Humanities

CHAPTER 1

GENERAL OVERVIEW OF

THE HUMANITIES

The Meaning, Importance, and scope of Humanities

* The word comes from Latin word humanus which means human, cultured, and refined.

* To be human is to have or show qualities like rationality, kindness, and tenderness.

* Thus, the term humanities refers to ARTS – visual arts such as architecture; painting and sculpture; music; dance; the theater and drama; and literature.

* ART is very important in our lives. It constitute one of the oldest and most important means of expression developed by man.

* ART like love, is hard to define . It concerns itself with communication of certain ideas and feelings by means of a sensuous medium- color, sounds, bronze, marble, words and film.

* In every age or country, there is always ART. Wherever we go, whether it be a city or a province, here or abroad, we surely pass buildings of various sorts – houses, schools, churches, stores, etc. We look at some of them with awe and admiration.

* ART like love, is hard to define . It concerns` itself with communication of certain ideas and feelings by means of a sensuous medium- color, sounds, bronze, marble, words and film.

PURPOSES OF ART

1. TO CREATE BEAUTY

Art has always added beauty to our lives. At times, artists have considered nature as the standard of beauty. Other times, the artist has aimed to improve upon nature, developing an alternate standard – an idealized form. However, one art form needs not to be seen as intrinsically superior to the other. Standards of beauty in and of them are by no means universal – for beauty is in the eye of the society’s beholder.

2. TO PROVIDE DECORATION

Works of arts have been used to create pleasing environments, paintings, sculpture and photographs find their way into rooms, courts, and gardens for use as decorations.

3. TO REVEAL THRUTH

Artist have pursued truth and attempted to reveal it, truth about how the...