All humanities. What is Humanities

Seminar No. 1

Topic: Humanities: features, development and significance of humanitarian knowledge.

Question number 1. The content and development of humanitarian knowledge. The process and causes of the expansion of humanitarian knowledge.

Humanitarian knowledge- this is the world of direct human life, both past and present, and in some respects future. Humanitarian knowledge is an opportunity to navigate the world, in the sense of what is happening, it is an opportunity to understand what is happening to us and why we need certain reforms, why we need certain innovations.

Humanitarian knowledge changes the consciousness of a person, as it forms his attitude to the world, allows you to take a fresh look at it. The problem of self-determination is the most important humanitarian problem for a person, because the way of self-determination organizes all life, and self-determination is a condition for a person to take place.

A feature of humanitarian knowledge is that it does not exist independently of a person, since a person himself develops it, rethinking what exists in the outside world, in culture (that is, in all human experience). For example, he passes ideas or cultural values ​​through his "I" - his individual, and then they become his own, his individual concepts. Individuality here serves as a criterion. Humanitarian knowledge speaks about what has been created by man throughout his history, and not about what has arisen naturally.

The object of the humanities is the individual, more precisely, his spiritual, inner world and the world of human relationships connected with it and the world of the spiritual culture of society.

The humanities include psychology (psychology of personality, psychology of emotions, social psychology), civil history (here humanitarian knowledge is combined with social science), sociology, literary criticism, linguistics, etc. They study the spiritual world of a person through text. A person always expresses himself (says), that is, creates a text (even if it is potential). Where a person is studied outside the text and independently of it, these are no longer the humanities (human anatomy and physiology, etc.).

Humanitarian knowledge, just like natural science knowledge, strives to achieve truth, that is, to ensure that information about social phenomena is not simply accumulated, various ideas and views on the nature of man and society are not simply summed up so that these ideas are not erroneous. , were not delusions. It has always been important for humanity to understand itself, to understand a person, his actions and thoughts, the nature of his life and the changes that take place in it. Therefore, the problem of truth in the humanities is of fundamental importance. The achievement of truth in the humanities is carried out in many ways in specific, complex ways. The correlation of truth and error takes place in difficult conditions for a person to choose his life position. But the search for truth is concentrated primarily in the humanities. And therefore, the level of humanitarian education of a person has a huge influence on the formation of a worldview. All humanitarian knowledge is permeated with worldview ideas. Knowledge about society- history, jurisprudence, social psychology, sociology, etc. - is not just a collection of information obtained about the development of society, peoples, but at the same time their understanding from one position or another. The same applies to the human sciences, for example, psychology, pedagogy. In society, a person always faces the problem of choice, and then humanitarian education, the level of this education create the prerequisites for this choice to be made in the most civilized form, since humanitarian education allows a person not to start from scratch, but to use a conscious universal experience.

Question number 2. Science as a form of knowledge, its features and significance.

The science- a form of spiritual activity of people, aimed at the production of knowledge about nature, society and knowledge itself, which has the immediate goal of comprehending the truth and discovering objective laws.

Science classifications:

on the subject and method of knowledge : natural, social and humanitarian, about cognition and thinking, technical and mathematical;

by distance from practice : fundamental and applied.

Science functions:

cultural and ideological,

informative and explanatory,

predictive,

social (social forecasting, management and development).

scientific knowledge- a special type of cognitive activity aimed at developing objective, systematically organized and substantiated knowledge about nature, man and society.

The main features of scientific knowledge are the following:

1. The main task of scientific knowledge is the discovery of objective laws of reality - natural, social, laws of knowledge itself, etc.

2. Science carries out the study of not only the objects used in today's practice, but also those that may become the subject of practical development in the future. Science deals, among other things, with the prediction of the future;

3. Science is characterized by objectivity, since the main goal of scientific knowledge is objective truth.

4. An essential feature of cognition is its consistency. Knowledge is transformed into scientific knowledge when the description and generalization of facts is brought to the point of their inclusion in the theory;

5. Scientific knowledge is characterized by strict evidence, the validity of the results obtained, the reliability of the conclusions;

6. Verification of knowledge through experience, practice.

7. Use of scientific equipment.

There are two levels of scientific knowledge: empirical and theoretical.

The empirical level of scientific knowledge is characterized by a direct study of real-life objects. At this level of research, we are dealing with the direct interaction of a person with the studied natural or social objects, the process of accumulating information about the objects under study is carried out through observations, measurements, and experiments. Here, the primary systematization of the received actual data is also carried out in the form of tables, diagrams, graphs, etc.

