IMPORTANCE OF HUMANITIES

The humanities can be described as the study of how people process and document the human experience. Since humans have been able, we have used philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, history and language to understand and record our world. These modes of expression have become some of the subjects that traditionally fall under the humanities umbrella. Knowledge of these records of human experience gives us the opportunity to feel a sense of connection to those who have come before us, as well as to our contemporaries.
There’s research on the impact of the humanities; there’s evidence demonstrating how studying the humanities benefits society, employers and individuals.
I’ll list here nine arguments that the humanities are important. While you read them, try to think of what you would fill in as number 10.

1. The humanities help us understand others through their languages, histories and cultures.
2. They foster social justice and equality.
3. And they reveal how people have tried to make moral, spiritual and intellectual sense of the world.
4. The humanities teach empathy.
5. They teach us to deal critically and logically with subjective, complex, imperfect information.
6. And they teach us to weigh evidence skeptically and consider more than one side of every question.
7. Humanities students build skills in writing and critical reading.
8. The humanities encourage us to think creatively. They teach us to reason about being human and to ask questions about our world.
9. The humanities develop informed and critical citizens. Without the humanities, democracy could not flourish.

         I believe these claims and I know they are based on solid research. I see much more, too. For example, I think that innovations based on research results in the natural sciences and medicine are more likely to be successful if their implementation is carried out in collaboration with humanists.