DEFINING THE “HUMANITIES” (borrowed from the best by D. Brenner)
The disciplines loosely grouped under the term “humanities” generally include languages,
literature, the arts, history, cultural studies, philosophy, and religion. The study of the humanities is an
investigation of what humans do and have done, in groups and as individuals. More specifically, the
humanities examines human institutions and works, the values embodied in those institutions and
works, and the range of artistic and philosophical responses to the human condition.
A humanities education is ”not intended to prepare students for a specific vocation. Rather, the
critical thinking, civic and historical knowledge and ethical reasoning that the humanities develop have a
different purpose: They are prerequisites for personal growth and participation in a free democracy,
regardless of career choice” (Patricia Cohen, The New York Times, 2009)
The essence of a humanities education — reading the great literary and philosophical works and
coming “to grips with the question of what living is for” (Anthony Kronman, NY Times, 2009).
But is the study of the humanities a luxury that some cannot afford? “Even if we read books and
talk about them for four years, and then do something else more obviously remunerative, it won’t be
time wasted. We need the humanities not because they will produce shrewder entrepreneurs or kinder
C.E.O.s but because . . . they help us enjoy life more and endure it better. [So, the] reason we need the
humanities is because we’re human. That’s enough” (Adam Gopnick, New Yorker, 2013).