The philosopher Plato

The humanities are academic disciplines which study the human condition, using methods that are largely analytic, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural and social sciences. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece The human condition encompasses all of the Experience of being Human. A central concept in Science and the Scientific method is that all Evidence must be empirical, or empirically based that is dependent on evidence In Science, the term natural science refers to a naturalistic approach to the study of the Universe, which is understood as obeying rules or law of The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including Anthropology, Communication studies

Examples of the disciplines related to humanities are ancient and modern languages, literature, history, philosophy, religion, visual and performing arts (including music). A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos The visual arts are art forms that focus on the creation of works which are primarily Visual in nature such as Painting, Photography The performing arts are those forms of Art which differ from the Plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own Body, Face and presence Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Additional subjects sometimes included in the humanities are anthropology, area studies, communications and cultural studies, although these are often regarded as social sciences. Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of In the Humanities and Social sciences, area studies are Interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship pertaining to a particular geographical Communication studies is an Academic field that deals with processes of communication commonly defined as the sharing of Symbols over distances in space and time Cultural studies is an academic discipline which combines Political economy, Communication, Sociology, Social theory, Literary theory Scholars working in the humanities are sometimes described as "humanists". However, that term also describes the philosophical position of humanism, which some "antihumanist" scholars in the humanities reject. Humanism is a broad category of ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal Antihumanism is a term applied to a number of thinkers critical of values and beliefs originating in the Enlightenment.

Humanities fields

Classics

Main article: Classics

Bust of Homer, a Greek poet

The classics, in the Western academic tradition, refer to cultures of classical antiquity, namely the Ancient Greek and Roman cultures. "Classical literature" redirects here For literature in Classical languages outside the Graeco-Roman sphere see Ancient literature. Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Western culture (sometimes equated with Western Civilization) are terms which are used to refer to Cultures of European origin Classical antiquity (also the classical era or classical period) is a broad term for a long period of cultural History centered on the Mediterranean The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC Classical study was formerly considered one of the cornerstones of the humanities, but the classics declined in importance during the 20th century. The twentieth century of the Common Era began on Nevertheless, the influence of classical ideas in humanities such as philosophy and literature remain strong.

More broadly speaking, the "classics" are the foundational writings of the earliest major cultures of the world. In other major traditions, classics would refer to the Vedas and Upanishads in India, the writings attributed to Confucius, Lao-tse and Chuang-tzu in China, and writings such as the Hammurabi Code and the Gilgamesh Epic from Mesopotamia, as well as the Egyptian Book of the Dead. "Veda" redirects here For other uses see Veda (disambiguation. The Upanishads ( Devanagari: उपनिषद् IAST: upaniṣad also spelled "Upanisad" are Hindu scriptures that constitute the core teachings Confucius ( lit " Master Kung " September 28, 551 BC - 479 BC) was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher Laozi ( also Lao Tse, Lao-Tzu, Laotze, Lao Zi, Laocius, and other variations was a philosopher of ancient For the book with the same name see Zhuangzi (book Zhuangzi ( was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th The Code of Hammurabi ( Codex Hammurabi) is the best-preserved ancient Law code, created ca The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Ancient Mesopotamia and is among the earliest known works of literary fiction. This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. ' The Book of the Dead' is the common name for the Ancient Egyptian Funerary text known as ' Spells of Coming' (or ' Going') ' Forth By Day'

History

Main article: History

History is systematically collected information about the past. History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology Information as a concept has a diversity of meanings from everyday usage to technical settings PAST (short for Polska Akcyjna Spółka Telefoniczna, Polish Telephone Joint-stock Company) was a Polish telephone operator in the period between World War I When used as the name of a field of study, history refers to the study and interpretation of the record of humans, families, and societies. An academic discipline or field of study is a branch of Knowledge which is taught or Researched at the college or university level Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus Family history is the systematic narrative and research of past events relating to a specific Family, or specific families A society is a Population of Humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive Culture and Institutions Knowledge of history is often said to encompass both knowledge of past events and historical thinking skills. Knowledge is defined ( Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i expertise and skills acquired by a person through experience or education the theoretical or practical understanding Historical thinking is defined by many education resources as a set of reasoning skills that students of history should learn as a result of studying History.

Traditionally, the study of history has been considered a part of the humanities. However, in modern academia, history is increasingly classified as a social science, especially when chronology is the focus. The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including Anthropology, Communication studies Definition A chronology may be either relative &mdashthat is locating related events relative to each other&mdashor ''absolute'' &mdashlocating

Languages

Main article: Language

The study of individual modern and classical languages form the backbone of modern study of the humanities, while the scientific study of language is known as linguistics and is a social science. A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including Anthropology, Communication studies Since many areas of the humanities such as literature, history and philosophy are based on language, changes in language can have a profound effect on the other humanities. Literature, covering a variety of uses of language including prose forms (such as the novel), poetry and drama, also lies at the heart of the modern humanities curriculum. For the Wikipedia guideline regarding editing articles see WikipediaManual of Style. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story Drama is the specific mode of Fiction represented in Performance. College-level programs in a foreign language usually include study of important works of the literature in that language, as well as the language itself (grammar, vocabulary, etc. A foreign language is a Language not spoken by the people of a certain place for example English is a foreign language in Japan. ).

