What is Humanities and what does Humanities mean?

Humanity itself is the meaning of human culture.

Generalized. Humanities refer to the various social phenomena of human society. In a large aspect, it can refer to the spiritual outlook and moral cultivation of society, and in a small aspect, it can refer to a person's perception and cognition of their own spiritual world.

Humanistic knowledge is the summary of human experience in understanding and transforming itself and society; The humanistic spirit is the spiritual achievement of the main body cultivated by humanistic knowledge, which is contained in the inner world of people, and can be seen in people's behaviors and their results.

Humanities is a dynamic concept. In China's "Cihai", it is written: "Humanities refers to various cultural phenomena of human society."

We know that culture is the symbols, values and norms shared by human beings, a nation or a group of people. Symbols are the foundation of culture, values are the core of culture, and norms, including customary norms, moral norms and legal norms, are the main content of culture. Humanities refers to the advanced, scientific, excellent, and healthy parts of human culture.

Moreover, its core refers to advanced values, and its main content refers to advanced norms, especially advanced legal and institutional norms, especially advanced moral and customary norms for members of society, and for young people, it is first embodied in the formation of good habits and norms. From the perspective of the history of the Renaissance, humanities should be a culture that values people.

Narrow sense. Conceptually speaking, it can be said that the humanities are the advanced and core part of human culture, that is, the advanced values and their norms. Its concentrated embodiment is to attach importance to people, respect people, care for people and love people. In short, humanities, that is, a culture that values people.

Humanities, as a gene of human culture, as a simple habit and consciousness, has existed since ancient times, whether it is the West or the East, whether it is China or a foreign country. However, as a social trend, as a universal culture, that is, more people, larger groups of people have common and more stable values and norms, which began in the Renaissance of the century, formed in the century John"Locke, Adam"Smith and the French Enlightenment, as well as the Declaration of Independence in the United States and the Declaration of the Rights of Man in France, reflected on the period of reflection of Marx, Nietzsche, and Russell at the beginning of the century, and developed in the modern period of the mid-to-late 20th century. In the development period, the two human rights declarations of the United Nations are the symbols of the legalization and internationalization of humanities, and Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the realization of self-worth are the most outstanding representatives of modern humanistic thought.

Humanity is the advanced part and core part of human culture, that is, advanced values and their norms. Its concentrated embodiment is to attach importance to people, respect people, care for people and love people. In short, humanities, that is, a culture that values people.

Humanities is a dynamic concept. "Ci Hai" wrote: "Humanities refers to various cultural phenomena of human society", and culture is the symbols, values and norms shared by human beings, a nation and a group of people.

Symbols are the foundation of culture, values are the core of culture, and norms, including customary, moral and legal norms, are the main content of culture.

Humanities refers to the advanced, scientific, excellent, and healthy parts of human culture.

Broadly speaking, it refers to culture; In a narrow sense, it refers specifically to philosophy, especially aesthetics.

Humanities classification: culture, art, aesthetics, education, philosophy, Chinese studies, history, law (i.e., norms).

Humanities: refers to various cultural phenomena of human society.

In modern society, the humanities are often seen as useless, powerless, and far removed from the lives of ordinary people, seemingly as little as harmless fetishes in an ivory tower. In the Age of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, humanism was the protagonist of public life and a bulwark of resistance to theology, but in modern times, the humanities have long been in a full-blown crisis, and are often seen as academic games that are divorced from public life. It turns out that it is necessary, if only for the sake of reviving humanism, to bring the humanities back into public life.

It is this sense of crisis that gives rise to the interdisciplinary dialogue in this book, and for the humanities, it is not only necessary to find its own meaning in modern society, but also to intervene and enrich public life. In short, "humanities" should not be just the expertise of a few, but should be a kind of universal upbringing, a kind of critical self-knowledge. The humanities must not ignore the social, political and cultural currents that are sweeping through society, politics and culture, but must be based on a comprehensive examination of these phenomena and constantly renew themselves towards a possible good life.

The Secret History of Books", by [Spain] Irene Vallejo, translated by Li Jing, Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House, April 2022. (Data map).

For the first time, books have enabled the dissemination of knowledge to break through the rapid barrier of time and space, so that we can have spiritual exchanges with people in different places and different eras, and imagine the existence of a knowledge community. Compared with the worldly daily life of eating, drinking, and merrymaking, the spiritual life brought by reading is closer to divinity and eternity, and when one is immersed in it, one can at least temporarily get rid of the heaviness of the flesh and gain some kind of transcendence.

It is conceivable that in that era when the literacy rate was extremely low, this was a knowledge activity that could only be acquired and experienced by a small number of elite groups, and only the large-scale popularization of books that accompanied the printing press could give birth to a mass knowledge society. However, it is worth noting that printing in modern Europe brought about the rise of various Chinese languages, and in the end, what appeared in front of the world was not a world where borders disappeared, but the return of the Tower of Babel. This is probably why "The Secret History of Books" re-excavates that lost world, which represents an implicit critique of the narrow intellectual life of the present.