Introduction to the Humanities Module 1 PDF

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Introduction to the Humanities Foundations of Humanities

Foundations of Humanities

A1693nauticalchartoftheAtlanticOceanbyPierreMortier(PublicDomain)

Learning Outcomes Aftercompletingthismodule,you'llbeableto: 1.Recognizekeyconceptsofthestudyofhumanities. 2.Explainhowthestudyofhumanitiesanswersquestionsabouthumandevelopmentandculture. 3.Describethedisciplineswithinthehumanities. 4.Recognizesharedthemesacrossthevarieddisciplinesinhumanities. 5.Differentiatebetweenperspectivesthroughoutglobalculturesofthehumanities. 6.Analyzetheconnectionbetweenhumanitiesandtoday'sworld. 7.Analyzeagivensubjectorworkthroughobjective,subjective,andcomparativemethods.

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What Are the Humanities? Key Concepts: What Are the Humanities? The word "humanities" is derived from the Latin term, humanitas, which essentially refers to humans and their culture. Thus to study the Humanities is to learn what it is to be human, not fromabiologicalsensebutfromaculturalsense. ThestudyofHumanitiesseekstounderstandwhathumansbelieveandwhy,alongwithwhatwe havebelievedinthepastandevenwhatwemightbelieveinthefuture. StudyingtheHumanitiesallowsustounderstandthepastasmorethanjustaseriesofevents.A pattern of human interactions within a rich context of beliefs, ideals, and experiences emerge whenwelookcloselyathowliteraryandartisticmovementsevolvedovertime. Bytakingmeasureofourpast,andlearningtoappreciateit,wecometoabetterunderstandingof ourownvaluesaswellasourbiases.Wecan,therefore,lookatourownlivesincontext. Theword"humanities"isderivedfromtheLatinterm, humanitas,whichessentiallyreferstohumans andtheirculture.ThustostudytheHumanitiesistolearnwhatitistobehuman,notfromabiological sensebutaculturalsense.Ourgoal,therefore,istobetterunderstandthehumancondition.Bystudying literature,music,language,philosophy,religion,history,andthearts,wecanachievethisgoal.While scientistsexplorethebiologyandchemistryofthehumanbody,andpsychologiststheworkingsofthe brainandthewaypeoplethink,thescholarofHumanitiesexplorestheexperienceofbeingahuman fromacultural,historical,andartisticperspective. Another way to look at the Humanities is that it is the study of human ideas. Scientific knowledge can explain howanillnessattacksthebody,andcertainprinciplesof businesscanpredictthepatternsoftheexchangeofgoods andservices.ThestudyofHumanities,however,seeksto understand what humans believe and why, along with what we have believed in the past and even what we might believe in the future. By studying beliefs and the ways such beliefs have been expressed through the arts, for instance, we gain a better understanding of human values. By studying the arts from various times and places,welearnaboutothercultures—theirdifferencesas wellastheirsimilarities.Suchstudies,therefore,allowus to be better citizens of our own societies, as well as the world.

YoungManBeforetheSevenLiberalArtsby SandroBotticelli,1484.(PublicDomain)

AnotherprimaryfunctionoftheHumanitiesistohelpuslearntothinkcriticallyandcreativelyabout thehumanexperience.StudyingtheHumanitiesallowsustounderstandthepastasmorethanjusta series of events. A pattern of human interactions within a rich context of beliefs, ideals, and experiencesemergewhenwelookcloselyathowliteraryandartisticmovementsevolvedovertime.In the same way that science can foster a healthier human body, the Humanities can better foster the humanmindandspirit. Itissaid,afterall,thatimaginationisnecessaryinordertounderstandandsympathizewithsomeone otherthanourownselves.Ifwecanunderstandsomethingaboutothercultures(orevenourown),we can imagine what it might be like to walk a mile in someone else's shoes. In fact, study of the Humanitiesoftentakestheformofaskingquestions.Whoisthepersonthatwrotethisstory,andwhat

wassheorhelike?Whatdoesthestorymeantousasreaders?Howis itthatwehavecometoholdthatmeaningasaculture?Whatdoesthis culturally defined meaning convey about our motives or goals? The aimistounderstandothersbetterandtoappreciateourfellowhuman beingsandultimatelybetterknowourselves. In the end, the Humanities can help us to understand why we think whatwethinkandbelievewhatwebelieve.Bytakingmeasureofour past,andlearningtoappreciateit,wecometoabetterunderstanding ofourownvaluesaswellasourbiases.Wecanlookatourownlives in context. Rather than a moment in time, or an idea isolated and singular,wecanenvisionourselvesaspartofapatternandmembers of a broad, global community. The study of the Humanities helps us understandthatweallsharetheconditionofbeinghuman.We share itscommonexperiences,itsjoysandsorrows,anditshopesandfears. Wecomprehendthatwearenotalone. OedipusandAntigoneby AntoniBrodowski,1828. (PublicDomain)

