Works and Interpretations: An Introduction to Literary Teaching

Author: Chen Taisheng / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: The humanistic nature of literature is closely related to its humanities attributes. In the West, the humanities are one of the three major disciplines of human society—natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities—a comprehensive discipline primarily focused on subjects such as human beliefs, emotions, morals, and aesthetics. It typically includes fields like literature, language, art, history, and philosophy. The humanities differ greatly from natural and social sciences in both their objects of study, research methods, and purposes.
Natural sciences (e.g., mathematics, physics, chemistry) study natural phenomena, while both the humanities and social sciences study humans and human societies. However, social sciences focus on relatively external, material social phenomena, such as sociology, political science, demography, and economics. In contrast, the humanities explore relatively internal issues related to the purpose and meaning of human existence, as well as problems concerning the mental world and spiritual phenomena, such as theology, literature, literary theory, philosophy, and historical studies.
From the perspective of research methods, social sciences (e.g., economics, sociology, demography) are largely based on "quantitative" and "empirical" scientific methods of verification. They study people, but it seems as if they are not studying living, individual humans—using a metaphor, people are treated as machines and numbers within their research scope. On the other hand, the humanities are evaluative disciplines, with their fundamental research method being emotional experience—a non-empirical evaluation of values.
From the perspective of research purposes, the goal of social sciences is to gain knowledge, obtaining knowledge that is considered reasonable from a certain historical rationality. In contrast, the goal of humanities is to gain an understanding and experience of human nature on the basis of acquiring knowledge. For example, literature, art, aesthetics, philosophy, and religion consider the value and meaning of human existence. Therefore, their ultimate aim is humanism, where the joys and sorrows of individuals hold significant value and power.
In summary, as some Western scholars have noted, natural and social sciences deal with the "I-it" relationship, while the humanities deal with the "I-you" relationship. In the "I-it" relationship, the object of study (whether social or natural) is treated as an "object" within the researcher's scope. Only in the "I-you" relationship does the object of study gain a living life. At this point, the subject and the object of study form an emotionally interconnected and integrated relationship. It is precisely in this relationship that humanistic factors are maximally expressed. P5