Humanities Through the Ages: Learning about Cultures
Humanities is the study of human culture, thus humanities cover a wide scope and is available at all levels of college study. Humanities-related courses are included on majority of degree programs in the curricula. Students also have a choice to major on humanities. On graduate level, students study more deeply into art, cultural theory and its interpretation. They may do scholarly research, write dissertations or participate in seminars. At first I thought doing a humanity class would waste of time in college. I thought humanities and science did not relate. My career specifications are in science hence I thought that I could prepare using science subjects as compared to a humanity class. From a historical perspective, humanities help an upper hand until mid-19th
century (Habibi 15). The need for science majors to take humanities classes has been a contentious one. However, at the end of this class, I came to realize just how important the course was.
The humanities course has prepared me to fulfil my civic and cultural duty. The humanity class helps get insight on moral, ethical, ideological and political principles (Watson). A successful society is characterized by civility, altruism, generosity, charity and compassion. This class has helped me embrace the importance of these traits. This will help me in my career as a scientist and carrying out research studies (Habibi 4). These characteristics are key to a full and meaningful life. Attending the humanities class was beneficial since it allowed me to become familiar with the use of creative ideas and creative thinking. Biographies, history and even literature enables us to comprehend human nature and the society at large.
They first introduce the thoughts and concepts beyond areas I wanted to specialize in. This class gave me relevance on finding new pathways and improving my way of thinking concerning different aspects. For instance, Charles Darwin’s development of the theory of evolution by natural selection. In his autobiography called” On the Origin of Species”, he reveals the insight he got that led to the big discovery was the knowledge of the Malthus’ population theory. The theory states that the population rises geometrically while food supplies grow arithmetically. Young (110) is able to identify the link that many assumptions made in humanities on human nature and society make a big contribution to approaches made in the scientific world.
Scientific knowledge and, methods have a shelf life. Cars have a shelf life of about 10 years while gadgets have a shelf life of 2-3 years. Studying humanity enables me to think beyond scientific research. It made me be in pursuit of self-critical reflection, self-teaching and adaptability. This are major traits of an independent learner (Watson). I developed these traits which I know will help e extend my scientific knowledge throughout my professional career. People who are interested in scientific careers are known to belong to the world of the socially awkward people “geeks” who cannot express themselves well. In this class, I got to improve my communication skills. The materials we learned on the humanities class will enable all students and me to be specific in securing a good job on my career path, advance more, obtain grants to do research and get promotions.
Study of literature, philosophy and history gives more insight on the influence science has on people’s lives and in shaping the societal norms either positively or negatively. I got to learn the needs of the society and how vital the needs were. In my chosen career path, understanding these type of impact enables one to be more appreciative and strive to make the society better. Thus, having a broad knowledge on humanities is a vital complement to scientific training. Lastly, science deals with facts while humanities are more of values (Watson). Science, technology and medicine are more of values in theories, things and therapies.
The most interesting unit was learning diversity of cultures. Culture is a strong part of people lives. Culture influences how people think, their values, their humor, their worries and fears. Throughout the class, I was able to understand other people’s culture and what they did certain things in certain ways. I also got to realize that we had a lot in common (The Impacts of Humanities and social Science Research). In order to build successful communities, one has to appreciate their cultures, build relationships and build strong alliances. Being a scientist involved interacting with individuals and exploring their way of life. Big communities are very powerful in terms of enacting significant change. Having humanities knowledge can be easy for me as a scientist interact and collaborate with communities in bring change to themselves.
There is a power in diversity. Varied cultures can either break a community or build it. Science is all about research, findings different ideas on wisdom to solve problems. Some of this wisdom cannot be bought or read. It is passed on from one generation to another. At times scientist can be proud and think they can do research without the members of the given community. Bringing in non-mainstream groups can bring conflict hence build up new problems. Communities love their culture being respected. Conflict may lead to draining of communities of the financial and human resources. Cultural groups end up being distracted from solving important issues that they have in common. A community in conflict is of no use to scientific research, hence I understood the importance of respecting diversity of cultures. As a future scientist, it is important to know to have the right view of the society and our communities to.
In my class, there were different people from different countries. This made it a bit easy to exercise what we were taught in Humanities class. As an aspiring scientist, this class has helped me break down barriers and overcome stereotypes. One way of overcoming stereotypes is having the right information about something. In the humanity class, we got to cover different cultures and why they believe in what they belief. This type of information broke down the barrier that maybe I would have in future while in my career. The class enabled me to learn positive things about different countries which are portrayed differently by the media. It is important for I as a future scientist to be able to view the world through the lenses of their cultures. This is the same way as meeting or interacting with them at a personal level. Studying different cultures will be useful in future as I try to settle for the best research technique. I will have to develop strategies depending on a particular culture or context so as get valid results and avoid errors.
Work Cited
Young, Robert M. "Malthus and the evolutionists: the common context of biological and social theory." Past & present 43 (1969): 109-145.
Habibi, Don A. "The Indispensability of the Humanities for the 21st Century." Humanities 5.1 (2016): 11.
Watson, Elwood. “Studying the Humanities Always will be Important” Diverse Issues in higher education. Website Publisher, 6 May, 2014. Web. 13 May, 2018. Retrieved from http://diverseeducation.com/article/63927/
“The Impacts of Humanities and Social Science Research” Federation of humanities and social sciences (2009)
