What are the Humanities?

A twitter thread from my week at @wethehumanities (July 2017) - and prompted by Storify closing:

So I might as well have one-last-thread during my time on We the Humanities. And it might as well be about the Humanities!

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

My understanding of the Humanities is, like most people I suppose, grounded really in what it is that I have studies. That is, Classics.

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

Classics is an interesting discipline because it is inherently very interdisciplinary. That has been good, and bad, for the discipline.

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

What I mean is that I rather think that for a long time classicists didn't interact with outside disciplines. That's most obvious when...

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

...we look at methodological advancement in classics sub-disciplines vs comparable disciplines. For instance: the way we looked at...

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

... religion was different to religious studies and other historical religious scholars were looking at it. Obviously this is extremely...

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

...over simplified, and there is a HUGE amount of very excited methodological work being done in classics and ancient history. But much...

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

...of it is being done by - shall we say - 'not traditional classicists'. □ Disclaimer: not all classicists and all that.

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

But anyway, my BA pass degree actually was also in archaeology and (modern) philosophy. So my base understanding of the Humanities also...

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

...stems from those disciplines. By and large I've kept up with classical archaeology, but my philosophy knowledge is rusty as anything...

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

(I mean, beyond the point I know I never want to read Kant's Critique of Pure Reason again! □)

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

So. What are the Humanities?

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

The Humanities are about thinking through the past, present, and future implications of *being human* and *being in the world*.

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

They give us direction for thinking about doing best and doing worst, and what those two things might mean.

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

They give us the chance to be critical of ourselves and the world around us. In though, action, being, and creation.

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

The Humanities give us confidence to navigate the world. To be bold without being brash. To be compassionate and kind and rough and honest.

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

And mean. The Humanities aren't a shining beacon of All That Is Good. They also give us the opportunity to think about our darker instincts.

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

But, again - always - with critical awareness.

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

Knowing humanity gives us the tools needed to take calculated risks. In ourselves and in society.

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

Humanities are, essentially, the study of what makes us human and, at the same time, the study of why we want an answer to that question.

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017

This is, of course, my understanding, and knowledge of *my* Humanities. There will be subtly and vastly different answers from others.

— WetheHums/On Holiday (@WetheHumanities) July 2, 2017