Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 37, No. 134.
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    [1]    From: David Zeitlyn <david.zeitlyn@anthro.ox.ac.uk>
           Subject: Re: [Humanist] 37.129: science and humanities (24)

    [2]    From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
           Subject: 'humanities' (42)


--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2023-06-27 09:41:59+00:00
        From: David Zeitlyn <david.zeitlyn@anthro.ox.ac.uk>
        Subject: Re: [Humanist] 37.129: science and humanities

Dear all

I am all for pluralising science to sciences

This makes it easier to run the gamut from experimental sciences eg
physics and chemistry to observational/descriptive ones such as biology
and astronomy (Ok ok I am being deliberately provocative and all the
sometimes ethically dubious gene editing work does make some forms of
biology more experimental than eg classical ecology. But for all the
labeling of new apparatus as 'experiments', astronomy remains
observation not intervention).

But the other issue to consider is what are the paradigms: what if
rather than physics as the quintessential science we think of toxicology?

Toxicology is interesting since it brings in elements of biochemistry as
well as environmental studies and whole animal/plant biology. You have
to ask Toxic for whom and over what timescale?

So my candidate paradigms for the sciences are Toxicology and Astronomy

best wishes

davidz

--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2023-06-27 06:37:31+00:00
        From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
        Subject: 'humanities'

In response to Manfred's question the following from the Oxford English
Dictionary (s.v. 'humanity'; there is no separate entry for
'humanities') will shed some light:

2. Frequently in the humanities.
    a. In singular and plural. Literary learning or scholarship; secular
letters as opposed to theology; esp. the study of ancient Latin and
Greek language, literature, and intellectual culture (as grammar,
rhetoric, history, and philosophy); classical scholarship. In later
singular use, chiefly in Scottish universities: the study of Latin
language and literature. Cf. humane letters n. at humane adj. Compounds,
literae humaniores n.

[Here the earliest is 1483, from Caxton's Golden Lengende (tr. J. de
Voragine): "He floured in double science..that is to saye dyuynyte and
humanyte."]

   b. In plural (usually with the). The branch of learning concerned
with human culture; the academic subjects collectively comprising this
branch of learning, as history, literature, ancient and modern
languages, law, philosophy, art, and music. Hence also in singular: any
one of these subjects.
The humanities are typically distinguished from the social sciences in
having a significant historical element, in the use of interpretation of
texts and artefacts rather than experimental and quantitative methods,
and in having an idiographic rather than nomothetic character. Cf. human
science n. at human adj. and n. Compounds 1b.

[From 1855, Dwight's Journal of Music. Interestingly 'the humanities'
are in scare-quotes. Not long after is Pollock's Oxford Lectures (1886):
"Neither would I have you neglect the humanities. I could wish that
every one of you could enjoy in the originals Homer, and Virgil, and
Dante, and Rabelais, and Goethe."]

Yours,
WM

--
Willard McCarty,
Professor emeritus, King's College London;
Editor, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews;  Humanist
www.mccarty.org.uk


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