Humanities in Life

Running head: HUMANITIES IN LIFE
Humanities in Life
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HUMANITIES IN LIFE
Humanities are generally understood as the study of human experience, society and
the relation of human beings to the world. There is no single definition that can encompass
the entirety or the vastness of this particular academic discipline. Many scholars have tried to
define humanities, although there is no unanimous view in this regard.
Human beings are uniquely identified by their inquisitive nature. As a rational being,
human beings tried to understand and explain everything they came across. As human
civilization grew, the refinement of human knowledge has culminated to systematic branches
of study. The fundamentals questions of life such as the nature of the world, identity of an
individual, the relation between these two have led scholars to look deeper into the world
around them. Since the ancient ages, people have tried to come up with answers to these
questions (Tay, Pawelski & Keith, 2018). Eventually, these subject matters was specialized by
scholars and later categorized into the study of human experience on one hand, and the study
of the world on the other. Thus, these two branches paved the way for the further
development of humanities and natural science respectively.
The study of humanities can broadly be described as the documentation of human
experience of the world. Philosophy, literature, history, language, law, music, art etc. all
come under the umbrella of humanities (Small, 2013). Essentially, it is understood as the
subject matter that has human beings in its central focus (Martin & Jacobus, 2014). The
discipline is called humanities for it is understood as a medium to instil the notion of
humanity, a quality of being benevolent and humane.

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HUMANITIES IN LIFE
The study of humanities leads to understand the nuances of human experience.
However, the peculiarity of this academic discipline is that it lacks unanimity among the
thoughts and theories it presents. For this reason, people have eventually turned to sciences
for a more structured and systematic approach. It is generally understood that there is a basic
difference between science and humanities, or more specifically, arts. The division that has
been construed between these two branches of study has its base in the ancient understanding
of artes and scientiae, the notion of human culture as opposed to nature. However, modern
approach towards the study of humanities has become more interdisciplinary. Moreover, they
science and humanities do not work in isolation, as the findings from these two academic
disciplines complement each other to grasp a holistic picture of the world.
However, Humanities essentially differs from the natural sciences as well as
the social sciences mostly due to the distinct approaches it follows. Natural sciences adopt
empirical approaches as compared to the exploratory approach of humanities. It is often
compared with social sciences. However, there are some key differences between these two
academic disciplines Humanities is more speculative than definitive. Also, the study of
humanities adopt an analytic and critical approach towards its subject matter, whereas social
sciences follow empirical methods and scientific frameworks. Hence, social sciences are
regarded as scientific as compared to the humanities. Moreover, humanities rely a great deal
on thoughts and theories in explaining the subject matters. Hence, it is considered to be
philosophical, rather than scientific (Winch, 2015). Another demarcating feature of humanities