Introduction to Humanities

IHS201

Man is a measure of everything

Man creates reality with inner lif

Navjyoti Singh

navjyoti@iiit.ac.in
IIIT Center for Exact Humanities
IHS201 Lecture 01 01/01/2014

Background

Values

Arts

Behaviour

Imagination

Discursive Environment

Practice Environment

Reflectivity
Humanity

Humanities is a body of knowledge

dealing with Conceptual Insights
into Human affairs

Preliminaries
Humanities is a Study of Human Affairs
To rise above opinions

Vast and Open Contents

From creative arts to social sciences
From exploring antiquity to prospecting future
From self cultivation to political activities
Big spectrum of disciplines

Humanities is a Reflective Enterprise

Distinction between Living as such and Considered Reflections on Issues of Living
Human capacity of Reflectivity is the common origin of humanities and science

Part I: Histories & Stories of Ideas

Idea of Inscription: Oral and Graphic
Birth of Reason: Systemic Knowledge in Indic Civilizations
Civilizational Flavours of Reason:
Indic & Greek Mathematics and Logic
Birth of the idea of Formula: Birth of Modernity
Renaissance Confluence of Humanities and Science
Newtons Theory of Man
Descartes Theory of Man
Leibnizs Theory of Man
Modern opposition of Humanities and Science
Method of Science/Humanities and its Critique
Futuristic Confluence of Humanities and Science

Part II: Disciplines of Humanities

Theories of History: Memory, Evidence and Narrative;
Theories of Knowledge: Reflection, Ideas and Argumentation;

Theorisations

Theories of Arts: Imagination, Aesthetics and Re-creation;

Theories of Psyche: Experience, Cognition and Action;
Theories of Language: Speech, Meaning and Communication;
Theories of Culture: Manners, Style and Living;
Theories of Exchange: Ownership, Money and Production;
Theories of Society: Relations, Kinship and Institution;
Theories of Justice: Law, Ethics and Morality;
Theories of Polity: Democracy, Constitution and State;

Can there be a Unified Theory of Humanities?

Can there be a Unified Theory of Humanities?

Theory of Man, Human Action and Human Purpose
Stitching together conceptual insights

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There have been attempts at it since Ancient times, about ~2500 BC onwards

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Civilizations are its product

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Good Record of such Rational Theorizations since ~ 500 BC

Latest being renewed attempts since European Renascence/Enlightenment

Birth of Enlightened Modernity!

Modern Polity, Knowledge, Culture, Economy

Problems of Modernity
In spite of unprecedented surge in Scientific Knowledge and Technological Marvels
Mass Extinction of Animal and Vegetable Diversity
Warring Age (more war deaths in last 100 yrs than entire history of Humanity)
Cultural Diversity under threat; Mass production of Uni-dimensional Man; Mono-Culture
Systemic Poverty, Disempowerment and Loss of Entitlement
Unequipped to solve Contentious Beliefs (religious extremism)
Non-Western Humanity exiled from the Public Sphere
Private-Public Divide and Mind-Body Dichotomy
Divide between Science and Humanities
Divide between Tradition and Modern
Old Age; Alienation
Etc.

Modern

Pre-Modern Humanity

Post-Modern Humanity ???

Post-Modern Situation of Humanities:

Enlightened versus Endarkenment!
Sufi fable of Mullah Nasruddin regarding light and search
to illustrate what can be called post-modern problem of endarkenment.
FABLE

In an otherwise tranquil night Mullah Nasruddin was

feverishly searching for something on the ground right under
a lamp pole at the outskirts of his village. Passing villagers
asked him if they could help. He had lost the key. Everybody
heartily joined together in his quest. When nobody could find
the key for quite some time, a villager asked Mullah to recall
and reflect on various possibilities of having misplaced the
key. Mullah in a matter of fact manner said I accidentally
dropped it on the other side of village. The villagers were
aghast and asked then why are you searching it here!
Mullah retorted because, there is light here and darkness
there.

New Digital Humanities

Cultural Informatics:
Cultural content being brought at the doorsteps of people
Digitally aided Cultural Production (arts, installations, movies etc.)
New standards of documentation of textual, visual and sonic material
Discrete Theories of Humanity:
Discrete Ontology of Man; Category Theory
Networks; Multi Agent Systems; Choice Theories, Game Theories
Information Realism
Confluence of CS & Humanities:
Ontological Engineering; AI; Cognitive Science
Next Generations Web Technologies Semantic, Agentive and Cultural
Futuristic Experiential Technologies
Domain Confluence: e-Governance, market, media, entertainment etc.

Course Policy
Lectures 3 hrs/week
Tutorials 1 hr/week (optional)

Exams (15%, 15%, 40%)

Assignment Thread (30%)
Participation (blog) Grace Marks
Project (optional) Grade Enhancer

Assignment 01
Make a Poster (A3) illustrating your points of entry into
or interest in Humanities as a Study of Human Affairs.
Its an Open-content assignment.
Choose your own topic
Aesthetically layout Visual and Textual Material.
Use internet Resources.
Any aspect/problem in Humanities that has caught your interest.
Any insight from any domain of knowledge of your interest in Humanities.
Any theory in any discipline of Humanities you are familiar with or are interested in.

Assignment deadline 6th January 2014 before 8 pm.

To upload Poster on the course site with
file name Assig01_RollNumber.pdf