Drs. Kelly and Jeremy Elliott introduce how the various fields under the broad umbrella of the humanities–disciplines like philosophy, literature, history, and religion–explore the world. While these various disciplines have their own unique perspectives, they share a common approach that leads scholars to group them together: they all seek to understand and express the complexities of human experience.
Unlike the natural sciences, the humanities do not focus their exploration on the empirical world. A philosopher, unlike a chemist, is not going to conduct experiments to generate data and test hypotheses. How does a philosopher (or a literary scholar, historian, or theologian, for that matter) conduct research? Because her conclusions can’t be tested through empirical experiments, does that make them less valuable or true?
- Here is the Humanities Case Study from Chapter 4 of the textbook.
http://vimeo.com/71446626
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Spotlight Resources
The Human Experience
Historians Fight Back
A “Fourth Culture” of Knowledge
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Kelly Elliott is an assistant professor in the Department of History and the sponsor for ACU’s chapter of the national history honors society, Phi Alpha Theta. Dr. Jeremy Elliott teaches in the Department of Language and Literature and enjoys studying American nature writers. When not teaching, writing, or researching, the Elliotts are avid backpackers and campers.