As someone who deals with mathematics all day long the humanities have been a struggle for me to
grasp. I am a black and white person in that I would much rather have a right or wrong answer to find.
Right is right, wrong is wrong and if you are wrong you can figure out why. There are processes in all of
these disciplines, but with math and science there are formulas that can be verified and backed with
data. The humanities require you to go beyond right and wrong and dig into much more open-ended
areas such as emotions, personal background of the creator, and the historical occurrences that coincide
with the creation of the work to get answers. I think the true difference in the outcomes from the
disciplines is that one side is looking for answers and the humanities is looking for understanding. Do you
understand how the creator’s life story influenced their work? Do you understand the point they’re
trying to convey? Do you understand how the social situation they were living in could have affected the
way it was written or their point of view? Understanding is making connections beyond what you can
gather at face value. When learning about math and science you will occasionally get a snippet of
information about the time when a theory or discipline was created but it’s more to show how that
theory or discipline advanced the field as whole. Understanding a creator’s background, experiences,
and situation can help expand your understanding of other art and each new understanding that is
gleaned becomes a building block for more.
