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Humanities
University
Introduction to the Bachelor's Degree in Humanities. Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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What you need to know
Read the full theory →Definition, evolution, and methodology of the humanities
- Definition: Disciplines that study culture, society, thought, and art.
- Differentiation: They are distinguished from social sciences and human sciences by their ideographic character.
- Ideographic character: The study of particularities without creating general laws.
- Origin: Studia humanitatis (Renaissance) defined in opposition to divine letters.
- Western canon: Based on Greco-Roman Antiquity; criticized for biases such as Eurocentrism.
- Scientificity: Debate over whether they seek laws or an approach to the human condition via philology and hermeneutics.
- Disciplines included: Philosophy, law, sociology, anthropology, political science, philology, history, geography, art studies, communication, theology, and religion.
- Terms: Humanities scholars or humanists (also a philosophical position of humanism).
- Main methods: Comparative method, hermeneutics, source criticism, aesthetic interpretation, and speculative reason.
- Etymology: Studia humanitatis included grammar, poetry, rhetoric, history, and moral philosophy.
- Liberal arts: Trivium (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music).
- Evolution: From practical skills (Middle Ages) to theoretical subjects of study (Renaissance).
- Postmodernist critique: Questions the non-democratic origins of Greek and Roman humanities.
Definition and foundations of the Human Sciences and thought
- Human sciences: study of human origin, structure, functioning, and behavior.
- Physical anthropology: contributions on the evolutionary origin of modern humans.
- Anatomy: founded in Alexandria around 300 B.C.
- Physiology: origins in 1598 with William Harvey.
- Moral sciences: an 18th-century term referring to psychology.
- Human sciences: emerged in the 19th century under scientific rationality (Foucault).
- Spiritual sciences: Wilhelm Dilthey's term for the study of the historical-cultural environment.
- Constructivism: a theory seeking to integrate matter (science) and spirit (religion).
- Humanities: disciplines that study thought and language as means of self-awareness.
- Cognitive science: origin in the study of thought and language as cognition.
- Shared intelligences: language and mathematics as systems of cultural meaning (Gardner).
- Loops of the human condition (Morin): brain-mind-culture, reason-affect-impulse, individual-society-species.
- Classical culture: the study of Greek, Latin, and Greco-Roman cultures.
- History: the study and interpretation of the human record through time.
- Linguistics: the scientific study of language (can be a social, natural, or cognitive science).
- Literature: the core of the modern humanities, encompassing prose, poetry, and drama.
Definitions and Foundations of Law, Literature, and Philosophy
- Law: system of norms, interpretive concept, authority, or sovereign mandate
- Law: social science (objectivity) vs. humanities discipline (values)
- Legal policy: integration of philosophy, history, economics, and social sciences
- Economic law: impact on contracts, property, civil liability, and productivity
- Literature: works with literary merit or language distinct from the ordinary
- Etymology of literature: 'writing formed with letters' (includes spoken/sung texts)
- Literary classification: fiction/non-fiction, poetry/prose, novel, short story, drama
- Philosophy: critical and systematic study of existence, truth, justice, beauty, and knowledge
- Current fields of philosophy: logic, ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology
- Analytic philosophy: emphasis on mathematical logic, conceptual analysis, and formal methods
Fundamental concepts and classification of religions
- Religion: considered a social science with non-universal definitions
- Community: religion is characterized by being social and using rituals of unity
- Ethics: not a religious requirement (e.g., Shintoism and Taoism do not have ethical codes)
- Supernatural: phenomena unexplainable by science or reason (includes magical thinking)
- Myths: didactic narratives to understand the human situation
- Key concepts: pollution/purification, sacred/profane, sacred texts, institutions, sacrifice, and prayer
- Fundamental problems: chaos, suffering, evil, and death
- Non-founding religions: Hinduism, Shintoism, and native/popular religions
- Founding religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, Taoism, Mormonism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and the Bahá'í Faith
- Adaptation: religions must change to remain relevant; a failure to address new concerns leads to the emergence of new religions
Flashcard preview (6 of 20)
- 01
Etymology of 'humanities' (Renaissance Latin):
studia humanitatis
- 02
In the Renaissance, what defined the human letters in opposition to the divine letters?
The humanities
- 03
What character is attributed to humanistic disciplines regarding the creation of general laws?
Ideographic character
- 04
In the 15th century, what subjects composed the studia humanitatis course?
Grammar, poetry, rhetoric, history, and moral philosophy
- 05
Methods used in the humanities in addition to the comparative method:
Hermeneutics, source criticism, aesthetic interpretation, and speculative reason
- 06
According to Michel Foucault, in which century did the human sciences emerge under a model of scientific rationality?
19th Century
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