Fred Dallmayr

Humanities is the oldest area of study that revolves around the study of human beings, what makes us human and our historical development, and what we are expected to do. This discipline deals with human behavior, human nature, social and political values. Humanities comprise of various disciplines that include art, history, law, linguistics, philosophy, religious and ethics among others. All these subjects affect us as human beings and has an effect on our historical development as well as where we are headed to. Proper teaching of the humanities goes beyond learning the best way to write a sentence or how to draw a comparison between historical figures. In other words, if sciences represent the development of the mind, the humanities, as the name implies, exemplify the development of the human soul. In the current paper, the author discusses the crucial contribution of the humanities by exploring its actual meaning as well as its distinctive features.