Law

Main article: Law

A trial at a criminal court, the Old Bailey in London

Law in common parlance, means a rule which (unlike a rule of ethics) is capable of enforcement through institutions. Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society The Central Criminal Court in England, commonly known as the Old Bailey, is a court London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. ^[1] The study of law crosses the boundaries between the social sciences and humanities, depending on one's view of research into its objectives and effects. Law is not always enforceable, especially in the international relations context. It has been defined as a "system of rules",^[2] as an "interpretive concept"^[3] to achieve justice, as an "authority"^[4] to mediate people's interests, and even as "the command of a sovereign, backed by the threat of a sanction". ^[5] However one likes to think of law, it is a completely central social institution. Legal policy incorporates the practical manifestation of thinking from almost every social science and humanity. The social sciences comprise academic disciplines concerned with the study of the social life of human groups and individuals including Anthropology, Communication studies Laws are politics, because politicians create them. Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions Law is philosophy, because moral and ethical persuasions shape their ideas. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Law tells many of history's stories, because statutes, case law and codifications build up over time. History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology And law is economics, because any rule about contract, tort, property law, labour law, company law and many more can have long lasting effects on the distribution of wealth. A contract is an exchange of promises between two or more parties to do or refrain from doing an act which is enforceable in a court of law Tort law is the name given to a body of law that creates and provides remedies for civil wrongs that do not arise out of Contractual duties Property law is the area of Law that governs the various forms of Ownership in Real property (land as distinct from personal or movable possessions Labour law (also known as employment or labor law is the body of Laws administrative rulings and precedents which address the legal rights of and restrictions Corporate law (also "company" or "corporations" law is the Law of the most dominant kind of business enterprise in the modern world The noun law derives from the late Old English lagu, meaning something laid down or fixed^[6] and the adjective legal comes from the Latin word lex. ^[7]

Literature

Main article: Literature

Shakespeare wrote some of the greatest works in English literature

One can equate a literature with a collection of stories, poems, and plays that revolve around a particular topic. Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter William Shakespeare ( baptised A play, or stageplay, is a form of Literature written by a Playwright, almost always consisting of Dialogue between Fictional characters In this case, the stories, poems and plays may or may not have nationalistic implications. The term nationalism can refer to an Ideology, a sentiment, a form of Culture, or a Social movement that focuses on the Nation The Western Canon forms one such literature. The Western canon is a term used to denote a canon of books and more widely music and art, that has been the most influential in The term "literature" has different meanings depending on who is using it and in what context. It could be applied broadly to mean any symbolic record, encompassing everything from images and sculptures to letters. People may perceive a difference between "literature" and some popular forms of written work. The terms "literary fiction" and "literary merit" often serve to distinguish between individual works. Literary fiction is a term that has come into common usage since around 1970 principally to distinguish serious fiction (that is work with claims to Literary merit Literary merit is a quality of written work generally applied to the genre of Literary fiction.

story backround first person speaking

Performing arts

Main article: Performing arts

The performing arts differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some art object. The performing arts are those forms of Art which differ from the Plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own Body, Face and presence Plastic arts are those Visual arts that involve the use of Materials that can be moulded or modulated in some way often in three dimensions In Fine art, a work of art (or artwork or work) is a creation such as a Song, Book, Film, Video game, Performing arts include acrobatics, busking, comedy, dance, magic, music, opera, film, juggling, marching arts, such as brass bands, and theatre. Acrobatics (from Greek Akros, high and bat, walking is one of the Performing arts, and is also practiced as a Sport. Busking is the practice of performing in Public places for Tips and Gratuities. Comedy (from the Greek κωμωδίαkomodia has a popular meaning (any discourse generally intended to amuse especially in Television, Film, and Dance (from French danser, perhaps from Frankish) is an Art form that generally refers to movement of the body usually rhythmic Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Opera is an art form in which Singers and Musicians perform a Dramatic work (called an opera which combines a text (called a Libretto Juggling is a physical human skill involving the movement of objects usually through the air for entertainment (see Object manipulation) The Marching Arts include mainly Marching bands and drum corps. A brass band is a Musical group generally consisting entirely of Brass instruments, most often with a percussion section Theatre (or theater, see spelling differences) is the branch of the Performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one

Artists who participate in these arts in front of an audience are called performers, including actors, comedians, dancers, musicians, and singers. An actor, actress, player or thespian (see terminology) is a person who Acts in a Dramatic production and who works A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience primarily by making them laugh Dance (from French danser, perhaps from Frankish) is an Art form that generally refers to movement of the body usually rhythmic A musician is a person who plays or writes Music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music An instrumentalist plays a Performing arts are also supported by workers in related fields, such as songwriting and stagecraft. A songwriter is someone who writes the Lyrics to songs the Musical composition (chords or Melody to songs or both Stagecraft is a generic term referring to the technical aspects of theatrical film and video production Performers often adapt their appearance, such as with costumes and stage makeup, etc. Variations in the physical appearance of humans, known as human looks, are believed by Anthropologists to be an important factor in the development of personality and The term costume can refer to Wardrobe and dress in general or to the distinctive style of dress of a particular people class or period There is also a specialized form of fine art in which the artists perform their work live to an audience. Fine art is any Art form developed primarily for Aesthetics rather than Utility. This is called Performance art. This article is about Performance art For other uses see Performance (disambiguation Most performance art also involves some form of plastic art, perhaps in the creation of props. A theatrical property, commonly referred to as a prop, is any object held or used on stage by an Actor for use in furthering the plot or story line of a Theatrical Dance was often referred to as a plastic art during the Modern dance era. See also Dance, Concert dance Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century

