M1-Humanities and Art:meaning and Importance

The Meaning of the Humanities

            From time immemorial man has puzzled over the meaning of his existence.  “What am I? Why am I in this world?”  where do I go from here?”  These are some of the questions he has sought answers to in an effort to “make sense” out of life’s apparent confusion.

            Through he ages many attempts have been made to answer these questions, and records of these attempts can be found in the writings  of great thinkers as well as in the arts.  Yet even now it seems taht man has not yet found the definitive answer to what he really is.  The meaning of his existence has become all the more puzzling today when his traditional functions are being taken over by machines.

            We learn what it is to be human by studying humanity.  But to do this we obviously cannot depend on direct contacts wiht fellow human beings.  Our contacts within out short lifetime will naturally be confined to a limited set of people, places, and events.  Thus, we have to depend heavily on vicarious experience, and we rech out to people of different cultures in different times and places through whatever means would bring us nearer to them.  This encounter is made possible for us in the humanities.

            What, then, are the humanities?

            Broadly speaking, they are records of man’s quest for answers to the fundamental questions he asks about himself and about life.  The content of humanities is anything that is inherently human – man’s experiences, his values, his sentiments, his ideals, his goals.  The humanities are thus expressions of man’s feelings and thoughts.

            The term “humanities” was first applied to the writings of ancient Latin authors which were read not only for their clarity of language and forceful literary style, but also, and more specially, for their moral teaching.