Skip to main content
Humanities LibreTexts

Humanities

  • Page ID
    92828
  • \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

    Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the time. Today, the humanities are more frequently defined as any fields of study outside of professional training, mathematics, and the natural and sometimes social sciences.

    • Introduction to Humanities 1e (Larsen)
      mindtouch.page#thumbnail
      This text is an introductory survey of the genres and themes of the humanities. The material focuses on philosophy, religion, language, and the arts. As themes, the ideas of freedom, love, happiness, death, nature, and myth are be explored. Typically, a study of humanities looks at western philosophers, maybe a few of the world religions, a history of western music and western visual arts. This textbook begins to break down the barriers of limiting ourselves to learning about western humanities.
    • Introduction to Humanities 2e (Larsen)
      mindtouch.page#thumbnail
      This course is an introductory survey of the genres and themes of the humanities. Readings, lectures, and class discussions will focus on genres such as music, the visual arts, drama, literature, and philosophy. As themes, the ideas of freedom, love, happiness, death, nature, and myth may be explored from a western and non-western point of view.
    • Being Human: An Introduction to Western Culture (Shehorn)
      mindtouch.page#thumbnail
      The humanities are branches of study focused on culture, values, and other ways that humans express themselves, like literature, art, history, philosophy, and religion. The idea of the humanities originates in Greece with paideia, or general education beginning with the Sophists in the fifth century BCE. The goal of these studies was to prepare young men to be good and active citizens and Cicero’s humanitas, which prepared young men to be orators.


    Humanities is shared under a CC BY-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

    • Was this article helpful?