Definition Of Humanities As An Academic Discipline

Your Name
Humanities
HUMA 1301
Professor
University/College
Definition of Humanities
Introduction
A search for the definition of humanities on Google using different search terms yields different results. In my search, I used the following search terms, “Humanities Defined”, “Humanities Explained”, “Humanities As An Academic Discipline”, and “What is Humanities”. Each term returned different results. For instance, when I searched using “Humanities Defined” Google search returned only a single result. When I searched using “Humanities Explained”, A few results came up even though only two sources contained useful information. After conducting the search, various definitions obtained were compared. Although the study of humanities is as old as mankind, the definition of the term remains ambiguous as there is a dearth of sources on the correct definition of the term. In this paper, I attempt to define the term from a personal perspective, and objectively based on the sources listed in the works cited section.
2.0 What is Humanities?
Humanities comprise all disciplines that study human society as well as culture (SU, 2017). According to this source, humanities are particularly concerned with the study of nature and social sciences. However, during the renaissance period, humanities were associated with divinity studies, now days referred to as classics. The study of humanities is exploratory and either critical or speculative. Reason being that it has a historical component and does not employ the largely empirical methods used in other sciences. What contrasts humanities from other academic disciplines is the fact that it does not have a central discipline. According to Wikipedia (2017) humanities is broadly comprised of other minor disciplines such as, “ancient and modern languages, literature, philosophy, geography, history, religion, art and musicology”(Wikipedia, 2017). Humanities can also be defined as a collection of subjects that study human constructs as well as concerns. What distinctly differentiates humanities from other disciplines is its largely investigative and speculative nature (CSU, 2017). Therefore humanities comprise of “…classical and modern languages, literature, history and philosophy”(CSU, 2017). Another confusing fact about humanities is that while some define it as purely construct oriented, other definitions incorporate all fine and general arts such as music and drama. Therefore there is lack of clarity on the definition of humanities.
3.0 Humanities As An Academic Discipline
People who have devoted themselves to study humanities are referred to as “Humanity Scholars”, while the act of studying humanities is referred to as “humanism”. (Bod, 2013). According to CSU (2017), humanities are fundamentally concerned with ‘exploration’ and ‘explanation’. The field of humanities attempts to explore and explain historical human experiences. My research established that the definition of humanities varies largely on the inclusion of fine arts as there is scholarly disagreement as to whether or not arts is a separate academic discipline, distin...