Ideas of the Humanities
Brief Definitions
1) The Humanities
consist of Literature, the Fine Arts, Philosophy and History
2) Major humanities works must:
address themselves to a general
audience;
manifest excellence in style;
express significant ideas about
the human mind and society.
3) Humanities is the history
of ideas
4) "The best that has
been thought and said" (Matthew Arnold)
5) Humanities is the integrative
study of society, ideas, and the arts
6) Humanistic study integrates
understandings of aesthetic, intellectual,
and moral value that are inherent in the works of
human culture
The classic 1964 essay by A.S.P. Woodhouse, as it
appeared in the 1964 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica
From Ersamus's De Ratione Studii (published
in 1511) on how to teach, and how NOT to teach, the humanities
Three Poems About Teaching Humanities
"Your're majoring in Humanities? Um....what's that? And what can you do
with it?"