Humanities

Humanities are academic disciplines that study human culture.

Quotes

• Social science and humanities … have a mutual contempt for one another, the former looking down on the latter as unscientific, the latter regarding the former as philistine. … The difference comes down to the fact that social science really wants to be predictive, meaning that man is predictable, while the humanities say that he is not.
  • Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (New York: 1988), p. 357

• There is a noticeable general difference between the sciences and mathematics on the one hand, and the humanities and social sciences on the other. It's a first approximation, but one that is real. In the former, the factors of integrity tend to dominate more over the factors of ideology. It's not that scientists are more honest people. It's just that nature is a harsh taskmaster. You can lie or distort the story of the French Revolution as long as you like, and nothing will happen. Propose a false theory in chemistry, and it'll be refuted tomorrow.
  • Noam Chomsky (1992) in Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent, July 22, 1992 [1]

• What do you believe was on the mind of the ancient Romans that they called the arts of speaking humanity? They judged that, indisputably, by the study of these disciplines not only was the tongue refined, but also the wildness and barbarity of people’s minds was amended.
  • Philip Melanchthon, Praise of Eloquence (1523), p. 66

• If the passion for truthfulness is merely controlled and stilled without being satisfied, it will kill the activities it is supposed to support. This may be one of the reasons why, at the present time, the study of the humanities runs a risk of sliding from professional seriousness, through professionalization, to a finally disenchanted careerism.
  • Bernard Williams, Truth and Truthfulness (2002)

See also

• Art
• Culture
• History
• Humanity
• Liberal arts

• Liberal education
• Literature
• Philosophy
• Religion
• List of humanities disciplines