Upon asking three of my acquaintances the following question, “What are the humanities, and why should we study them?”, I received the following responses:
“Nobody asks questions like that in real life, but to answer you, we study the humanities to preserve the culture that humanity has become and has developed into over time. If we are where we are, it’s because we stand on the shoulders of giants.”
-Jeremiah, a white 25 year old male at the University of Florida, majoring in business and going to work at BMW this upcoming summer. Was a seminarian for the priesthood for 3 years before coming to university.
“Humanities are liberal arts that help us to focus on global cultures. It’s important but I don’t know why; music and whatever is important. I don’t know.”
-Elizabeth, a white 15 year old female who aspires to major in history at UF.
“The humanities, in general, are the study of humans, our past and our present. We should study humanities for multiple reason; to better understand our culture as it evolved through art, religion, war, social changes, etc., and to understand past failures and successes to better our future.”
-Sean, a white 49 year old male who went to UF and majored in construction management.
These responses, when interpreted in relation to the video published by the New Hampshire Humanities Council, coincide with trends found in the video. Older, more educated individuals, have a deeper understanding of the meaning of the humanities and the importance that they place upon them, as Sean’s response displayed. Younger and less educated persons, such as Elizabeth, have a grasp as to what the concept of humanities is, but cannot accurately describe it or its significance. However, taking the general public as a whole, most people do not have an understanding of what the humanities are nor why we should study them.
The humanities, broadly defined as a whole, are the branches of knowledge concerned with human thought and culture, which can include the studies of language, history, literature, civics, philosophy, ethics, jurisprudence, religion, anthropology, and archaeology, as stated by the Minnesota Humanities Center’s What Are The Humanities?. Despite the public mentality that obtaining a degree in humanities will get you nowhere, Landy proves quite the contrary in his address to college freshman; that indeed there are many wealthy and successful people today who studied humanities in university, including actor Sigourney Weaver and Nextag manager Brian Bird (Landy, “In Defense of Humanities”). In our modern world today, humanities not only serves as a cultural balance to the increasing influence of secular science and technology in our society, but also as a huge potential for self-development and realization about the deeper meaning of life and existence here on earth. John Horgan eloquently states that “they keep us from being trapped by our own desire for certainty.”
In my personal life, I have not had much academic experience with the humanities, except for taking AP World and United States History, of which I remember nothing of except that I got 5’s on the AP exams for them. However, outside of the classroom, I have participated in theatre all throughout my 4 years of high school, have been in chorus since I was 8 years old, and took ballet until I was 9 and realized that I was a foot taller than all the other little midgets in my class and decided to leave.
I truly enjoy the arts for what they stand for and what they are- an expression of human culture and history throughout time, expressed in interpretive dance, music, theatre, and works of art. Choral music (ethnic, sacred, and classical) especially has been important to me throughout my life; it has been a defining characteristic of my life as a unifying force between peoples of all beliefs and backgrounds, and truly has the power to change lives through its sound.
Works Cited
- Horgan, John. "Why Study Humanities? What I Tell Engineering Freshmen." Scientific American. Scientific American Blog Network, 20 June 2013. Web. 6 Jan. 2016.
- In Defense Of Humanities. Dir. John Landy. Perf. John Landy. Stanford University,
Youtube, 2010. Film.
- What Are the Humanities? Minnesota Humanities Center, 2009. Film.
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