For our purpose, we will define the Humanities as a study of the various ways people,inalltimespastandpresentandinallplacesaround the world, live out the human experience. Humans have engaged in religion, philosophy, literature, music, art, language,andhistorytobettercomprehendanddescribeour world. When we explore these subjects, various windows open before us, and we practice consilience. Consilience is StacksofWheat(EndofSummer)by the art and science of exploring the overlaps of what are ClaudeMonet,1897.(PublicDomain) oftenconsideredquitedifferentsubjects,suchasthescience and Humanities, in search of commonalities and places of agreement. By understanding how these subjects overlap, we are able to see a broader, wellrounded picture of humanity.Additionally, it is importanttoseehowthesedifferentsubjectsinfluenceoneanother.

Video: Studying the Humanities Why Study the Humanities?

Key Concepts: Why Study the Humanities? WhatisthevalueofstudyingtheHumanitiesinauniversitysetting? Aconsiderationofliterature,art,music,dance,filmandphilosophyofferspractical,social,and aestheticbenefitstostudents. Exploringthecontinuingquestionsaddressedbymenandwomenthroughouttheagesthroughthe vehicleoftheartsshoulddeepenandenrichourcurrentexistence.

There are many reasons why students may study art, but what is the relevance of studying the Humanities?Watchthefollowingvideotohelpanswerthisquestion.

WhyStudytheHumanities? Whatisthevalueofstudyingthehumanitiesinauniversitysetting? Aconsiderationofliterature,art,music,dance,filmandphilosophyofferspractical,social,and aestheticbenefitstostudents. Weliveinaglobaleconomy.Studyingthehumanitiescanhelpusdevelopabetterunderstanding of other cultures and world views. By considering what it means to live the good life, we can become better citizens. We can sharpen our ability to analyze and to think creatively and constructivelybyourstudyofthehumanities.Theseareskillsingreatdemandbyemployersin today'sinformationage. There are other benefits to studying the humanities. We can better understand human relationships.Exploringthehumanconditionandhowpeoplethroughouthistoryhavefacedthe challengesoflifecanhelpuswhenwefaceourownchallenges. Studyingthehumanitiesconnectsustotheenduringartisticexpressionandtraditionsofthepast. WeencounterBeethoven,ShakespeareandMichelangelothegreatartistsandbrilliantmindsof the past. We can see the connections between past and presentbetween the tribal rhythms of AfricaandthejazzmusicoftheNewWorld. Throughthisstudy,wemaybeinspiredbyourdiscoveryofnewworksofart.Wemayfindour perceptionsenhancedandourvaluesclarifiedbycomparingandcontrastingthemtowhatothers have thought. We may find our spirit awakened by the beauty and grace of the music, art, and literatureweencounter. Exploringthecontinuingquestionsaddressedbymenandwomenthroughouttheagesthroughthe vehicle of the arts should deepen and enrich our current existence. In the end, we should feel inspiredandelevatedbyourconsiderationoftheworld'sbrilliantandenduringartisticendeavors.

Studying Humanities Chronologically Chronology(fromLatinchronologia,fromAncientGreekχρόνος,chronos,"time";andλογία,logia) isdefinedasamethodoftakingeventsandputtingthemintheorderofoccurrence.Inthestudyofthe Humanities,achronologicaltimelineoralistingofthesequenceofeventsallowsustoseeconnections betweencauseandeffect.Inotherwords,whenweareabletotraceoneeventbacktoanother,orto extrapolateoutofoneeventaneventwhichfollows,wearebetterabletoseethesourceofaseriesof events.

