What do the humanities mean to you?

academics 2:06 What do the humanities mean to you?

By:

Leslie King

27 Jan 2022 515

The humanities have many different meanings. To help understand the nuances and all that the humanities encompass, several faculty members and students in the Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences weigh in on the topic with diverse thoughts ranging from wacky humans to Socrates.

If you ask probably ten people who work in the humanities, what the humanities are, you're going to get 10 different answers. And I think the reality behind why that is, is simply is that it's the study of human beings. And human beings are messy and complicated. And they do weird things and they do wonderful things. I fervently believe in the absolutely vital importance of the humanities. Not only do they impart crucial analytical and communication skills, but they also make us ask hard questions. How do we create a society we want to live in? How did our world become the way? What about the future of democracy? The humanities are important to making moral decisions about what we want the future to look like in the process, we learn about power, beauty, chains, and also ways to press on. Socrates said, the unexamined life is not worth living. And ultimately the humanities are all about that. How to live a human life? And really ultimately grappling with that big question, what does it all mean? I think that math and science is super important, but we can't become a team and we can't become the silt humans without working with each other and learning more about each other. Humanities. They started with humans. It's in, it's in the name. And with the humanities, we try to bring together the widest range of human disciplines. The humanities gives us hope. And I believe that's why there