Music

Main article: Music

Concert in the Mozarteum, Salzburg

Music as an academic discipline mainly focuses on two career paths, music performance (focused on the orchestra and the concert hall) and music education (training music teachers). Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. A performance, in Performing arts, generally comprises an event in which one group of people (the performer or performers behave in a particular way for another group of people An orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually fairly large with string brass woodwind sections and possibly a percussion section as well A concert hall is a cultural building which serves as performance venue chiefly for classical instrumental music Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music Students learn to play instruments, but also study music theory, musicology, history of music and composition. A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified for the purpose of making Music. Music theory is the field of study that deals with the Mechanics of music and how Music works Musicology ( Greek: μουσική = "music" and λόγος = "word" or "reason" is the scholarly study of Music Music is found in every known Culture, past and present varying wildly between times and places Musical composition is an original piece of Music the structure of a musical piece the process of creating a new In the liberal arts tradition, music is also used to broaden skills of non-musicians by teaching skills such as concentration and listening.

Theatre

Main article: Theatre

Theatre (or theater) (Greek "theatron", θέατρον) is the branch of the performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience using combinations of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound and spectacle — indeed any one or more elements of the other performing arts. Theatre (or theater, see spelling differences) is the branch of the Performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one The performing arts are those forms of Art which differ from the Plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own Body, Face and presence Acting is the work of an Actor or Actress, which is a person in Theatre, Television, Film, or any other Storytelling In addition to the standard narrative dialogue style, theatre takes such forms as opera, ballet, mime, kabuki, classical Indian dance, Chinese opera, mummers' plays, and pantomime. Opera is an art form in which Singers and Musicians perform a Dramatic work (called an opera which combines a text (called a Libretto Ballet is a formalized form of Dance with its origins in the French court further developed in France and Russia as a Concert dance is a form of traditional Japanese theatre. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate Make-up worn by some of its performers Indian classical dance is a relatively new umbrella term for various codified art forms rooted in Natya, the sacred Hindu Musical theatre styles whose theory Chinese Opera ( Chinese: 戏曲/戲曲 Pinyin: xìqǔ is a popular form of Drama and Musical theatre in China with roots going back Pantomime (informally panto) (not to be confused with a Mime artist, referring to a theatrical performer of mime is a performance genre traditionally found

Dance

Main article: Dance

Dance (from Old French dancier, perhaps from Frankish) generally refers to human movement either used as a form of expression or presented in a social, spiritual or performance setting. Dance (from French danser, perhaps from Frankish) is an Art form that generally refers to movement of the body usually rhythmic Old French was the Romance Dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium Old Frankish was the language of the Franks and it is classified as a West Germanic language. Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus In Physics, motion means a constant change in the location of a body Definition In the absence of agreement about its meaning the term "social" is used in many different senses referring among other things to attitudes Spirituality, in a narrow sense concerns itself with matters of the Spirit, a concept closely tied to religious belief and Faith, a transcendent reality A performance, in Performing arts, generally comprises an event in which one group of people (the performer or performers behave in a particular way for another group of people Dance is also used to describe methods of non-verbal communication (see body language) between humans or animals (bee dance, mating dance), motion in inanimate objects (the leaves danced in the wind), and certain musical forms or genres. Nonverbal communication (NVC is usually understood as the process of Communication through sending and receiving Wordless messages Body language is a term for Communication using Body movements or Gestures instead of or in addition to sounds verbal language or other communication Honey bees learn and communicate in order to find food sources and for other means In Physics, motion means a constant change in the location of a body In Botany, a leaf is an above-ground Plant organ specialized for Photosynthesis. Wind is the flow of Air or other Gases that compose an Atmosphere (including but not limited to the Earth's) Dance as a Musical form is a smaller musical composition intended for the presentation of Dance. Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Choreography is the art of making dances, and the person who does this is called a choreographer. See also, Choreography (literally "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" (circular dance see chorea) and "γραφή"

Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic artistic and moral constraints and range from functional movement (such as Folk dance) to codified, virtuoso techniques such as ballet. A society is a Population of Humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive Culture and Institutions Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called Art refers to a diverse range of Human activities creations and expressions that are appealing to the Senses or Emotions of a human individual A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event Folk dance is a term used to describe a large number of dances mostly of European origin that tend to share the following attributes originally danced in about the A virtuoso (from Italian virtuoso, late Latin virtuosus, Latin virtus meaning skill manliness excellence is an individual Ballet is a formalized form of Dance with its origins in the French court further developed in France and Russia as a Concert dance In sports, gymnastics, figure skating and synchronized swimming are dance disciplines while Martial arts 'kata' are often compared to dances. Sport is an Activity that is governed by a set of rules or Customs and often engaged in competitively Gymnastics is a Sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength agility and coordination Figure skating is an athletic Sport in which individuals pairs or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging Martial arts are systems of codified practices and traditions of training for Combat. For other uses see Kata (disambiguation. is a Japanese word describing detailed choreographed patterns of movements practiced either solo or

Philosophy

Main article: Philosophy

Philosophy is ancient Greek for the love of wisdom. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c It questions life, existence and human reasoning. Philosophy is one of the world's oldest subjects of study, branching and evolving into separate disciplines of physics in the sixteenth century and psychology in the nineteenth century.

