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Humanities LibreTexts

Being Human: An Introduction to Western Culture (Shehorn)

  • Page ID
    222879

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    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.

    Thumbnail: Notre Dame grotesques at sunrise. (Unsplash License; Pedro Lastra via Unsplash)