Key Traditions and Ideas Influencing Our Culture

Key Traditions and Ideas Influencing Our Culture

Humanities can be defined as academic disciplines that study culture and human society. In modern times, the humanities are known to be fields of study that are away from professional training in mathematics and natural and social science. Humanity disciplines include history, philosophy, religion, art, linguistics, literature, archaeology, ethics, and more (Bod et al., 2016). These disciplines are commonly known as social sciences since they have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods. The humanities, in most cases, are organized as school or administrative divisions in many colleges and universities around the world. The contemporary conception of humanities has its roots in classic Greek paideia, a course of general education right from the sophists in the mid-5th century that prepared men for active citizenship ((Bod et al., 2016). This training program was meant to train orators in mathematics, philosophical studies, linguistics, Christian education, and history. Thus, humanity is an aspect that has a long history.

Linguistics is the study of languages and the unconscious knowledge that people have about language. It examines how children learn the language, the language structure, and how language tends to vary (Bod et al., 2016).  Philosophy is the study of the essential nature of knowledge, and reality means the love of wisdom. In other words, philosophy is an activity that people undertake when they seek to understand. History is a discipline that involves the chronological record of events based on examining the source of materials (Bod et al., 2016). History uses narratives to describe, question, explore, and analyze historical events and investigate their patterns to understand what happened.  On the other hand, ethics is a branch of philosophy that entails defending and recommending the concepts of right and wrong behaviors. It concerns the aspects of value.

There are many reasons why people or society should study humanities. Martha Nussbaum, an American philosopher in the early 21st century, asserted the importance of studying humanities in education. She argued that humanities help maintain a healthy democracy that fosters a deeper understanding of human concerns and values (Bod et al., 2016). She added that societies enable the study to rise above the parochial perspectives and the bondage of habits and traditions to change into genuine world citizens. The second reason we should study humanities is that understanding human behaviors, cultures, societies, and economies can significantly redefine the important decisions we need to make (Verma, 2002).  Some of these decisions may involve the future of economic ways of strengthening education at all levels and dealing with climate and constitutional change. It is also essential to study humanities because they teach how people have created their world and how the world has, in turn, created them.

It is essential to learn humanities because they help people understand others through their languages, histories, art, and cultures. Social justice and equality are fostered when people in society understand one another (Taskaya, 2019).  Thus, humanities help reveal how individuals in the community have made moral, spiritual, and intellectual sense of the world. Studying humanities helps expand peoples’ knowledge of human cultures, thus understanding what binds them together with others and what differentiates them from one another (Verma, 2002). Moreover, studying humanities enables people to understand different cultures to communicate and understand their shared pasts and present differences. This helps in finding solutions to the problems facing society that have come due to the differences.

Art is part of the culture and, thus, can significantly influence the culture of specific people. Art influences culture by changing opinions, instilling values, and translating ideas across time. In other words, art is a sense of communication that allows people from different cultures and times to communicate using images, stories, and sounds (Taskaya, 2019). Thus, art influences culture as a social change; in other words, art promotes communication between cultures since it is a universal language that helps break cultural barriers and gives people some respect for their beliefs (Bowen, 2013).  The second way art influences culture is that art preserves history. Art is known to be the best preservers of history, which hugely impacts culture and society. Art infuses people with respect for history and thus can influence the way people see and appreciate the world. Thirdly, art helps in changing peoples’ opinions (Verma, 2002). Art messages tend to go right past the logical mind and into the people’s hearts, where decisions can be changed.

On the other hand, culture affects art. The culture of a particular society tends to influence the artists’ work by shaping their worldview. Culture dictates which colors, patterns, symbols, and shapes they should use in making a certain artwork (Taskaya, 2019). This is because each culture identifies itself with specific colors, logos, shapes, and patterns. Therefore, artists cannot just pick on any color or pattern when making art belonging to a particular culture. They will always consider these aspects in their artwork so that the final artistic work can reflect the culture of the people whose jobs are related (Bowen, 2013). Culture also influences art since it provides the background against which the work of art is created. For example, pottery is predominant in some cultures, while painting is dominant in other cultures. Therefore, the artists from the painting dominant cultures will always prefer painting to pottery. Likewise, those from the pottery culture will pick pottery to paint.

References

Bod, R et al. (2016). A New Field: History of Humanities. The University of Chicago Press Journals. Volume 1, Number 1

Bowen, D. (2013). Cultural Importance of Art. Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/284436

Taskaya, V. (2019). How does culture influence artistic work? Which examples can be given about the relationship between culture and art? Research Gate.

Verma, s. (2002).  Art and Culture: Painting and Perspective. Abhinav Publications, Vol., 2

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Competency

Identify key traditions and ideas influencing our culture.

Instructions

In a written response of one to three pages, explain in detail what the Humanities are and how they influence culture.

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