The theoretical level of scientific knowledge is characterized by the predominance of the rational moment - concepts, theories, laws and other forms and "mental operations". There is no practical interaction with objects here. The theoretical level is a higher level in scientific knowledge. The results of theoretical knowledge are hypotheses, theories, laws.

Question number 3. Humanities: concept, types, specifics, meaning.

Humanitarian sciences- disciplines that study a person in the sphere of his spiritual, mental, moral, cultural and social activities.

So far, the problem of classifying the social sciences and humanities has not been solved. Some authors do not divide the sciences into social and humanitarian ones, while others do. The difference lies in the subject of study. For the social sciences, this is society as a whole or its spheres (political, legal, economic, etc.). For the humanities, the subject of study is a person and the spiritual products of his activity. . In this regard, the social sciences include social philosophy, history, sociology, economics, jurisprudence, and political science. The composition of the humanities can include cultural studies, religious studies, art history, psychology, linguistics, pedagogy, philosophical anthropology. The similarity between the social sciences and the humanities is very large, so we can talk about the social sciences and the humanities as a single science.

Social and humanitarian sciences have their own specifics.

1) the need to take into account the phenomenon freedom. Natural sciences study natural processes. These processes just happen. The social sciences and humanities study human activity in the economic, legal, political, and artistic fields. Human activity does not take place, but takes place. The processes of nature do not have freedom. Human activity is free (not absolutely, of course, but relatively). Therefore, it is less predictable than natural processes. In this regard, in the social sciences and humanities there is less certainty and more unpredictability.

2) a high degree of uniqueness of the studied objects. Uniqueness is a unique set of properties inherent in a given object. Each object is unique. 3) limited application of the experiment. In many cases, it is simply impossible to conduct an experiment, for example, in the study of the history of a country where events have already taken place. It is impossible to conduct experiments in sociology when studying interethnic relations, in demography when studying, say, population migration. We cannot resettle peoples and other social groups for experimental purposes, change their wages, living conditions, family composition, etc.

Significance of the Humanities very large. They not only expand their horizons, but also accumulate experience and skills. Studying the social -human. science, a person joins society, recognizes it, forms his attitude towards others. Delving into the study of at least one of the humanities, a person reveals himself, his potential. Humanitarian education helps a person find himself, defend his right to self-realization, self-determination, creates his cultural field, that is, takes on the burden of problems of the worldview, general cultural, spiritual and intellectual development of the individual.

Question number 4. General characteristics of the social worldview. The role of scientific study of society, its functioning and development.

Man is a rational social being. His work is worthwhile. And in order to act expediently in the complex real world, he must not only know a lot, but also be able to. To be able to choose goals, to be able to make this or that decision. To do this, he needs, first of all, a deep and correct understanding of the world. - outlook.

outlook – it is a system of views on the objective world and a person’s place in it, on a person’s attitude to the reality around him and to himself, as well as the beliefs, ideals, principles of cognition and activity, value orientations that have developed on the basis of these views.

The classification of worldviews considers three main types of worldview in terms of its socio-historical features:

Mythological type of worldview formed during the time of primitive people. Then people did not realize themselves as individuals, did not distinguish themselves from the surrounding world, and saw the will of the gods in everything. Paganism is the main element of the mythological type of worldview.

Religious type of worldview just like the mythological one, it is based on the belief in supernatural forces. A huge number of moral norms (commandments) and examples of correct behavior keeps society within certain limits and unites people of the same faith. Disadvantages: misunderstanding of people of other faiths, hence the division along religious lines, religious conflicts and wars.

Philosophical type of outlook It has social and intellectual character. Reason (intelligence, wisdom) and society (society) are important here. The main element is the desire for knowledge.

Worldview plays a significant role in a person's life: it gives a person guidelines and goals for his activities; allows people to understand how best to achieve the intended goals, equips them with methods of cognition and activity; makes it possible to determine the true values ​​of life and culture.

Today, society in its past and present studies whole complex of social sciences: history, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, political science, economics, cultural studies, etc. Each of these sciences examines certain aspects of social life. Social philosophy and sociology seek to cover society as a whole, therefore it is they who play the most important role in the study of society. Sociology is a generalizing science in relation to other sciences that study society and man. On the other hand, sociology depends on discoveries in other sciences, such as, for example, history, economics, political science. All social sciences are interconnected and constitute one total science of society, they complement each other, although they highlight different aspects of the study.

