An Overview on the Humanities

Humanities, to my understanding, is the study of human culture and experience. People studying the humanities try to understand and find meaning as to what makes us so human. Additionally people utilize either literature, philosophy, music and the arts, or events that took place in history in order to process and interpret our understanding of how the world functions. The humanistic study is vital for the same reason that it allows us to understand human action and feel a connection. With such interpretation we are given the opportunity to discover who we really are and why we commit certain actions.

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When the word "war" comes to mind images of guns, ammunition, artillery, industrial activity, death and devastation often plague our very minds. We also think of our soldiers in combat that are fighting for our values, our freedom. Our history of civil and world wars that our country has fought have added to our interpretation of war. It is now often categorized as negative and we question its ethicality due to the violence and numerous blood baths being shed. With the study of humanities, we can overlook beyond those traits of war and seek to understand the motives as to why they occur and analyze the perspectives of the people whom are involved. This topic is featured in this course because war is a force that turns man into a nonetheless victim. This topic will ultimately cause us to encounter the opinions, values, and crucial human experiences that can help shape our comprehensions of war.