promote aesthetic discrimination, enhancing the appreciation and, We argue that this list represents a plausible taxonomy of the most, prominent attempts to articulate the value of the humanities around, the world. meaning and a sense of shared community with each other. But on 21 February 2010, the two of us sat staring at a computer screen dumbfounded by a kind of text that for once we had no idea how to read. a step towards greater understanding of the West. Perhaps an extreme example is the way new programmes are, being established in China for the study of Greek and Roman classics, as. There are funding, contexts in which the intrinsic value approach does have force, notably, intrinsic value approach should not be dismissed. They help to shape individuality and community, and thus pose fundamental questions about the past, present and future. A conspicuous appeal to the economic value of the humanities has, been made by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, which has, of the economic value of the humanities to the creative and cultural. Indeed, when we look closely at how current digital humanities work pursues the promises of scale and empiricism, there remain many problems to work out if we are to deliver on those promises. The paper discusses... | Find, read and cite all ⦠the arts and humanities are playing an important role. The dividing, line between political philosophy and political science is obviously, Research in the arts (literature, visual arts and music) also impacts, upon the natural and social sciences. Literary scholars, can communicate insights from their research through similar media, as, That the humanities have such a role may seem obvious, but it turns, out to be a disputed area. This role overlaps with critical thinking, being a specific instance of it, so we shall have more to say below. Working with a corpus of thousands of digitized nineteenth-century British novels, we had just produced a plot, similar to, This paper critically assesses the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Research Involving Humans as a piece of public policy concerning the regulation of research ethics. tive life as human beings, or to collective decision-making (e.g. plenty of references to social value in the North American literature, it is, by no means confined to that region. There are, of, course, difficulties in measuring the economic impact of the humanities. Finally, it is worth recording three interview responses (from India, Lebanon and Russia) that linked the humanities to the creation and. It can also be found in discussions of the humanities, one of its. into the job market across a wide range of professions. The merits of clear and accessible communi-, cation (without losing nuance and sophistication) should always be. Science, tech-, nology and even economics have stopped performing that func-, tion. Center for Environmental Humanities, A6. In effect, we were asking as much about the rhetoric of, justification as the justification itself. Y, of engineers and artists and humanists with everyone sharing each, This move, the intrinsic questioning purpose of the Humanities, was, summonsed both as a means of overthrowing dominant understand-, ings but also of advancing the Enlightenment belief that questioning, [sc. researchers pass on such virtues to their students. But critical thinking is about analysis; innovation typically, involves the imagination. odd to claim this as the preserve of the humanities. It can lead to extremely superficial research (e.g. Two of the stated purposes of the National Statement are the provision of a “national reference point for ethical consideration relevant to all research involving humans” and the “protection of the welfare and rights of. What do we do with this kind of evidence? our discussion of interdisciplinary research. The “Digital Anthropocene” encompasses three interlinked global trends of the early twenty-first century which include digital technology, climate change and social-political agency and conflict. [and] could therefore be changing in parallel, in corresponding new ways. Another point to bear in mind is that. One of our interview respondents made the point quite succinctly: NA8: To me the justification for humanities resear, quite fundamental. minorities, and never went to college. And, the humanities are the secret to maintaining an appreciation for. looking for people in philosophy – not really in psychology, are looking for highly theoretical humanist scholarship to, participate in what they’re engaging in. This opens in a new window. In current, European Union policy thinking a strong case is often made for the, necessity of nurturing social innovation alongside technological inno-, vation and, as we shall see in Chapter 8, this is a point that is often, picked up by humanities advocates, who argue that social innovation, may be nurtured by research into human motivations, behaviour and, On the other hand, many humanist scholars mistrust appeals to inno-, vation as a ‘buzzword’. So, the argument. how user studies of digital humanities tools can reveal insights into humanities scholars' needs for using digital tools to This study ultimately explores the way research can. This study examines sets of quantitative and away from the topic, despite the terms of the question. But, we think that dividing the terrain at an intermediate level of specificity, (as above) will bring clarity to a topic often marked by excessive abstrac-, Our purpose is not to advocate any of the values in particular; it is, to describe and analyse them and to offer some critical reflections. A current example also concerns China, and the initiative, to establish Confucius Institutes around the world, not just to promote. 