In 2011 and 2012, a group of scientists from McGill University and Vanderbilt University came together to reflect on the current state of the humanities. We have set ourselves the task of explaining the value of the humanities in a way that makes sense to ourselves and is convincing to everyone else, including those outside the university community, by proving to them that teaching the humanities and humanities research has value. . Our group included scholars of various specialties: specialists in English, French and Spanish philology, culturologists, researchers of visual culture and media, historians, musicologists, specialists in architecture and law. We held two meetings: in October 2011 in Montreal and in May 2012 in Nashville. Not all of us were at both meetings, but most of us were. The discussions were lively, inventive and informative.

It is not our intention in this paper to present a history of thought in the humanities or to provide an institutional or sociological analysis of the current state of the humanities. This is what we hope is an unbiased, unbiased examination of the working assumptions and practices of humanities educators and researchers working in the field. As a result, we have compiled a list of the main problems faced by the humanities, as well as some recommendations for improving and developing the field of humanities.

The findings are presented in three parts. The first part will deal with the distinctive features of the humanities research and teaching of the humanities; about those key provisions of the humanities that have value. In the second - about the main problems faced by the humanities. The third gives some recommendations. These conclusions by no means represent the unanimous opinion of the whole group, they are open to critical rethinking, especially since openness is the most important property of the humanities.

1. What is the humanities?

What are we doing?

Researchers and educators working in the humanities help create a historical, public, meaningful world.

How do we do it?

We are a group of 15 scientists representing various humanitarian disciplines. We teach students, undergraduates and graduate students, many of us are now or were in the past administrators and leaders of various levels. Michael Holquist is a former president of the American Modern Language Association. Bill Ivey has headed the National Endowment for the Humanities and is now director of the Center for Control and Public Policy. Michael Gemtrud was director of the School of Architecture at McGill University. The report concludes with a list of members of our group, which partially reflects the institutional and social positions they have held or continue to hold. And while we work within academia, we are trying to establish connections between academia and the general public (or publics) outside the university walls.

We do this partly because we are creative people. We create new centers, programs, publications. These are the Center for Control and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University; Institute for Public Life Arts and Ideas at McGill University; Shakespeare Moot Court - An interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate course at McGill University that includes public moot hearings and discussions on a wide range of issues, from Shakespeare to same-sex marriage; electronic journal "AmeriQuest", which is an open platform for writing texts and discussing research on the real and imaginary search for "America".

We teach many thousands of students, which also contributes to society. Most of our students do not go into science, but pursue careers in business, the arts, law, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and other fields. Throughout their careers, they successfully enjoy the fruits of their university education. Having received a humanitarian education, they are able to analyze and build arguments both in oral communication and in written text; analyze complex artifacts, phenomena, problems, and explore their history. The development of useful practical skills has been an important part of liberal arts education since the time of Isocrates, and it fits well with the fact that liberal arts contributes to creating space for public expression and action. Participants in a public dialogue should be able to think and express their thoughts well both orally and in writing. These skills also contribute to the creation of public space as such.

The university is sometimes referred to as an "ivory tower" ( ivory tower). This perception of the university is partly due to the fact that university campuses are indeed spatially separated from the outside world; an archaic system of "admission" to work in organizations and to obtain scientific degrees; incomprehensible language of scientific publications. But we believe that the university is not a closed monastery where one deals with something sublime that does not belong to this world; on the contrary, it is an open space where thousands and thousands of people come every year to teach and learn, and learning can take many different forms; to create new ideas; to participate in intellectual communication.

What do students get

If the university is an open space for learning, learning and intellectual communication, then what do students ultimately get by the time they graduate from the university?

Students of the humanities faculties receive the skills of a dialogical, self-critical and flexible way of thinking. They adopt the habits of critical analysis and argumentation, learn to speak and write in a way that will achieve maximum results in various professional and public spheres. They discover that the world around them and all things in it are filled with meaning and that it is impossible to live a full and successful life in the present without knowledge of the past. They learn that understanding the world and creating a meaningful world are closely related, and that the creation of such a world is the work of many people, and that it is accomplished in time.

Since the humanities are primarily concerned with meanings (as opposed to information), and since one of the properties of meanings is openness to interpretation, the task of the humanities is not to define or exhaust their objects of study; on the contrary, their results are the object of reinterpretation, criticism and dialogue. This is their strength, not their weakness. Humanities scholars study and rethink both previous research and primary sources. Since primary sources and research results are both dialogue partners and objects of modern research, the latter tend to be reflexive, cumulative and avoid definitive answers.

