Why the humanities matter

1. THE HUMANITIES
are about what it is to be human.
The Humanities are academic
disciplines that seek to appreciate
and interpret the human
experience, from individuals to
entire cultures, engaging in the
discover, preservation, and
communication of the PAST and
PRESENT record to enable a
deeper understanding of
contemporary society.

2. EMPATHY
The humanities help us
understand others through
their languages, histories
and cultures.

3. JUSTICE
The humanities foster
social justice and equality.

4. ANALYSIS
The humanities teach us to
deal critically and logically
with subjective, complex,
imperfect information.

5. MORALITY
The humanities reveal how
people have tried to make
moral, spiritual and
intellectual sense of the
world.

6. MULTIFACETED
The humanities teach us to
weigh evidence skeptically
and consider more than
one side of every question.

7. COMMUNICATION
The humanities students
build skills in writing and
critical reading.

8. QUESTIONS
The value of the humanities
is more often the questions
posed, rather than the
answers found. The
humanistic study is not
formulaic.

9. CREATIVITY
The humanities encourage
us to think creatively. They
teach us to reason about
being human and to ask
questions about our world.

10. CIVICS
The humanities develop
informed and critical
citizens. Without the
humanities, democracy
could not flourish.

11. SCIENC
E
The renowned scientist E.
O. Wilson recently
described the humanities
as “the natural history of
culture, and our most
private and precious
heritage”. The humanities
are the study of what
makes us human, of what it
means to be human. As
they penetrate every aspect
of existence, they can, and
should, intersect with the
natural and social sciences.

12. INFORMATION
Terras, M., Priego, E.,
Rockwell, G. and Thomas,
L. (2013). "The Humanities
Matter!"
www.4humanities.org
Sarah Churchwell: Why the
humanities matter,
November 13, 2014.
https://www.timeshigheredu
cation.com