According to Immanuel Kant, in the first line of his Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, (Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals), "Ancient Greek philosophy was divided into three sciences: physics, ethics, and logic. Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg The Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals or Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten 1785) Immanuel The Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals or Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten 1785) Immanuel "

In present society, areas such as Cognitive Science have emerged where experts attempt to unravel the nature of intelligent systems and understand thought, speech and reasoning. Cognitive science may be broadly defined as the multidisciplinary study of mind and behavior

Religion

Main articles: Religious studies and Theology

The compass in this 13th Century manuscript is a symbol of God's act of creation. Religious studies, or Religious education, is the academic field of multi-disciplinary Secular study of religious beliefs behaviors and institutions Theology is the study of a god or the gods from a religious perspective A compass, magnetic compass or mariner's compass is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the earth's Magnetic poles It consists

Most historians trace the beginnings of religious belief to the Neolithic Period. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos Most religious belief during this time period consisted of worship of a Mother Goddess, a Sky Father, and also worship of the Sun and the Moon as deities. A mother goddess is a Goddess, often portrayed as the Earth Mother who serves as a general Fertility deity the bountiful embodiment of the Earth. The sky father is a recurring theme in Mythology. The sky father is the complement of the Earth mother and appears in some Creation myths many The Sun (Sol is the Star at the center of the Solar System. (see also Sun worship)

New philosophies and religions arose in both east and west, particularly around the 6th century BC. "Sun god" redirects here For the Ramsey Lewis album see Sun Goddess (album. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language The world's principal Religions and spiritual traditions may be classified into a small number of major groups or world religions'. The 6th century BC started the first day of 600 BC and ended the last day of 501 BC. Over time, a great variety of religions developed around the world, with Hinduism and Buddhism in India, Zoroastrianism in Persia being some of the earliest major faiths. Hinduism is a religious tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent. Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Zoroastrianism (ˌzɔroʊˈæstriəˌnɪzəm is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia In the east, three schools of thought were to dominate Chinese thinking until the modern day. These were Taoism, Legalism, and Confucianism. Taoism (pronounced /ˈdaʊɪzəm/ or /ˈtaʊɪzəm/ also spelled '''Daoism''') refers to a variety of related Philosophical and Religious traditions In Chinese history, Legalism ( was one of the four main philosophic schools during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (the other Confucianism ( is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of the fifth century B The Confucian tradition, which would attain predominance, looked not to the force of law, but to the power and example of tradition for political morality. In the west, the Greek philosophical tradition, represented by the works of Plato and Aristotle, was diffused throughout Europe and the Middle East by the conquests of Alexander of Macedon in the 4th century BC. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Alexander of Macedon may refer to Alexander I of Macedon (d 454 BC ruled from 498-454 BC Alexander II of Macedon (d The 4th century BC started the first day of 400 BC and ended the last day of 301 BC.

Abrahamic religions are those religions deriving from a common ancient Semitic tradition and traced by their adherents to Abraham (circa 1900 BCE), a patriarch whose life is narrated in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, and as a prophet in the Quran and also called a prophet in Genesis 20:7. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos In Linguistics and Ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical " Shem " Hebrew שם translated as "name" Arabic: ساميّ Abraham ( Ashkenazi   Avrohom or Avruhom; ابراهيم, {{Unicode|Ibrāhīm}}; Ge'ez: The Patriarchs (also known as the Avot in Hebrew) according to the Judeo-Christian Old Testament are Abraham, his Son The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written in Biblical Hebrew (and the related Biblical Aramaic In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. Muslims regard as Prophets of Islam ( Arabic: نبي) those non-divine humans chosen by Allah as Prophets The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran This forms a large group of related largely monotheistic religions, generally held to include Judaism, Christianity, and Islam comprises about half of the world's religious adherents. Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation.

Visual arts

Main article: Visual arts

History

Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong (1107–1187) of Song Dynasty; fan mounted as album leaf on silk, four columns in cursive script. The visual arts are art forms that focus on the creation of works which are primarily Visual in nature such as Painting, Photography Biography Gaozong was the 5th son of Emperor Huizong and the younger half-brother of Emperor Qinzong. The Song Dynasty ( Wade-Giles: Sung Ch'ao was a ruling dynasty in China between 960&ndash1279 CE it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

The great traditions in art have a foundation in the art of one of the ancient civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, China, India, Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica. Art refers to a diverse range of Human activities creations and expressions that are appealing to the Senses or Emotions of a human individual Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National The Indus Valley Civilization (Mature period 2600&ndash1900 BCE abbreviated IVC, was an ancient Civilization that flourished in the Indus River basin Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding Mesoamerica or Meso-America (Mesoamérica is a Region extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, defined

Ancient Greek art saw a veneration of the human physical form and the development of equivalent skills to show musculature, poise, beauty and anatomically correct proportions. Ancient Roman art depicted gods as idealized humans, shown with characteristic distinguishing features (i. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial e. Zeus' thunderbolt). Zeus (zjuːs in Greek: nominative: Zeús /zdeús/ genitive: Diós; Modern Greek /'zefs/ in Greek mythology

In Byzantine and Gothic art of the Middle Ages, the dominance of the church insisted on the expression of biblical and not material truths. Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 4th century until the Fall of Constantinople This article is about Gothic art See also Gothic architecture Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that lasted about 200 The Renaissance saw the return to valuation of the material world, and this shift is reflected in art forms, which show the corporeality of the human body, and the three-dimensional reality of landscape. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere

Eastern art has generally worked in a style akin to Western medieval art, namely a concentration on surface patterning and local colour (meaning the plain colour of an object, such as basic red for a red robe, rather than the modulations of that colour brought about by light, shade and reflection). A characteristic of this style is that the local colour is often defined by an outline (a contemporary equivalent is the cartoon). This is evident in, for example, the art of India, Tibet and Japan.