The humanities have developed a special approach to the objects under study; they are considered as reasonable and understandable interlocutors in time, placed in certain historical and cultural conditions. The natural-science, empirical method of cognition, as a rule, does not imply that the objects of study are interlocutors; but that is what characterizes the humanities. The humanities researcher interacts with the objects of research as with subjects capable of reciprocal remarks. As faithful companions of life, the objects of the humanities are inexhaustible: after all, works of art become more valuable with time. “Works break through the boundaries of their own time, they live in centuries, that is, in big time and often (and in the case of great works, always) their life there is more intense than their life within their own time.

I believe that there is nothing barbaric and wild in that nation… except what people call barbarism, although they have not encountered it… we have no other means of testing the truth and reasonableness of anything than… the example of our own country.
Michel Montaigne. About cannibals

Humanitarian analysis is historical and originates in the study of ancient languages ​​and cultures. There is nothing surprising in the fact that it makes it possible to understand cultures, both distant in time and space, and close. Exploring other times, places, and cultures is the advantage of being an outsider; the perspective of this position enables modern man to observe his own ideas and practices. The study of particularly vivid social forms and life-worlds allows one to creatively rethink one's own time and place, as well as one's own presumptions. Critical, historically oriented thinking, as well as the ability to empathize and imagination, are necessary for a person in the modern world.

The unfinished critical practices of the humanities form a timeless dialogue that involves artists, politicians and scholars. Humanitarians have always been attentive to the consistency of knowledge and judgments and did not believe in the possibility of a utopia (interestingly, “utopia” literally means “a place that does not exist”), but nevertheless attached importance to what Gyorgy Lukács called discovery, reconstruction and preservation " continuous human personality".

Meaning, history, publicity

What is the humanities? Here are two possible answers:

An inexorable quality meeting with knowledge and the ability to create, which makes it possible to expand the space of the human imagination.

The study of various cases of telling tall tales.

The humanities are a set of disciplines that study the speech, action and products of the creative activity of people, thanks to which people create a meaningful world. This statement is true, but it can be misleading. What associations arise when you say that people create a meaningful world through speech, action and art? Most likely, this is a musician with a violin in his hands, or an artist, or a person sitting in front of a pile of stones, intent on turning it into something structured; a politician who gives inspirational speeches, or a person who talks about the creation of the world. All of them strive to bring their plans and intentions to life in such a form that they last as long as possible. Through political or artistic activity, they bring meanings to the rough material world, thereby providing an opportunity for understanding.

Imagination tells us another person who is next to them, somewhat aloof, and at first does not catch the eye - this is an observer. He oversees this work to create a meaningful world and writes something down. It is he who fixes the history of development and creates theories in political history, the history of religion, literary criticism, the theory of architecture, the history of art, musicology, etc.

In fact, everything is much more complicated and interesting than such a triptych (the material world, a person creating a meaningful world, a scientist-observer). The world itself has never been incomprehensible. All people, not just artists and politicians, are included in the process of a meaningful life. And we are beginning to understand that even animals have complex social and emotional lives and their own vocabulary. Of course, artists and politicians create a meaningful world, but workers and housewives also create it. Music is impossible without a good instrument, architecture is impossible without the labor of masons and carpenters, and even great orators use the same ordinary words as ordinary people.

This means that artists and politicians are not alone in the process of creating the world. The world created by them is filled with meanings and values, in contrast to the world of physical phenomena and processes created by man and animals. What is it that artists and politicians do that is so special? Their actions are meaningful in a special way, since they are focused not only on the present, but also on the past and future. Such close attention to the past and the future distinguishes their consciousness from the temporary consciousness of an artisan or housewife. Of course, the latter also feel themselves in time, but their attention to the past and the future is limited to small time periods and is mainly due to practical needs. If a person begins his speech with the words "I have a dream", this means that he has taken into account such important speeches of the past and is focused on certain consequences of his speech in the future. Thus, the speaker and those who listen to him create that special kind of temporality which is called history.

Artists and politicians also strive to ensure that as many people as possible see their work and hear their speeches. Through the desire to create a canvas that will delight the whole world, or to give a speech that will have an impact on a large number of people, a highly open and public space is created. Works of art and political actions and speeches create that public world, which, ideally, involves everyone in the process of reflection on common questions and in their discussion, which has certain consequences. Finally, if anyone wants to do something that would be addressed to everyone without exception, he must take into account both his contemporaries and future generations. This desire of artists and politicians for continued relevance in the future is consistent with the way in which they seek to make their works and actions live in historical time.

