humanities, Branches of knowledge that investigate human beings, their culture, and their self-expression. Distinguished from the physical and biological sciences and, sometimes, from the social sciences, the humanities include the study of languages and literatures, the arts, history, and philosophy. The modern conception of the humanities has roots in the classical Greek paideia, a course in general education dating from the 5th century bc that prepared young men for citizenship. It also draws on Cicero’s humanitas, a program of training for orators set forth in 55 bc. The Renaissance humanists contrasted studia humanitatis (“studies of humanity”) with studies of the divine; by the 19th century the distinction was instead drawn between the humanities and the sciences.
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