An artist's palette

Religious Islamic art forbids iconography, and expresses religious ideas through geometry instead. For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. The physical and rational certainties depicted by the 19th-century Enlightenment were shattered not only by new discoveries of relativity by Einstein^[8] and of unseen psychology by Freud,^[9] but also by unprecedented technological development. Albert Einstein ( German: ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n; English: ˈælbɝt ˈaɪnstaɪn (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955 was a German -born theoretical Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded Increasing global interaction during this time saw an equivalent influence of other cultures into Western art. Globalization (or globalisation) in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones

Media types

Drawing is a means of making an image, using any of a wide variety of tools and techniques. Drawing is a Visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium An image (from Latin imago) or picture is an artifact usually two-dimensional that has a similar appearance to some subject &mdashusually It generally involves making marks on a surface by applying pressure from a tool, or moving a tool across a surface. Common tools are graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, pastels, and markers. The Mineral graphite, as with Diamond and Fullerene, is one of the Allotropes of carbon. A pencil is a Writing or Drawing instrument consisting of a thin stick of Pigment (usually Graphite, but can also be coloured pigment or Pen and ink refers to a technique of drawing or writing in which colored (this includes black Ink is applied to paper using a Pen or other Stylus. An ink is a Liquid containing various Pigments and/or Dyes used for coloring a surface to produce an Image, text, or "Paintbrush" redirects here For other uses see Paintbrush (disambiguation. A pencil is a Writing or Drawing instrument consisting of a thin stick of Pigment (usually Graphite, but can also be coloured pigment or A crayon is a stick of colored Wax, Charcoal, Chalk, or other materials used for writing and Drawing. Charcoal' is the blackish residue consisting of impure Carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from Animal and Vegetation Pastel is an Art medium in the form of a stick consisting of pure powdered Pigment and a binder Digital tools which simulate the effects of these are also used. The main techniques used in drawing are: line drawing, hatching, crosshatching, random hatching, scribbling, stippling, and blending. Hatching ( hachure in French) and cross-hatching are artistic techniques used to create tonal or shading effects by drawing (or painting or scribing closely Stippling is the technique of using small dots to simulate varying degrees of solidity or shading An artist who excels in drawing is referred to as a draftsman or draughtsman.

Painting

The Mona Lisa is one of the most recognizable artistic paintings in the Western world. Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda) is a 16th century portrait painted in oil on a Poplar panel by The term Western world, the West or the Occident ( Latin: occidens -sunset -west as distinct from the Orient) can have multiple meanings

Painting taken literally is the practice of applying pigment suspended in a carrier (or medium) and a binding agent (a glue) to a surface (support) such as paper, canvas or a wall. Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e For the drug referred to as "pigment" see Black tar heroin. Paint is any Liquid, liquifiable or mastic composition which after application to a substrate in a thin layer is converted to an opaque Solid Glue or adhesive is a compound that adheres or bonds two items together In Mathematics, specifically in Topology, a surface is a Two-dimensional Manifold. Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon printing upon or packaging Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making Sails Tents Marquees Backpacks and other functions However, when used in an artistic sense it means the use of this activity in combination with drawing, composition and other aesthetic considerations in order to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Drawing is a Visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium In the Visual arts — in particular Painting, Graphic design, Photography and Sculpture — composition is the placement or arrangement Painting is also used to express spiritual motifs and ideas; sites of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery to The Sistine Chapel to the human body itself. Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina is the best-known Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City.

Colour is the essence of painting as sound is of music. Sound' is Vibration transmitted through a Solid, Liquid, or Gas; particularly sound means those vibrations composed of Frequencies Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Colour is highly subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in the West, but elsewhere white may be. Some painters, theoreticians, writers and scientists, including Goethe, Kandinsky, Isaac Newton, have written their own colour theory. ˈjoːhan ˈvɔlfgaŋ fɔn ˈgøːtə (in English generally ˈgɝːtə 28 August 1749 22 March 1832 was a German writer Wassily Kandinsky (Russian Василий Кандинский first name pronounced as) ( – 13 December 1944 was a Russian painter, Printmaker Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (ˈnjuːtən 4 January 1643 31 March 1727) Biography Early years See also Isaac Newton's early life and achievements Color Theory is the musical alter ego of American singer-keyboardist-songwriter Brian Hazard Moreover the use of language is only a generalisation for a colour equivalent. The word "red", for example, can cover a wide range of variations on the pure red of the spectrum. Red is any of a number of similar Colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of Light discernible by the human eye in the wavelength There is not a formalised register of different colours in the way that there is agreement on different notes in music, such as C or C# in music, although the Pantone system is widely used in the printing and design industry for this purpose. See also Modern musical symbols Music notation or musical notation is any system which represents aurally perceived Music through the use See also Modern musical symbols Music notation or musical notation is any system which represents aurally perceived Music through the use Pantone Inc is a corporation headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA

Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, for example, collage. A collage (From the coller to glue is a work of formal art primarily in the Visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms thus creating a new whole This began with cubism and is not painting in strict sense. Cubism was a 20th century Avant-garde Art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European Some modern painters incorporate different materials such as sand, cement, straw or wood for their texture. Sand is a naturally occurring Granular material composed of finely divided rock and Mineral particles In the most general sense of the word a cement is a binder a substance which sets and hardens independently and can bind other materials together Straw is an agricultural By-product, the dry stalk of a Cereal plant after the Grain or Seed has been removed Wood is hard fibrous lignified structural tissue produced as secondary Xylem in the stems of Woody plants notably trees but also shrubs Texture in a painting is the feel of the canvas It can be based on the paint and its application or addition materials such as ribbon metal wood lace leather sand etc Examples of this are the works of Jean Dubuffet or Anselm Kiefer. Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet ( July 31, 1901 - May 12, 1985) was one of the most famous French painters and sculptors Anselm Kiefer (born March 8, 1945, Donaueschingen) is a German painter and Sculptor. Modern and contemporary art has moved away from the historic value of craft in favour of concept; this has led some to say that painting, as a serious art form, is dead, although this has not deterred the majority of artists from continuing to practise it either as whole or part of their work. The term "concept" is traced back to 1554–60 ( l conceptum - something conceived but what is today termed "the classical theory of concepts" is the theory of Aristotle

History of the humanities

In the West, the study of the humanities can be traced to ancient Greece, as the basis of a broad education for citizens. During Roman times, the concept of the seven liberal arts evolved, involving grammar, rhetoric and logic (the trivium), along with arithmetic, geometry, astronomia and music (the quadrivium). The term liberal arts refers to a particular type of educational Curriculum broadly defined as a Classical education. Grammar is the field of Linguistics that covers the Rules governing the use of any given natural language. Rhetoric has had many definitions no simple definition can do it justice Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference. In medieval universities, the trivium comprised the three subjects taught first Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. Arithmetic or arithmetics (from the Greek word αριθμός = number is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics used by almost everyone Geometry ( Greek γεωμετρία; geo = earth metria = measure is a part of Mathematics concerned with questions of size shape and relative position Astrology and astronomy are historically one and the same discipline ( Latin: astrologia) and were only gradually recognized as separate in western Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. The quadrivium comprised the four subjects or arts taught in Medieval universities after the trivium. ^[10] These subjects formed the bulk of medieval education, with the emphasis being on the humanities as skills or "ways of doing. "

A major shift occurred during the Renaissance, when the humanities began to be regarded as subjects to be studied rather than practised, with a corresponding shift away from the traditional fields into areas such as literature and history. In the 20th century, this view was in turn challenged by the postmodernist movement, which sought to redefine the humanities in more egalitarian terms suitable for a democratic society. Postmodernism literally means 'after the modernist movement' While " Modern " itself refers to something "related to the present" the movement of modernism Egalitarianism (derived from the French word égal, meaning equal) is a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals and have Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system ^[11]

Humanities today

Humanities in the United States

Main article: Humanities in the United States

Many American colleges and universities believe in the notion of a broad "liberal arts education", which requires all college students to study the humanities in addition to their specific area of study. Humanities in the United States refers to the study of Humanities disciplines such as literature history language performing and visual arts or philosophy in the United Prominent proponents of liberal arts in the United States have included Mortimer J. Adler^[12] and E.D. Hirsch. Mortimer Jerome Adler ( December 28, 1902 &ndash June 28, 2001) was an American Aristotelian philosopher Eric Donald Hirsch Jr (born March 22, 1928) is a US educator and academic Literary critic.

The 1980 United States Rockefeller Commission on the Humanities described the humanities in its report, The Humanities in American Life:

Through the humanities we reflect on the fundamental question: What does it mean to be human? The humanities offer clues but never a complete answer. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the They reveal how people have tried to make moral, spiritual, and intellectual sense of a world in which irrationality, despair, loneliness, and death are as conspicuous as birth, friendship, hope, and reason.

Criticism of the traditional humanities/liberal arts degree program has been leveled by many that see them as both expensive and relatively "useless" in the modern American job market, where several years of specialized study is required in many/most job fields. This is in direct contrast to the early 20th century when approximately 3% to 6% of the public at large had a university degree, and having one was a direct path to a professional life.

After World War II, many millions of veterans took advantage of the GI Bill. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The GI Bill (officially titled Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 PL346 58 Statutes at Large 284 provided for college or vocational education for returning Further expansion of federal education grants and loans have expanded the number of adults in the United States that have attended a college. In 2003, roughly 53% of the population had some college education with 27. The educational attainment of the US population is similar to that of many other industrialized countries with the vast majority of the population having completed secondary education 2% having graduated with a Bachelor's degree or higher, including 8% who graduated with a graduate degree. A bachelor's degree is usually an Undergraduate Academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts for three four or in some cases and A graduate school or ("grad school" is a school that awards advanced degrees such as doctoral degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned ^[13]

The digital age

Language and literature are considered to be the central topics in humanities, so the impact of electronic communication is of great concern to those in the field. The immediacy of modern technology and the internet speeds up communication, but may threaten "deferred" forms of communication such as literature and "dumb down" language. ^[14] The library is also changing rapidly as bookshelves are replaced by computer terminals. Despite the fact that humanities will have to adapt rapidly to these changes, it is unlikely that the traditional forms of literature will be completely abandoned.