The special contribution of artists and politicians to making the human world historic and public is that they provide an opportunity to understand this world in time, and also create a fundamental idea of ​​the world as a world, that is, a public, temporal space in which meaningful and consequential speaking, acting, and creating is possible. But not only they perform this task.

Let us turn again to the character who is hidden in the shadows: this is the observer who fixes history and creates theories. In fact, he does more than just take notes on what is happening. What at first glance seems to be a passive fixation, in fact, is not: the observer is a full-fledged participant in the work of creating the world. Humanities researchers do more than just record what they are doomed to stay away from. Humanitarians - researchers and teachers - work as historians, analysts and theorists, and thereby actively participate in the creation of a public, historical, meaningful world, populated by actions, statements and works of art and intelligence of the past and present. This is a world that is able to unite the existence of separate individuals into a historical, public community called "humanity"; not without reason the common name of the disciplines contributing to its creation also comes from this word ( humanity).

The activity of a humanities scholar is usually valued lower than the work of an artist and politician. The creation of the Parthenon, built in Athens in the 5th century BC, marked the beginning of a much more impressive sequence of speeches and actions (including construction) than any study on the architecture or religion of Athens. Those who built the Parthenon sought to connect the gods and mankind, sought to ensure that their creation remained for centuries, as well as to cause amazement and deep interest in generations of people; and they, as far as we can tell, have succeeded in doing so. Scholars who study ancient culture tend to appeal to a specific audience and expect their work to be of value for a certain amount of time. Of course, such a distinction between large and small temporality and publicity does not always take place. First of all, some works are both artistic and scientific at the same time. Montaigne's Essays, this eccentric, brilliant text, is a good example of a scientific text that is at the same time a work of art in philosophy ( a work of philosophical art). Art creations and political actions are very often short-lived, while the life of scientific works is sometimes quite long, and their influence is significant.

More importantly, however, is the way in which the humanities are able to preserve the art, words, and actions of the past so that they exist and affect the world in the present and in the future. Study of archives, artifacts, texts and their cultural context; rigorous analysis and interpretation, subsequent conclusions about the meaning, causes and influence of actions and works - all these practices and results of the activities of the humanities are necessary to create a world where what we say, do and create has a chance to live longer than ourselves, and appeal to a wider audience than their creators can reach in their lifetime.

2. Issues facing the humanities

1. The reflexive and dialogical nature of the humanities requires a constant exploration of its own boundaries, a return to the question of what belongs and what does not belong to the concept of "human" ( the human). Quite often, researchers have abandoned this logic to exclude other grounds based on culture, art, gender, race, and class. How, then, to preserve the very idea of ​​humanitarian knowledge, questioning the difference between a person, on the one hand, and an animal or mechanism, on the other?

2. The works studied by the humanities, as a whole, were created not in order to be studied, but in order to be perceived and used in one way or another. The study itself can be seen as a confrontation between the object of study and its creator. How can humanities research contribute to the perception and life of works while maintaining its analytical nature and attention to context?

3. The division into separate disciplines is a necessary condition for research and teaching, although it can slow down the process of understanding other worlds, and this is the fundamental task of the humanities. How is such interdisciplinary cooperation possible that would enrich individual disciplines?

4. The social reality today is such that short-term research perspectives and instrumental knowledge take advantage. How can the humanities keep up with these trends while continuing to contribute to the creation of the scientific community and keeping the idea alive in the public space?

5. The humanities are increasingly separated from life outside of universities. Representatives of other fields of activity are often ahead of the humanists in the study and creation of public and targeted communities. Those who practice medicine, create social organizations in Africa, or work in projects to reduce the negative impact on the environment are strongly involved in the critical development of the public sphere. How can the humanities play a more critical, creative role in the world outside of universities?

6. Within the academic community, the depreciation of the humanities continues: there is an enlargement of units, a reduction in funding, and in some cases a mass liquidation of the humanities departments and faculties. The inclusion of the humanities in the strategic plans of universities is often nothing more than hypocrisy. It is well known that there has been a turn in governmental, industrial and institutional circles towards profitable applied research, whether scientific or technical. Since the devaluation of the humanities is a consequence of the revaluation of applied and commercially relevant research in the sciences, engineering and business disciplines, how do we create an alternative economic model and a different view of profitability that would speak in favor of the humanities and creative disciplines?

