudgel. But in the context of modern humanity, the electronic media has changed the perception of music and has paved way for experimentation. In other words pure science has created changes in the human perceptions and altered not only the content but also the mode of delivery. (MacKenzie; Wajcman, 1999)