Legitimation of the humanities

Compared to the growing numbers of undergraduates enrolled in private and public post-secondary institutions, the percentage of enrollments and majors in the humanities is shrinking, although overall enrollment in the humanities expressed in actual numbers has not significantly changed (and by some measurements has actually increased slightly). ^[15]

While humanities scholars have decried the dilution of humanities study since Plato and Aristotle debated whether philosophers should or should not receive payment for their teaching services, the modern “crisis” facing humanities scholars in the university is multifaceted: universities in the United States in particular have adopted corporate guidelines requiring profit both from undergraduate education and from academic scholarship and research, resulting in an increased demand for academic disciplines to justify their existence based on the applicability of their disciplines to the world outside of the university. Increasing corporate emphasis on “life-long learning” has also impacted the university’s role as educator and researcher. ^[16] Responses to those changing institutional norms, and to changing emphasis on what constitutes “useful skills” in an increasingly technological world have varied greatly and are representative of both scholars inside the academy and critics outside of the university system.

Citizenship, self-reflection and the humanities

Descriptions of the humanities as self-reflective—a self-reflection that helps develop personal consciousness or an active sense of civic duty—have been central to the justification of humanistic study since the end of the nineteenth century. Humanities scholars in the mid-twentieth century German university tradition, including Wilhelm Dilthey and Hans-Georg Gadamer, centered the humanities’ attempt to distinguish itself from the natural sciences in humankind’s urge to understand its own experiences. Wilhelm Dilthey (ˈdɪltaɪ November 19, 1833 &ndash October 1, 1911) was a German Historian, Psychologist Hans-Georg Gadamer (ˈgaːdamɐ February 11, 1900 &ndash March 13, 2002) was a German Philosopher of the continental This understanding tied like-minded people from similar cultural backgrounds together and provided a sense of cultural continuity with the philosophical past. ^[17] Scholars in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have extended that “narrative imagination”^[18] to the ability to understand the records of lived experiences outside of one’s own individual social and cultural context.

Through that narrative imagination, humanities scholars and students develop a conscience more suited to the multicultural world in which we live. ^[19] That conscience might take the form of a passive one that allows more effective self-reflection^[20] or extend into active empathy which facilitates the dispensation of civic duties in which a responsible world citizen must engage. ^[21] There is disagreement, however, on the level of impact humanities study can have on an individual and whether or not the meaning produced in humanistic enterprise can guarantee an “identifiable positive effect on people. ”^[22]

Truth, meaning and the humanities

The divide between humanistic study and natural sciences informs arguments of meaning in humanities as well. What distinguishes the humanities from the natural sciences is not a certain subject matter, but rather the mode of approach to any question. Humanities focuses on understanding meaning, purpose, and goals and furthers the appreciation of singular historical and social phenomena—an interpretive method of finding “truth”—rather than explaining the causality of events or uncovering the “truth” of the natural world. ^[23] Apart from its societal application, narrative imagination is an important tool in the (re)production of understood meaning in history, culture and literature.

Imagination, as part of the tool kit of artists or scholars, serves as vehicle to create meaning which invokes a response from an audience. Since a humanities scholar is always within the nexus of lived experiences, no "absolute" knowledge is theoretically possible; knowledge is instead a ceaseless procedure of inventing and reinventing the context in which a text is read. Poststructuralism has problematized an approach to the humanistic study based on questions of meaning, intentionality, and authorship. In the wake of the death of the author proclaimed by Roland Barthes, various theoretical currents such as deconstruction and discourse analysis seek to expose the ideologies and rhetoric operative in producing both the purportedly meaningful objects and the hermeneutic subjects of humanistic study. " Death of the Author " (1967 is an essay by the French literary critic Roland Barthes that was first published in the American journal Aspen. Roland Barthes ( November 12, 1915 &ndash March 25, 1980) (ʀɔlɑ̃ baʀt was a French Literary critic, literary Deconstruction is a term used in Philosophy, Literary criticism, and the Social sciences, popularised through its usage by Jacques Derrida in Discourse (L discursus, "running to and from" means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion This exposure has opened up the interpretive structures of the humanities to criticism that humanities scholarship is “unscientific” and therefore unfit for inclusion in modern university curricula because of the very nature of its changing contextual meaning.

Pleasure, the pursuit of knowledge and humanities scholarship

As Stanley Fish argues in his New York Times blog,^[24] the humanities can defend themselves best by refusing to make any claims for usefulness. Stanley Eugene Fish (born 1938 is a prominent American literary theorist and legal scholar For Fish, the academic study of humanistic subjects derives its value only from the pleasure contained in the immediate activity of reading and analyzing texts. Any attempt to justify it through an outside benefit such as social usefulness (say increased productivity) or through its supposed ennobling effect on the individual (such as greater wisdom or diminished prejudice) is not only doomed to dilute its results but will further provoke demands on the academic humanity departments they cannot possibly fulfill. To Fish, a broad education in the humanities also does not provide the kind of social cache (what sociologists sometimes call "cultural capital") that was helpful to succeed in Western society before the age of mass education following World War II. This article is about the sociological term See also European Capital of Culture. Further, while humanistic study very likely endows the individual with analytical skills applicable in many other life situations, this benefit is not limited to the scholarly study of texts in university class rooms. Critical thinking can be acquired in many different ways and settings. ^[25] It thus cannot be defended as an exclusive domain of the scholarly pursuit of the humanities at universities.

