Part One: Humanities is an umbrella term used to describe a subset of studies. However, there is not an easy and definitive way to define them. For me, humanities is like a huge filing cabinet full of documents. These documents are not math problems that have only a right answer and they are not science problems that can be solved using a hypothesis. Humanities test the boundaries of human knowledge and create new limits. One of the key quotes from During that help with this ideology is, “The humanities work as an archive which continually throws up ‘monuments’ – works worthy of commentary- but no less continually demotes them”. Classes taught within the humanities division are left open to interpretation. Two people can have differing answers, yet they are both correct with their findings. That is unlike the STEM programs where an exactly correct answer needs to be provided at all times. Bod says, “In English, humanities can refer both to the study of the products of the human mind and to these products themselves” (4). This would be similar to During’s explanation of what exactly humanities study. However, once again it is not a clear cut answer. The only thing that muddies my understanding of humanities is the division between nations. Do different countries and cultures have a varying definition of humanities? Both articles touched on the topic, but it is still unclear to me. Perhaps America’s definition of humanities could differ from other countries because of our history in America.
Part Two: The humanities cannot be defined. They are a subset of differing topics to understand human knowledge of the mind and the value behind it. Humanities is reliant on interpretation and does not have one clear answer for questions or essays. The foundation for humanities is history but it’s about pushing the boundaries between science and the supernatural. During states, “Their [humanities] will to interpret meets the requirements of truthfulness nonetheless because, in the humanities, the difference between one interpretation and another is not that one is true and the other is false but that both are true…” There is no definitive way to describe or explain humanities in one specific genre, but instead focus on its expandability through interpretation and knowledge.
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