Interdisciplinarity

It is necessary to conduct interdisciplinary research and to read interdisciplinary training courses, to do this critically and reflectively. It is necessary to identify key areas for interdisciplinary research and training courses within the humanities and at the intersection of the humanities and non-humanities; analyze the nature and future implications of interdisciplinary initiatives.

One of the most promising areas of interdisciplinary research is digital technologies in the humanities ( digital humanities). This is a newly emerging field that combines traditional humanities, new information technologies and social media. The use of digital technologies will expand the space of the humanities and increase their creative possibilities, and will also promote new models of research cooperation and new approaches to teaching. Since the application of digital technologies in the humanities has great potential, it is very important to ensure that the traditional humanities are open to such cooperation. The semantic and informational models of cognition and communication can be opposed to each other in many ways, and since the humanities usually deal with meanings, and digital technologies with information, the use of digital technologies in the humanities must be accompanied by thoughtful, critical and reflective analysis.

Humanities and arts

Humanitarians need to conduct research and training courses in conjunction with representatives of the arts.

A strong mutually beneficial cooperation and dialogue should be established between humanitarian scientists and artists; connections must be established between scientists, artists and leaders of the cultural and entertainment industries. The critical study of art sometimes distances itself from art as such. In fact, the study of art is complicated by the fact that critical analysis does not distinguish between art, literature, music, theater and other discursive practices. Establishing a dialogue between scientists and artists means drawing the attention of scientists to the formal properties of art and the specific views of artists, as well as enriching the artist's understanding of the creative process of creating their own works and practices.

Public life and humanities

There is a need to build interaction between the academic community and a diverse public outside of universities; there must be an active, two-way intellectual exchange.

The humanities already have a significant, if underestimated, societal dimension: in the countries of North America alone, millions of people have received a liberal arts education. However, humanities scholars should take a more active and varied part in public life. Creating opportunities for public intellectual work and intellectual exchange will be of great benefit to all participants: members of communities of interest, students and teachers in elementary and secondary schools, book clubs, online communities and discussion groups, radio and television audiences, students themselves and university professors. This kind of intellectual exchange will ensure the development of a democratic social culture.

Who are we?

1. Darin Barney , Associate Professor, Researcher in Technology and Civil Society Canada, Department of Art History and Communication, McGill University.
2. Robert Barsky , Professor of English and French Philology, Specialist in European Studies and Jewish Studies, Vanderbilt University.
3. Julia Cumming , Associate Professor and Assistant Dean, Researcher and Administrator, School of Music. S. Schulich, McGill University.
4. Edward G. Friedman , professor of Spanish philology Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt; director of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, Vanderbilt University.
5. Peter Hitchcock , professor of English philology, specialist in gender studies and film studies; director of the Center for Culture and Politics, City University of New York.
6. Michael Holquist , Emeritus Professor of Comparative Literature, Yale University; member of the Society of Leading Investigators ( Society of Senior Fellows), Columbia University.
7. William Ivey , founder and director of the Center for the Arts, Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Vanderbilt University.
8. Michael Gemtrud , founder and director of the Carlton Immersive Media Studio (Carleton University, 2000–2007); Associate Professor of Architecture, McGill University.
9. Desmond Manderson , founder, former director of the Public Life Institute for Arts and Ideas (2008–2011), McGill University; Professor of Law, Research School of Humanities and Arts, Australian National University.
10. Mark Schonfield , Professor of English Philology, Head of the Department of English Philology, Vanderbilt University.
11. Will Straw , professor of art history and communication, director of the Institute of Canadian Studies, McGill University.
12. Cecilia Tichy , Associate Professor of English Philology, Vanderbilt University.
13. Paul Yakhnin , Professor of Shakespeare Studies, Faculty of English Philology; director of the Public Life Institute of Art and Ideas, McGill University.
14. Lee Yetter , Assistant Director, Public Life Institute of Art and Ideas, McGill University.

The sciences of man, his life in society. They arose during the times and within the framework of scholasticism. Philosophy was defined first as the science of human actions. The source and means of knowledge in such sciences was the word and thoughts and their interpretation. Now to…… Fundamentals of spiritual culture (encyclopedic dictionary of a teacher)

Encyclopedia of Sociology

HUMANITARIAN SCIENCES- see Human knowledge. Big psychological dictionary. Moscow: Prime EUROZNAK. Ed. B.G. Meshcheryakova, acad. V.P. Zinchenko. 2003 ... Great Psychological Encyclopedia

