6 - Humans
from Part II - Who Needs the Humanities?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2021
Summary
Humanities are about humans. Done by humans. Relevant to humans. Who are we, those humans? We are material beings, we are bodies, always somewhere in space and time. But we are also thinking beings. For many centuries, the basic understanding of humans has been dualist: we are bodies and souls. But our mental life is tied up closely with our physical existence; dualism separates that which is fundamentally intertwined. But if we understand ourselves as material, would it not be enough to study the body – to have just medicine, biology, chemistry, and physics? What is it about humans that evokes the need for a different way of studying each other and ourselves, the humanities?
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- What Are the Humanities For? , pp. 145 - 171Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021