Video Commentary: A Progression of Periods AProgressionofPeriods KeithKelly Scholars and academics often throw around the names of particular time periods and particular movements, like the Ancient Period, the Medieval, the Romantic, Modernas if these things meantalottotheaverageperson,otherthanjustbeingasetofdates.Forinstance,theMiddle Agesrunsfrom500to1500,roughly,butwhatdoesthatmeanandhowisitthatscholarschoose toidentifytheseperiodsasbeingdifferentfromoneanother? Sometimestherearesimplydateboundariesmarkingkeyeventsorkeychangesintheworld,but alotoftimesthere arerealdifferencesbetweenthem.WhenwetalkabouttheAncientPeriod, we'rereallytalkingaboutthebeginningsofrecordedhumanhistoryuntilthefallofRomeinthe 5thcentury.Thisisamassiveswathoftime,obviously,andincludesthingslikeancientEgyptian text,theEpicofGilgameshfromBabylon,thewritingsoftheAkkadian,theSumeriansitreally isabroadperiod,soscholarsoftenidentifytheClassicalPeriodaswell,whichisreallytheheight ofGreeceandRomefromaboutthe8thcenturyBCE,again,tothefallofRome.Thisiswhatwe thinkofwhenwetalkabouttheriseofdemocracy,writerslikeSophoclesandEuripides,Plato, Socrates,AeneasinRome,theriseofChristianitythisiswhatismeantbytheClassicalPeriod, andalsotheideaofClassicalHumanism,whichisreallyimportanttothestudyoftheHumanities. TheMiddleAges,ortheMedievalPeriod,picksupafterRomefalls,andyoucouldargueRome fellin476whenthelastemperorwasdeposed,anditrunsthroughthe15thcentury.Andthis,of course,isthetimeoffeudalism,chivalry,courtlyromance,bigevolutionsintheEnglishlanguage, forinstancemanyofthethingsthatweassociatewiththeMiddleAges,asitisoneofthebetter knownperiods. FollowingtheMiddleAgesistheRenaissance,whichliterallymeans"rebirth,"andittiesitself backtotheClassicalPeriodasarebirthofClassicalwaysofthinking,arebirthofClassicaltexts andtheirpopularity,anditsownbrandofRenaissancehumanism. TheRenaissancebeginsinEuropeanywherefromthe14thcenturytothe15th,16th,depending onwhereyoulook.It'susuallyidentifiedasstartinginItalyandthenitspreadsacrosstherestof Europe.TheRenaissance,ofcourse,isassociatedwithart,withrisesinliteracy,and,ofcourse, writerslikeShakespeare. FollowingtheRenaissanceistheEnlightenmentperiod,ortheNeoclassicalperiod.Therearelots ofdifferentnamesforthese,andsomeofthemI'mnoteventalkingaboutbecausescholarsliketo breakthingsdownintominutiaeagainandagain,soI'msortofhittingthebigperiods. TheEnlightenmentPeriodisbasicallythe18thcentury,andthisistheriseofreason,thisisthe rise of democracy in the United States, writers like Benjamin Franklin, writers like Jonathan Swift,writinginthisperiodoftheNeoclassicalandEnlightenmentEra. The Romantic Era follows the Enlightenment Era as really a reaction to it, as most of these periodsinsomewaysarereactionstotheonesbeforeit.So,forinstance,theMiddleAgeswas tryingtorecoverfromthefallofRome,theRenaissancewastryingtorecapturethegloryofthe ClassicalEra,theEnlightenmentPeriodisariseinreasonandration,insomewaysfreeingitself, orfreeingpeopleintheirminds,fromthesuperstitionsoftheMiddleAgesandtheRenaissance, andthepowerofreligioninthoseperiods.

TheRomantic,whichfollowstheEnlightenment,isbasicallyacounterEnlightenmentmovement. The Romantic poets like Keats and Wordsworth, writers like Sir Walter Scott, looked at the EnlightenmentPeriod asbeingdevoid ofemotion,dull, anduninspiring,and lackinginbeauty, andsotheRomanticPeriodisarecoveryofthislevelofexcitement.Italsohearkensbackinsome waystotheMiddleAges,wheretheseRomanticwritersfoundalotofmaterialandinspiration. TheVictorianErafollowstheRomantic,andit'sbasicallythelasttwothirdsofthe19thcentury, orbasicallythereignofQueenVictoria.Obviously,it'saperiodassociatedwithEnglandinthat way. Here we see the rise of the novel, not necessarily its invention, but its rise in terms of popularity and production. We see more and more women writers, and more and more people readingacrossallclasses. Realism,ortheRealisticPeriod,andit'sreallyamovementtheRealismmovementfollowsthe Victorianandit'sreallythelate19thandearly20thcentury.Thisisaperiodthatreallytriesto lookatthegrittyrealityintermsofartandwritingandescapessomeofthefancy,andflightsof fancy,oftheRomanticEraoreventhekindofhighblownadventuresandconceptslookedatin theVictorianEra. Then we get to the Modern Era, though this is an odd title because some scholars will say the Modern Era is basically anything from the Renaissance onthough when we talk about Modernism, we're talking about the first half of the 20th century, roughly.And this is a period defined by a way of looking at things that tries to get away from set meanings, and these big themes,andlookmorecloselyatthehumanmindandsomeoftheconceptsofcharacterlikewe seeinF.ScottFitzgerald,TheGreatGatsby,andthesekindsofthings. Whichbringsustothelasthalfofthe20thcentury,whichiscalledthePostmodernEraIguess wehaven'treallycomeupwithagoodnameforityetandit'sreallyhardtodefineinmanyways because we're so close to it. Basically it's an era that throws away, or sets aside, much of the meaning of these past eras and tries to find its own discursive and various ways of looking at things.NowthePostmodernEraissupposedtobeovernow,whichleavesusinanerathatwe haven'tevennamed.Wecertainlycan'tcallitthePostPostmodern,buteventuallyscholarswill comeupwithanamefortheerainwhichwearetoday.