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Humanitarian sciences- social sciences (history, political economy, philology, etc.) in contrast to the natural and technical sciences. Oddly enough, the humanities for the most part study predominantly non-humanoid processes ... Theoretical aspects and foundations of the ecological problem: interpreter of words and idiomatic expressions

HUMANITARIAN SCIENCES- in a broad sense, the science of all products of human activity (the science of culture). In a more special sense, the science of the products of the spiritual creative activity of man (the science of the spirit). They are distinguished from the natural sciences that study nature, ... ... Philosophy of Science: Glossary of Basic Terms

Humanitarian sciences- (from Latin humanitas human nature, education) social sciences that study a person and his culture (as opposed to natural and technical sciences) ... Research activity. Dictionary

HUMANITARIAN SCIENCES- English. humanities; German Humanwissenschaften. Sciences that study the phenomena of culture in their various manifestations and development (for example, literature); G. n., with an emphasis on social. the nature of human activity and his works, are societies, sciences ... ... Explanatory Dictionary of Sociology

Humanitarian sciences- Philosophy, art criticism, literary criticism ... Sociology: a dictionary

division of social and human sciences into social and human sciences- DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL HUMANITIES INTO SOCIAL AND HUMANITIES A methodological approach based on the heterogeneity of the sciences of man and society and problematizing the concept of "social humanities". On the one hand, there is... ... Encyclopedia of Epistemology and Philosophy of Science

Books

• Russian professorship (XVIII - early XX century). Humanitarian sciences. Biographical Sciences. Volume 1. A-I, V. A. Volkov, M. V. Kulikova, V. S. Loginov. The volume contains biographies of professors who occupied humanities departments in higher educational institutions of Russia - theologians, historians, philologists, philosophers, economists and linguists. Peculiarity…
• Humanities Univ. enc. schoolboy, Arranged in alphabetical order, encyclopedic articles on history, regional studies, art, social sciences and other humanities will not only help schoolchildren ...

Instruction

There are quite a few such sciences and areas that combine several disciplines at once:
- at first glance, a rather unusual humanitarian discipline (combines geophilosophy, cognitive geography, cultural landscape science, staticization, and others);
- art history;
- cultural geography;
- science of science (including scientometrics, scientific ethics, psychology of science, factology, etc.);
- ;
- psycholinguistics;
- psychology;
- religious studies;
- rhetoric;
- philosophy;
- Philology (linguistics, semiotics and many other disciplines);
- cultural studies;
- social science and.

This list contains only the largest humanities and their groups, but this list is far from being the most complete, since all possible disciplines are rather difficult due to their large number.

It is also interesting that the body of humanities took shape quite late - only at the beginning of the 19th century, when it was characterized by the words "science of the spirit." For the first time, this term was used by Schiel in the translation of the work “System of Logic” by J. St. Mill. Not a small role in the formation of these disciplines was also played by the work of V. Dilthey "Introduction to the Sciences of the Spirit" (1883), in which the author substantiated the principle of humanitarian methodology and considered a number of fundamentally important issues. It was the German Dilthey who introduced another term - "objectification of life", which helped to consider the problem of interpreting the historically existing forms of scientific knowledge.

The famous Russian scientist M.M. Bakhtin, in turn, believed that the main task of this humanitarian research is the problem of understanding both speech and text as an objective cultural reality. It is through the textual, and not through the formula designation, that one can understand the subject of study, since knowledge is the embodiment of the text, its intentions, grounds, reasons, goals and design. Thus, in the type of disciplines under consideration, the primacy remains with speech and text, as well as its meaning and the so-called hermeneutic research.

The latter concept appeared thanks to such a science as hermeneutics, which is the very art of interpretation, correct interpretation and understanding. In the 20th century, it developed into one of the areas of philosophy, based on a literary text. A person sees the surrounding reality exclusively through the prism of the cultural layer surrounding him or through the totality of a certain number of basic texts.

The natural sciences convey to mankind the totality of the available knowledge about natural processes and phenomena. The concept of "natural science" itself developed very actively in the 17th-19th centuries, when scientists specializing in it were called natural scientists. The main difference between this group and the humanities or social sciences lies in the field of study, since the latter are based on human society, and not on natural processes.

Instruction

The basic sciences related to the concept of "natural" are astronomy, and geology, which over time could change and combine, interacting with each other. It is in this way that such disciplines as geophysics, soil science, autophysics, climatology, physical chemistry and physics arose.

