Study Guide Questions Flashcards
What are the Humanities?
Humanities are the study of the various ways people, in all times past and present; and in all places around the world, live out the human experience.
Why study the humanities?
By studying the Humanities, we can see how people across time responded to different challenges and events and how people interacted with one another. Studying Humanities allows us to see the connections between past and present and imparts a sense of cultural continuity. Studying the humanities can help us become better citizens and contributors to society
What are the major historical periods covered in this course?
The Classical Period, The Renaissance Period, The Neoclassical Period, The Romantic Period, and the Realist Period.
What is a theme?
Themes are ideas that can be recognized in one or several literary/artistic works. While each period has its own unique set of themes, there are some themes that overlap in multiple periods
What are the major themes from the classical period?
The Classical Period: balance, truth/reason, democracy/republic, polytheism, and humanism
Name the major themes of The Renaissance Period
The Renaissance Period: rebirth of classicism, humanism, rationalism, scientific expansion, university system, individualism, self-fashioning
Name the major themes of The Neoclassical Period:
The Neoclassical Period: skepticism, rationalism, empiricism, order, deism, classicism
Name the major themes of The Romantic Period
The Romantic Period: nationalism, exoticism, revolution, heroism, passion, individualism, and nature
Name the major themes of The Realistic Period
The Realistic Period: Darwinism, industrialization, individualism, age of doubt
Identify two major universal themes
Love and the hero
Describe “love”
The two types of love are eors(erotic love) and agape(platonic love). Love also open the humanities to exploring other distinct forms of love that define our humanity: Love of God, love a family, romantic love, and friendship.
Describe “the hero”
- The hero is an archetype found in virtually every culture and society because the heart of the heroes journey is fundamentally the same everywhere. The hero archetype satisfies a psychological need to see the individual(to see oneself) as capable of stupendous feats(physical, mental, or moral) against seemingly insurmountable and antagonist forces
humanism
Humanism: The study of creative an intellectual contributions of all human cultures
Myth
Myth: traditional stories of people or culture that serve to explain some natural phenomenon, the origin of humanity, or customs/religious rights
Beauty
Beauty: the qualities that give pleasure to the senses.
aesthetic experience
Aesthetic Experience: an experience of beauty that inspires a feeling of pleasure which is its own justification
archetype
Archetype: A real current symbol or term in literature, art, or mythology. The original models by which we comprehend human experience
Identify the disciplines in the humanities
Music, Cinema, the Visual Arts, Literature, Theater, Dance, Architecture, and Philosophy
Describe music in the humanities
Music is an artistic form of auditory expression that incorporates instruments or human voices in a structured and continuous manner
Describe cinema in the humanities
Cinema is an artistic medium that uses the motion picture as a vehicle for storytelling and other creative expression
Describe visual arts in the humanities
The Visual Arts entail creation of primarily visual works, (which can be two/three dimensional). These include painting, illustrations, photography, printmaking, and sculpture
Describe literature in the humanities
Literature is an art form of written word. It refers to an individual literary work or collectively to the creative writing of a people, nation, or culture. Major forms of literature include poetry, novels, plays and short stories
Describe theater in the humanities
Theater is a storytelling art. It is often combines speech, music, gesture, dance, stagecraft, and spectacle to preform a drama or musical before a live audience
Describe dance in the humanities
Dance is an art form involving a sequence of rhythmic movements or steps usually performed to music. Historically dance has often served ritualistic as well as entertainment purposes
Describe architecture in the humanities
Architecture is the science and art of designing buildings and other structures and is concerned with the aesthetic effect of structures in their surrounding environment
Describe philosophy in the humanities
Philosophy is the systematic investigation of fundamental questions concerning such matters as existence, reality, consciousness, knowledge, truth, and justice. The main branches of philosophy are metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, logic, and philosophy of the mind.
What are five broad functions of art?
Art provides aesthetic pleasure.
Art offers political and social commentary.
Art can assist in physical and emotional healing.
Art can create historical artifacts from a specific time or place.
Art can be used to enable commerce in advertising products and services.
What is art?
Different cultures often have different aesthetic values and different definitions of art.
How is humanism apparent in Eastern cultures?
Humanism is apparent in Eastern cultures through Confucianism and Buddhism.
What is consilience?
Consilience: The linking together of principles across different academic subjects, such as the science and humanities
Why is consilience significant in higher education?
Consilience significant in higher education because consilience is the synthesis of knowledge from different specialized fields of human endeavor.
How can studying the humanities help you in your future career path?
The history of human progress is a moral drama and a story that, in the telling, brings forth the great autobiography of humankind. It has been said that if the great conqueror and student of the philosopher Aristotle, Alexander the Great, could have only had a few more thousand volumes of the knowledge of those who came after him, he might have held on to the entire world for a bit longer than he did. Teachers have at their core a desire to know more, to learn more, and to apply what they’ve learned to the great body of knowledge history unfolds. They desire to do more than add information to the ever-growing information superhighway. Instead, they are committed to the holistic application of wisdom, which inevitably leads to the betterment of culture and kind.
Identify the major themes of the classical period?
Balance, truth/reason, democracy/republic, polytheism, and humanism
In the Classical period, explain the importance of balance
The achievement of putting into harmony different compositional elements that are in dynamic tension with one another.
Classical philosophers based their teachings of virtue and justice on mathematics and relied heavily on balance. Classical architects used symmetry to balance temples and buildings. Classical artists used the Canon, a set of ratios that was thought to capture the proportions in the human body, to create perfect proportionality in the human figure.
In the Classical period, explain the importance of Truth/Reason
The accurate and genuine reality of the world; that which is indisputably factual.
In Classicism, truth was not something revealed to mankind by the gods but was instead discovered by humans themselves through reason.
In the Classical period, explain the importance of polytheism
A belief or religion based on more than one god.
Both Greek and Roman cultures were polytheistic and for the most part worshiped the same gods
In the Classical period, explain the importance of Democracy/ Republic
Closely-related forms of government in which the people rule themselves.
During the Classical Period, two forms of government in which the people rule themselves were initiated. In a democracy the people directly rule themselves. In a republic people vote for representatives within a government.
In the Classical period, explain the importance of Humanism
The study of the creative and intellectual contributions of all human cultures.
In ancient philosophy, “the human” was at the center of every endeavor including mythology - stories about the gods conform to a human sense of right and wrong.Continue
BalanceDemocracy/RepublicHumanismPolytheismTruth/Reason
Describe the main characteristics of Classical Religion
Classical Religion was polytheistic, based on the belief in many gods
Describe the main characteristics of Classical Philosophy
all of these philosophers made inquiries into the physical nature of the world, without relying on cultural mythologies to explain it. This lead to The Socratic Method
Describe the main characteristics of Classical Poetry
Classical poets addressed themes of heroism, reason, love, and fate.
Describe the main characteristics of Classical Theater
The development of classical theater structure laid the foundations for theater as we know it today.
Works addressed such period themes such as humanism, truth, balance, and the essence of life.
Describe the main characteristics of Classical Art and Architecture
Classical Art and Architecture serve to promote religion, present beauty, and glorify Athenian society. It also focused on themes of power, military victory, and heroism. 
Describe the main characteristics of Classical Music
The key feature of music in the classical era was focusing on achieving balance