Dr.A.KeithKellyearnedhisPh.D.atSaintLouisUniversity,wherehespecializedinmedieval literatureandlanguage,particularlyOldNorse.HealsoholdsanM.A.fromtheMedievalInstitute ofWesternMichiganUniversityandgraduatedfromMiddleburyCollege. Dr.Kellyhaspublishedarticlesonvariousworksofmedievalliterature,including Beowulf, The CanterburyTales,Egil'sSagaandSirGawainandtheGreenKnight.Hehasalsopublishedonthe worksofJ.R.R.TolkienandonthevariouswaysthattheMiddleAgesareportrayedinfilm.Heis atranslatorofOldNorseworks,andenjoysmakingthemavailabletoawiderrangeofreaders. Dr.KellycurrentlyteachesliteratureandlinguisticsatGeorgiaGwinnettCollege,whereheisan AssociateProfessorofEnglish.

Itishardtosayexactlywhenoneperiodormovementendedandanotherbegan.Oftentimes,periods overlap. Review the timeline below to get a good sense of when each chronological period occurs. Notethatthistimelineillustratesgeneraldesignationsforperiodsandmovementsrelatedtoliterature andtheartsandthatthedatesforeachoneareapproximate.

Video Commentary: Technology and the Humanities

Technology alone is not enough—it's technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing." —SteveJobs,introducingtheiPad2in2011

Agoodexample ofhow lookingat theHumanities chronologicallycan behelpful isto considerthe developmentofdifferenttechnologiesovertime,especiallythosetechnologiesthathaddrasticimpacts on how a large number of people live their everyday lives. Watch the following video to see an exampleofthreetechnologiesthathadthiskindofimpactandconsiderhowseeingthechronologyof thesetechnologiesplayoutmighthelpusunderstand,evenmore,theirculturalimportance.

TheThreeInventionsthatChangedtheWorld KeithKelly Throughout human history there have been many inventions that have come and gonemany discoveriessomemoreimpactfulthanothers.Threeinventionsthatalteredthewaythatwelive, andthewaythatwegoaboutourbusiness,aretheprintingpress,electricity,andtheInternet. Now,somemightarguethattherearemoreimportantinventions;forinstance,someonesuggested to me that gun powder was an important invention that really had an impact, but I told them, "Well,itdidn'treallythechangethewayorthechangethethingsthatwediditsimplychanged thewaywedidthem."Humanshavebeenkillingeachotherforcenturies,gunpowderjustsimply madeiteasiertodothat,sothatwasoneoftheprimarycriteriathatIchose. The printing pressthe printing press, while it was invented originally in the 11th century in Chinaasimple,moveabletypepressitdidn'treallycometoEuropeandtotheWesternworld until1450,whenGutenberginventedhispressinGermany.Now,theprintingpresshadahuge impactonthedisseminationofinformation.Priortothis,theproductionofmanuscriptswastime consuming and extremely expensive. The printing press allowed for manuscripts, such as the Bible, such as materials that pushed along the Protestant reformation, to be produced in mass numbers.ItchangedliteracyinEurope.Beforetheprintingpress,readingwasreallytheprovince ofthewealthyandtheeducated.Thepressmadeitsothatmany,manymorepeopleincluding therisingmiddleclassintheMiddleAgescouldread. In1476itcametoEngland,andthefirsttextthatCaxtonprintedonhispresswasTheCanterbury Tales,whichwasthenprinteddozensanddozensoftimes.ThereweresometextsinGermanythat wereprintedtensofthousandsoftimes.So,theamountofmaterial,andtheaccess,broughtabout bytheprintingpresscannotbeunderestimated. Thesecond,ofcourse,iselectricityandthischanged,drasticallychanged,thewaythatwelive. Now,electricityisnotreallyaninventionbecauseithasbeenaroundforalongtime.Asamatter offact,inancientEgypttheyknewaboutelectriceelsandknewaboutcharges,soreallyit'sabit moreofadiscoverythananinvention,butlet'ssay,forinstance,theinventionofthelightbulbby ThomasEdisonoralternatingor...