Physics and its classical theory was formed during the lifetime of Isaac Newton, and then developed through the work of Faraday, Ohm and Maxwell. In the 20th century, there was a revolution in this science, which showed the imperfection of the traditional theory. Not the last role in this was played by Albert Einstein, who preceded the real physical "boom" during the Second World War. In the 40s of the last century, the creation of the atomic bomb became a powerful stimulus for the development of this science.

Chemistry was a continuation of earlier alchemy and began with Robert Boyle's famous work The Skeptical Chemist, published in 1661. Later, within the framework of this science, the so-called critical thinking, which developed during the time of Cullen and Black, began to actively develop. Well, one cannot ignore the atomic masses and the outstanding invention of Dmitry Mendeleev in 1869 (the periodic law of the universe).

The studies are often identified with or overlap with the social sciences, while being contrasted with the natural and abstract sciences on the basis of subject and method criteria. In the humanities, if accuracy is important, for example, the description of a historical event, then clarity of understanding of this event is even more important. [ ]

Unlike the natural sciences, where subject-object relations predominate, in the humanities we are talking mainly about subject-subject relations (in connection with which the need for intersubjective relations, dialogue, communication with another is postulated).

The humanities include philosophy, cultural studies, religious studies, philology, linguistics, literary criticism, art history, partly (in interaction with the social sciences) history, psychology, anthropology, ethnography, cognitive science, as well as a number of other, non-conventional disciplines, for example, studying the metamorphoses of man and mankind under the influence of the techno-environment (techno-humanistics).

Humanities is a field self-knowledge And self-creation man and humanity. No matter what humanities writings are written about: about the aesthetics of the Italian Renaissance or about the epic tales of ancient India, about the mutual influence of the Romance and Germanic languages, or about the Kantian philosophy of time and space, everywhere we see the image of man in his various incarnations. We compare ourselves with them, find similarities and differences, which means we get to know ourselves deeper and at the same time become more human. [ ]

Humanities teach:

understand and express yourself;

understand other people and communicate with them;

understand other cultures and eras;

understand the goals of mankind and the course of history;

consciously build your personality in creative interaction with other individuals and cultures;

History of occurrence

One can also note the transformation of the traditional division of sciences, leading its history from Aristotle along the lines of Kant - Cohen - Bakhtin. Namely, the separation of the logical, ethical, aesthetic and in a very special way the religious experience of responsibility.

1. In logic, the causal relations of the objective in the sense of natural scientific rationality are considered, in this respect the world is considered from the position of the subject, which objectifies and arranges the objects of the world of existence. In a way, this is a certain scale of the attitude towards the world of phenomena as a universal and absolute substance.
2. In ethics, the attitude to the other as to oneself, in this area significant moral maxims and references to authority are formulated.
3. In aesthetics, we are talking about the relationship between the author and the hero, the viewer and the work. In this regard, two consciousnesses that do not coincide with each other always collide, where one completes the other in all moments transgredient (background, image, decoration, etc.) to it.
4. The area of ​​religion correlates with the ethical, but goes beyond this division, since it is about communication with God (including reading religious literature, the form of this communication, etc.).

Here, first of all, we are dealing with Cohen's idea of ​​predetermined research in a chosen way and attitude to description, or, in the words of G. Cohen, "the methodology of the approach constitutes the subject of research."

Subject and method

In Martin Heidegger's article "The Time of the Picture of the World" we read that in the humanities the criticism of sources (their discovery, selection, verification, use, preservation and interpretation) corresponds to the experimental study of nature in the natural sciences.

But the main task of humanitarian research, according to Bakhtin, lies in the problem of understanding speech and text as objectifications of a productive culture. In the humanities, understanding passes through the text - through questioning the text in order to hear what can only be said: intentions, grounds, reasons for the goal, the intentions of the author. This understanding of the meaning of the utterance moves in the mode of analysis of speech or text, the life event of which, "that is, its true essence, always develops at the boundary of two consciousnesses, two subjects" (this is the meeting of two authors).

Thus, the primary given of all disciplines of the humanities is speech and text, and the main method is the reconstruction of meaning and hermeneutic research.
The key problem in the humanities is the problem of understanding.

Humanities and Humanitarian Technologies

The goal of humanistics is self-consciousness and self-transformation of a person, not only an individual, but the whole of humanity. The humanities, not limited to a purely research approach, are called upon to change what they study Hence one of the most acute methodological questions: about the practical, constructive potential of the humanities, about their impact on the consciousness of society, on ethics, on culture, literature, art, language . If the natural sciences transform nature through technology, and the social sciences transform society through politics, then the humanities are still in the process of developing methods for their practical impact on culture. .