Instead, one could argue that the humanities offer a unique kind of pleasure based on the common pursuit of knowledge (even if it is only disciplinary knowledge) that contrasts with the increasing privatization of leisure and instant gratification characteristic of Western culture. Such a public kind of pleasure meets Jürgen Habermas’ requirements for the disregard of social status and rational problematization of previously unquestioned areas necessary for an endeavor which takes place in the bourgeois public sphere. Jürgen Habermas (ˈjʏʁgən ˈhaːbɐmaːs born June 18, 1929 is a German Philosopher and Sociologist in the tradition of The public sphere is an area in social life where people can get together and freely discuss and identify societal problems and through that discussion influence political action In this argument, then, only the academic pursuit of pleasure can provide a link between the private and the public realm in modern Western consumer society and strengthen the public sphere, which according to many theorists is the foundation for modern democracy. Such an argument need not insist on social usefulness as an explicit goal of humanistic study, but instead simply points to the fundamental commonality of the democratic ethos with such study.

Romanticization and rejection of the humanities

Implicit in many of these arguments supporting the humanities are the makings of arguments against public support of the humanities. Joseph Carroll asserts that we live in a changing world, a world in which "cultural capital" is being replaced with "scientific literacy" and in which the romantic notion of a Renaissance humanities scholar is obsolete. Such arguments appeal to judgments and anxieties about the essential uselessness of the humanities, especially in an age when it is seemingly vitally important for scholars of literature, history and the arts to engage in "collaborative work with experimental scientists" or even to simply make "intelligent use of the findings from empirical science. "^[26] The notion that 'in today's day and age,' with its focus on the ideals of efficiency and practical utility, scholars of the humanities are becoming obsolete was perhaps summed up most powerfully in a remark that has been attributed to the artificial intelligence specialist Marvin Minsky: “With all the money that we are throwing away on humanities and art - give me that money and I will build you a better student. Marvin Lee Minsky (born August 9, 1927) is an American cognitive scientist in the field of Artificial intelligence (AI co-founder "^[27]

Minsky's faith in the superiority of technical knowledge and his reduction of the humanities scholar of today to an obsolete relic of the past supported by the tax dollars of romantics fondly recalling the days of the G.I. Bill echoes arguments put forth by scholars and cultural commentators that call themselves "post-humanists" or "transhumanists. The GI Bill (officially titled Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 PL346 58 Statutes at Large 284 provided for college or vocational education for returning In literary and Critical theory, posthumanism or post-humanism, meaning beyond humanism, is a major European Continental philosophy Transhumanism (sometimes symbolized by >H or H+) a term often used as a synonym for " Human enhancement " is an international intellectual " The idea is that current trends in the scientific understanding of human beings are calling the basic category of "the human" into question. Examples of these trends are assertions by cognitive scientists that the mind is simply a computing device, by geneticists that that human beings are no more than ephemeral husks used by self-propagating genes (or even memes, according to some postmodern linguists), or by bioengineers who claim that one day it may be both possible and desirable to create human-animal hybrids. Cognitive science may be broadly defined as the multidisciplinary study of mind and behavior Genetics (from Ancient Greek grc-Latn genetikos, “genitive” and that from grc-Latn genesis, “origin” a discipline of Biology, is A meme (miːm consists of any idea or behavior that can pass from one person to another by learning or imitation Bioengineering (also known as Biological Engineering is the application of Engineering principles to address challenges in the fields of Biology and Medicine Rather than engage with old-style humanist scholarship, transhumanists in particular tend to be more concerned with testing and altering the limits of our mental and phsyical capacities in fields such as cognitive science and bioengineering in order to transcend the essentially bodily limitations that have bounded humanity. Transhumanism (sometimes symbolized by >H or H+) a term often used as a synonym for " Human enhancement " is an international intellectual Despite the criticism of humanities scholarship as obsolete, however, many of the most influential post-humanist works are profoundly engaged with film and literary criticism, history, and cultural studies as can be seen in the writings of Donna Haraway and N. Katherine Hayles. Film review redirects here for the similar sounding Film revue please visit Revue#Film revues. Literary criticism is the study discussion evaluation and interpretation of Literature. History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology Cultural studies is an academic discipline which combines Political economy, Communication, Sociology, Social theory, Literary theory Donna Haraway (born September 6, 1944 in Denver Colorado) is currently a professor and chair of the History of Consciousness Program at the N Katherine Hayles ( 16 December, 1943 -) is a noted Postmodern literary critic, particularly in the fields of literature and science

See also

• Social sciences
• Human science
• The Two Cultures
• List of academic disciplines
• Public humanities

References

External links

• National Humanities Center - USA
• The Humanities Association - UK
• National Humanities Alliance
• Institute: Arts and Humanities
• Australian Humanities Review
• Australian Academy of the Humanities*European Science Foundation - Humanities