CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION TO HUMANITIES
From the time immemorial man has puzzled over the meaning of his existence.
What am I? Why am I here in this world? Where do I go from here? Through the ages,
many attempts have been made to answer these questions. Attempts are done by great
thinkers and yet even now it seems man has not yet found the definite answers to what
he really is. The more man is puzzled of his existence, especially with the emergence of
cyber technology.
To better understand what is to be human, we need to study humanity. But to do
this, we obviously cannot depend on direct contacts with fellow humans. Our lifetime is
too short and naturally confined to a limited set of people, places and event. Thus, we
need to reach out to other people of different cultures in different times and places.
This encounter will make us humanized and this is made possible through studying
humanities.
The Humanities and the Sciences
The humanities are distinct from the sciences, which deals with the external
world of man, as well as facets of man’s being that can be subjected to observation,
measurement, and experimentation. The sciences enable man to understand and
control nature to harness its energy to make his life comfortable.
The humanities on the other hand, deal with man’s internal world – with his
personality and experiences, matters cannot be exactly measured, classified, or
controlled. For this reason, the study of the humanities cannot be as precise nor as well-
structured and uniform as the study of biology or physics. The humanities approach is
subjective; it makes use of perception, feeling, intuition and insight (Oritz, 1988).
There is also different between humanities and the social sciences. While both
are concerned with man, the focus of the humanities is on man as an individual. In the
social sciences, the main interest is on type and groups of human beings, and on the
institutions and processes of society.
Man needs an image of himself, an understanding of his nature. Through words,
tones, mass, line, color, or design, the arts provide man with a measure of his own
passion and desires, his relation with other men and his environment, as well as his
potentials. Both the sciences and the humanities are necessary for the development of
the complete, social man, ready to take on his responsibilities in this rapidly changing
world and to enjoy life as he lives it.
As Dudley, et a., 2008 put it: The humanities engage both our intellectual and our intuitive
emotional selves… and this sets them apart from those areas which aim at being rigid, empirical,
objective, and factual. Delight and pleasure in the arts can arise from casual sensualism in the aural,
tactile, or visual experiences they evoke. But the knowledge of how the artworks which afford us these
pleasures come into being, the understanding of the artist’s use of a medium in making a personal
statement, and the sharing of that experience – these deepen and broaden our enjoyment at both the
level of understanding and the level of feeling.
Meaning and Nature of Humanities
Broadly speaking, humanities are records of man’s quest for answers to the
fundamental questions he asks about himself and about life. The content of the
humanities is anything that is inherently human – man’s experiences, his values, his
sentiments, his ideals, his goals. The humanities is therefore, expressions of man’s
feelings and thoughts.
The term “humanities” was first applied to the writings of ancient Latin authors
which were read not only for their clarity of language and forceful literary style, but
also, and more specially, for their moral teaching. The term is derived from Latin word
“humanus” – meaning human, refined, and cultured. Humanus is a man who is
educated, practices appropriate conduct, and embraces its culture and respects the
world. Humanities is based on the Philosophical view of humanism, which stresses the
dictum of Protagoras, that “man is the measure of all things”, which implying that the
humanities emphasizes the dignity and the worthiness of man and recognizes man’s
creative expressions (Estolas, 1996).
During the Medieval Age, the humanities dealt with the metaphysics of the
religious philosopher. The goal was the cultivation of the spiritual life and the
preparation for the hereafter. In the Renaissance, the word came to refer to the set of
disciplines taught in the universities, which included grammar, rhetoric, history,
literature, music, philosophy, and theology – a body of knowledge aimed to make man
“human, cultured, and refined”. This developed from the concept which recognized
man’s essential worth and capacity for self-advancement in this world (Estolas, 1996).
HUMANITIES
Arts and Music
Philosophy
Literature History
Religious Studies
In our century, the humanities serve to provide students with certain skills and
values through arts. Instruction places his area of specialization within the boarder
perspective of the human condition and ideal as imaginatively rendered in painting,
sculpture, architecture, photography, dance drama, and cinema, as well as in the
traditional components of the humanities.
The humanities thus, provide more than just an appreciation of what is “the true,
the good, and the beautiful”, concepts which vary from age to age, from country to
country. They are aimed to shape the student’s subjective energies (his feelings,
attitudes, and aspirations) in accordance with a particular view of the social world in
which he dreams, acts, and fulfills himself. The view about man and his world changes
and so too the content and direction of the humanities; but in all cases, their principal
task remains the same, which is to make man conscious and critical of, and sensitive and
responsive to the norms and hopes of his society.
As aptly put by one writer: …if man is to live a human being, his heart and mind
must be nourished. And the best spiritual nourishment comes from the Humanities
(Estolas, et al., 2008).