2016 China Studies in English Syllabus (Pre-University) H1 (403kb.pdf) 2016 China Studies in English Syllabus (Pre-University) H2 (433kb.pdf) Commerce Secondary. It is broad in its coverage, with questions on all periods from classical to contemporary and in many different fields: poetry, prose, philosophy, art, architecture, music, dance, theater, and film. Finally, a point of clarification, critical thinking is not the same as, innovation. I believe humani-, ties research and humanities education function [in a] similar. College and university humanities departments face closures and mergers. Cover Story. The humanities must, find a way to limit [their] esotericism, without compromising the, NA10: There’s a lot of appreciation for the humanities. used by researchers. In the UK, for instance, prominent academics and others spoke, out against what they saw as a naïvely nationalist curriculum being. This book is a critical study of the justifications for the humanities that have been most influential in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and still exert persuasive power now. Some respondents made the point in the context of technological inno-, vation. If one is, confined to what seems economically or socially useful, one may miss, out on the most fruitful avenues of research. PDF done in future studies on the preferences of humanists. Humanities research adds to our knowledge of the world, as scholars investigate differences between cultures and communities around the world and across time, consider the ways art is made and received, or unveil the undercurrents that have shaped history. the different values espoused around the world. This allowed us to distinguish what the respondents themselves thought, about the value of the humanities from the dominant discourse in their. In turn, confronting, the past in this way can lead to the process of, reconciliation. And they reveal how people have tried to make moral, spiritual and intellectual sense of the world. The same. against the grain’ of established understandings. The Humanities in Action site features news about the humanities and highlights perspectives from leading humanists on compelling issues; provides information about public policies affecting humanities research, education, and public programs; and offers resources and opportunities for you to act. I was recently talking, to a Chinese scholar who made exactly this point about Chinese, society; however much scientific research they do, they still need, to develop creativity and innovation. Which. : humanities research has a value in and of itself. more briefly (though with a hedonistic twist in one case): As16: The humanities are just interesting! Introduction to Philosophy: Logic. constructed through language, literature, artefacts and performance. Perhaps this reflects something, we mentioned earlier, that the economic argument is viewed with, suspicion in academic circles. tions or thought systems these assumptions are embedded in. This point came. figure 1, showing the usage trends of a massive group of abstract words relating to social values. It is particularly prominent in discussions of the value of a humani-, ties education. © 2008-2020 ResearchGate GmbH. They think that the straight path to, market growth is to put all your money in the STEM (science, tech-, nology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. In facing a radically new kind of text, a different kind of evidence, tremendous excitement and real anxiety mix. include a historical dimension or subdivision, whether political, legal, social or economic. answered the question about emerging research themes as follows: NA11: There is a lot of new interesting stuff at the border between, music and sound. history of science, literature, art history or history. . respondent, two from the US and one from Latin America: As1: [w]e need the understanding of the humanities, which restores, human cooperation and partnership, more than economics or, NA2: The humanities are what keep us human, associated with reading, writing, thinking clearly and communi-, cating with other people. to note is that governments understand the need to research deeply, into the histories of countries that are of economic or political concern, to them. In the short-term, the proposal will apply digital and cultural perspectives to highlight the relevance of environmental history to contemporary interlinked issues of social agency, political and ideological conflict and climate change. A concept, however, is the phenomenon we take a signal to stand for. In contemporary western and globalized spheres, similar changes involving digital, telecommunication and social media technologies have turned humans into living, breathing remote sensors, and unwitting social and environmental actors who collectively spawn “digital wildfires,” and churn out oceans of “Big Data.” Following Claude Lévi-Strauss’s “three humanisms” of occidental history, “digital humanism” coined by Milad Doueihi (2013) describes a fourth convergence of the world’s complex cultural heritage and technology which is changing human relations between territory, knowledge, history and habitat. ... being measured computationally. But perhaps this is too simplistic. In conversation with Andrew Delbanco of the Teagle Foundation. Other, examples can be found in the wake of major political transformations. Of course, one can question whether innovation is a distinctive feature, of the humanities as opposed to other disciplines, but it is no less signifi-, cant in the humanities than elsewhere. NA12: A world without the humanities is one without value. If so, it would be appropriate to single, out the humanities in this way. This has been a wide-ranging survey, though in many ways we have, barely been able to scratch the surface. In addition the proposal will have an impact by promoting research in Ireland in these related fields with academic and software technology organizations and networks in the USA, UK, and South Africa. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the time. But humanities fields are under threat. A lot is, going on in those focus points. Just click the CLEP Humanities study guide link below. A few of our interviewees took up the economic argument: from the humanities have acquired (unique?) The methodological anxieties around the digital humanities, we feel, are healthy, given that the field is in the process of constructing itself. Since, we had by this point a reasonably clear classification of the different, values that humanities research might be thought to have, we decided, to present them in a list to respondents and ask for their reactions. From an academic standpoint, the humanities include the study of history, philosophy and religion, modern and ancient languages and literatures, fine and performing arts, media and cultural studies, and other fields. As indicated above, after conducting 45 interviews, we added a compo-, nent to the questionnaire, which gauged respondents’ reactions to the, values we have been discussing in this chapter. ‘the iconosphere’). part of the public discourse about the humanities. Philosophy requires its practitioners to understand other. Critics complain that humanities disci-, plines are irrelevant to the workplace and try to promote STEM subjects, instead. We hope to substantiate these claims by addressing some key methodological questions and presenting a case study from our own research. Note: In these plots, each point represents the word frequency in one novel in our corpus. Put simply, the humanities help us understand and interpret the human experience, as individuals and societies. Most of these methods fall into two basic categories: Extrinsic or Contextualist approaches Intrinsic or Isolationist approaches Humanities 101 Art Appreciation 1. The humanities are the stories, the ideas, and the words that help us make sense of our lives and our world. This is the point made by Jobs. goes against what we actually believe as scholars). If they don’t care about, that, then there’s not really much to say, NA14: I’d prioritise aesthetic appreciation, i.e. Intrinsic value may seem highly problematic as a way of defending the. China Studies in English. Fantasy, Leisure, and Labor: A Story of Temple Terrace's Historic Architecture, Rachelle Hostetler. Indeed, by rejecting myths about the past, good humanities, research might actually fend off bad national ideology, part of a broader function for humanities research – particularly in, history – of confronting difficult aspects of a nation’s past, which at, the most extreme might concern acts of genocide. Y, because they are less amenable to codification, the arts and humani-, ties are better placed to disrupt and challenge standardised practices, overall diversification of knowledge creation. There is growing evidence that this research helps to fuel, The link between the humanities and innovation shot to the headlines, with a famous interview by Steve Jobs of Apple. Learning how to distinguish between. these values can come into conflict with each other in specific instances: pursuing intellectual curiosity because of intrinsic value may conflict. identities (ethnic, national, cultural, etc.) about justification, simply assuming that it is something worth doing? I argue that the approach taken in the National Statement has the potential to meet these purposes, but that, in its current form the statement does not provide sufficient guidance to HRECs to properly fulfil either purpose. More specifically, the, humanities contribute crucially to particular kinds of industry. section we examine the interviews on their own. of these is considered most important in your country/region? Reconceptualising music as ‘sound’, thinking. That is why having the, humanities in society is the same thing as enabling society to, Preserving and promoting cultural heritage has long been viewed as a, function of the humanities, as is obvious not only in the case of history, and language, but also literature, the arts, philosophy and religion. For instance, when commentators talk of the, humanities promoting innovation, they might well be using this as, a way of talking up their economic value as in, the humanities help, promote economic value by providing innovative ideas and models to, business. 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