Institutions, Professions, and Ideas An Approach to the Theory of the Humanities through their History and Institutional Settings and their Implicit Anthropologies (original) (raw)
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The Making of the Humanities : Volume II - From Early Modern to Modern Disciplines
2012
List of Figures 419 Index 421 manism to historicism, Bos focuses on two humanist historians (Machiavelli and Guicciardini) and two nineteenth-century historians (Ranke and Droysen). His starting point is Machiavelli's and Guicciardini's painful experience that the old world of Italian city-states was lost. A similar dissociation of the past occurred Break or continuity in the humanities? Various papers in this volume suggest that the notion of a revolution in the humanities around 1800 is more problematic than has been previously assumed. While the nineteenth century brought discipline formation and specialized methodologies, several concepts and ideas were in existence already well before 1800 and were consolidated among scholars, for instance in philology, linguistics, musicology and historiography (Leerssen, Semi, Van Hal). New in the nineteenth century was especially the academic institutionalization of disciplines (Elffers, Paul, Jørgensen), not so much the nature of humanistic knowledge as a whole. Universities guaranteed stability and continuity, but these also existed among Notes The first conference in this series was 'The Making of the Humanities: First International Conference on the History of the Humanities', which took place from - October at the University of Amsterdam. The second conference was 'The Making of the Humanities II: Second International Conference on the History of the Humanities' , which took place from - October also at the
Philosophy
In this paper I aim to state the nature of the humanities, contrasting them with the natural sciences. I argue that, compared with the natural sciences, the humanities have their own objects, their own aims, and their own methods.
Humanities across Time and Space: Four Challenges for a New Discipline
While histories within the context of a single humanities discipline have been written for more than a century, it is only over the last decade that we have witnessed histories that go beyond single humanities disciplines and that bring together different fields, periods or regions. It thus comes as a surprise that virtually no studies go into the methodological problems of the new métier. Questions abound: What do we mean by “bringing together” different humanities fields across time and space? Should we study their shared concepts, methods, virtues, research practices, historical actors, pedagogical practices, personal interactions, or yet something else? And when in history can we speak of the “humanities” as a group of disciplines? And how can we compare the humanities from different parts of the world? In this essay, I will discuss four methodological challenges which I believe to be constitutive for the history of the humanities as a field. These are the challenges of demarcation, anachronism, eurocentrism and incommensurability. Any history of the humanities that goes beyond the scope of a single discipline, period or region will have to address at least one of these challenges. While none of my challenges have absolute solutions, I will give a motivated choice for each of them. I will argue that my solutions provide a viable way to write a comparative history of the humanities, and that we can therefore speak of them as maxims. Although the preferred solutions will differ among historians, the challenges remain the same. At the end of my essay, I will discuss other possible solutions to the challenges, as well as other possible challenges for the history of the humanities, such as the challenge of forgotten scholars, non-academic humanities and colonial humanities. Finally, I will go into the relation between the history of the humanities and the history of science and knowledge.
[2024] Introduction to History of Humanities 9.1
History of Humanities 9.1. Special Issue on Shared Pasts for Shared Futures; Prototyping a Comparative Global Humanities, 2024
The recent special issue of Daedalus gives a good sense of most recent debates and related adjectives in the United States (Berkowitz et al., "Humanities in American Life"). For the demoralized humanities, see most recently During, "On the Demoralisation of the Humanities.
Raffnsøe, Sverre (2024): A History of the Humanities in the Modern University: A Productive Crisis, Palgrave Macmillan 2024 FrontMatter, 2024
A History of the Humanities in the Modern University "This book is a call to all who believe in the transformative power of the humanities. Raffnsøe challenges the prevailing dichotomy of the human and the nonhuman, which was established as crucial for the organization of knowledge with the foundation of the modern university. His analysis is not just a defense but also a welcome reinvigoration of the humanities, urging a reconnection with their radical potential to address the challenges of our times. The book stands as a significant and thorough contribution to the ongoing debate about the role of the humanities in higher education and is an essential text for understanding their enduring importance in the institutional development of the contemporary university. Raffnsøe's work is a must-read for educators, students, and anyone invested in the future of the humanities."
Raffnsøe, Sverre (2024): A History of the Humanities in the Modern University: A Productive Crisis, Palgrave Macmillan 2024 FrontMatter, 2024
"This book is a call to all who believe in the transformative power of the humanities. Raffnsøe challenges the prevailing dichotomy of the human and the nonhuman, which was established as crucial for the organization of knowledge with the foundation of the modern university. His analysis is not just a defense but also a welcome reinvigoration of the humanities, urging a reconnection with their radical potential to address the challenges of our times. The book stands as a significant and thorough contribution to the ongoing debate about the role of the humanities in higher education and is an essential text for understanding their enduring importance in the institutional development of the contemporary university. Raffnsøe's work is a must-read for educators, students, and anyone invested in the future of the humanities."