humanités

Humanités, or the humanities, is a branch of knowledge that studies human culture, experience, and values. It explores how people create meaning through language, art, history, belief, and social life. The field emphasizes interpretation, critical analysis, historical context, and ethical reflection rather than empirical measurement or natural-science experimentation.

Disciplines commonly included are philosophy, literature, languages, history, archaeology, classics, art history, musicology, religious studies, and cultural studies. Some approaches also draw on linguistics, anthropology, or rhetoric. Methods are diverse, including close reading, philology, textual and source analysis, historiography, hermeneutics, comparative and cross-cultural inquiry, and the study of discourse and representation.

Historically, the humanities trace their roots to classical education and the studia humanitatis of the Renaissance, which emphasized grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy. In the modern era, the humanities became a formalized field within higher education, distinct from the sciences, and expanded to include critical theory, aesthetics, and digital humanities, the latter applying computation to textual and cultural data.

Universities offer bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs in the humanities. They are central to liberal-arts curricula and to cultural and intellectual life, contributing to fields such as education, publishing, public policy, and the arts. The term "humanities" is used differently in different regions; in English-speaking contexts it is the umbrella for the field, while in some European languages the local term reflects national educational traditions.

Debates around the humanities focus on their relevance, funding, interdisciplinarity, and how to balance traditional study with contemporary social needs. Proponents argue that humanities cultivate critical thinking, ethical reflection, and cultural literacy, supporting informed citizenship in diverse societies.