Drawing Lines (Part II): Arts vs Humanities
In dividing the disciplines, it's sometimes convenient to find some way to draw a line between two groups. The line need not be a complete division; it only has to provide some way to allow a person to say, "This is more likely X," or, "This is more likely Y."
Between the Arts and Humanities, such a line seems simple enough to construct.
The Arts are a group of disciplines in which there is primary intent to provoke an emotional response from a constructed sensory stimulus. Some of them are occasionally referred to as 'aesthetics', from the Greek word for 'sensation' — these are more direct stimulus constructs such as sculpture (tactile, visual), dance (kinetic, visual), painting (visual), music (auditory) and gastronomy (taste). Some are labelled according to their medium — language arts, for example. Some would call torture an art, since it fulfils the requirements. I don't exclude that, but I do realise that cultural significance and social agreement do play some part in deciding which disciplines, after meeting the definition, can still be considered 'arts'.
The Humanities are a group of disciplines designed around the idea of humanity. That is, they are centred around the doings of mankind and would not exist without that species. They are attempts to observe, describe, record, explain and predict the behaviours of human beings — with a deliberate bias towards excluding emotional response (although not completely). Literature, under this definition, would only be classified as a Humanities subject if the construction of literary texts and evolution of literary ideas were the core of the discipline. Geography in this context would only include the human aspects and exclude the physical aspects (which we could put in the sciences, as geology or geomorphology).
At this point, it becomes obvious that some disciplines have aspects of the Arts, the Humanities and/or the Sciences. It all boils down to a few key criteria: approach, intent, content, methodology. These criteria ('judgement points') are further refined to include things like subjectivity vs objectivity, qualitative vs quantitative, and so on.
In the next post, I'll probably be talking about technology, and what it really means.
Between the Arts and Humanities, such a line seems simple enough to construct.
The Arts are a group of disciplines in which there is primary intent to provoke an emotional response from a constructed sensory stimulus. Some of them are occasionally referred to as 'aesthetics', from the Greek word for 'sensation' — these are more direct stimulus constructs such as sculpture (tactile, visual), dance (kinetic, visual), painting (visual), music (auditory) and gastronomy (taste). Some are labelled according to their medium — language arts, for example. Some would call torture an art, since it fulfils the requirements. I don't exclude that, but I do realise that cultural significance and social agreement do play some part in deciding which disciplines, after meeting the definition, can still be considered 'arts'.
The Humanities are a group of disciplines designed around the idea of humanity. That is, they are centred around the doings of mankind and would not exist without that species. They are attempts to observe, describe, record, explain and predict the behaviours of human beings — with a deliberate bias towards excluding emotional response (although not completely). Literature, under this definition, would only be classified as a Humanities subject if the construction of literary texts and evolution of literary ideas were the core of the discipline. Geography in this context would only include the human aspects and exclude the physical aspects (which we could put in the sciences, as geology or geomorphology).
At this point, it becomes obvious that some disciplines have aspects of the Arts, the Humanities and/or the Sciences. It all boils down to a few key criteria: approach, intent, content, methodology. These criteria ('judgement points') are further refined to include things like subjectivity vs objectivity, qualitative vs quantitative, and so on.
In the next post, I'll probably be talking about technology, and what it really means.
Labels: Arts, Disciplines, Humanities
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