Humanities Values

Humanities Values

Alan Liu

A.

Humanities

Content and

Approaches

D.

Ultimate

Values

Public Good

• Service (to communities and society)
• National citizenship
• Global engagement & responsibility

Content and Methods of the Humanities

• Knowledge of historical and present human society;
• Knowledge of the languages and artifacts that are the record of human society;
• Knowledge of methods for discovering, preserving, studying, interpreting, and communicating the human record;
• Knowledge of the creative arts that experiment with a wide range of social and cultural experience;
• Knowledge of new intersections of the humanities and other disciplines, including the sciences.

(A) Through its content and approaches, the humanities (including the arts and interpretive social sciences) train students in (B) core competencies whose unique feature is that they are embedded integrally with each other--so that, for example, thinking and communication "skills" are linked tightly to a sense of self-understanding and the understanding of others in the world. (C) Such linkage results in the core values instilled by the humanities: ethics, discovery, creativity, and self-expression. (D) These values contribute to the ultimate values of society by making the quest for private good (e.g., a good career) and for public good (e.g., good citizenship) a common quest. The humanities build people whose personal well-being is wedded to public well-being, or "wealth" in the original sense of the word.

Private Good

• Well-rounded and meaningful individual life
• Flexibility of options for careers, especially those in which creativity, ability to understand the world, critical judgment, and engagement with complex situations are needed

B.

Humanities

Competencies

(embedded in

each other)

Humanities Skills

• Perceptive observation of complex situations & situations with incomplete data
• Analytical thinking
• Critical thinking
• Creative thinking
• Communication skills (spoken, print, multimedia, digital literacy)

C.

Humanities

Values

Core Values of the Humanities

The unique value of the humanities is that its skillset is integrally embedded in and related to the understanding of oneself and the understanding of others

• Ethics: the humanities embed knowledge and skills in a serious and expansive horizon of ethical reflection
• Discovery: the humanities instil a will to discover expansive horizons of knowledge
• Creativity: The humanities encourage creative thought across disciplines and boundaries
• Expression: The humanities foster self-expression and communication

Understanding of Oneself

• Understanding one’s self
• Understanding one’s community
• Understanding one’s nation and region

Understanding of Others

• Understanding the diversity of humanity
• Understanding other viewpoints
• Empathy or engagement with others
• Sense of community

Nov. 27, 2012