Brittany Santo Final Exam

Humanities, summarized, is the study of human culture. There are many cultures that humans have created over different parts of the world, however, humanities covers all cultures and societies as a whole. This is because all humans essentially experience and need the same aspects of life, no matter the culture or society. Some of the aspects are, but not limited to, the brain, symbolism, writing, oral language, storytelling, experiences of time, other humans, nature, sacred space, love, beauty, art, laws, ethics, human frailty, the inner journey and reality. The human experience does not have to include all of these aspects, however, it is impossible to for the human life to be without some of them, for example, other humans and reality. In this post, I will discuss how each of these aspects affect the human experience.

The human brain is considered the most complex and developed out of any other species on earth. This brain has two hemispheres, a right and left, in which do specific tasks in understanding aspects such as symbolism, writing, oral language, storytelling, time and many more. As said in The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image by Leonard Shlain, the right brain is nonverbal, meaning it comprehends the language of crying, gestures, grimaces, touching and body stance. It expresses being, the complex meshing of competing emotions that constitutes our existential state at any given moment. The right brain also deals with feeling states like love or humor, of which are non-logical. The left brain, however, it the right's opposite. It deals with specifically doing, rather than being. Speech, action, analysis, numeracy and abstraction are all the left brains primary functions. The text From God: A Brief History by John Bowker defines each of these aspects that the left and right brain hold. The left brains function of speech also deal with symbols and signs. Music, rituals, myths and art, are all aspects that the right brain comprehends, and are defined as emotion based ideas. To define down these functions of the brain further, the text Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain defines that the right side of the brain is non-verbal, but this means it is intuitive, spatial, holistic, non-rational and analogical. The left brain is, yes, verbal, but this also means it is temporal, digital, linear, and rational. All of these aspects from each hemisphere bring together one brain, in which defines a being as human. This is a important role in the human experience because to be able to use these functions of the brain is the way to have a human experience. Without the brain, humans would not be a functioning being.

Nature, along with the human brain, is a very important aspect of the human experience. Nature surrounds everything, it is the basis of life and without nature, life itself would not exist. In Of Cannibals by Michel De Montaigne, he explains that mother nature is great and powerful. She creates all, but humans have surcharged her beauties and riches with inventions far beyond mother natures makings. Since nature is the basis of all life, it is impossible for humans to not have it in their human experience. Nature is so powerful, it can be considered a sacred space. Sacred space is a space defined beyond other in which holds significant meaning. In the poem Stone Fish Lake by Yuan Chieh shows how nature, stone fish lake, is a sacred space to someone who finds joy and happiness in all the things the lake has to offer. This is also heavily defined in the film Grizzly Man by Werner Herzog. The "Grizzly Man" was Timothy Tredwell, who believed that the grizzly bears of Alaska need him to save them, and protect the grizzly bears essentially sacred space. This further explains that sacred space and nature go hand in hand, and are important aspects in the human experience that humans can not avoid. Nature is everything, and humans can never ignore it.

Love, beauty, and art are all aspects of the human experience in which interlock with each other. Love, as defined in Philosophies of Art and Beauty From Symposium by Plato, is of the everlasting possession of the good. Plato also explains that love is of immortality, but always coming and going. This relates to beauty, as said in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Aristotle and Beauty, in which Aristotle believes that beauty consists of an arrangement of part such as proportion, harmony, symmetry, and similar notions. But, this concept brings the question of natural beauty. From the Internet Encyclopedia: Kant's Aesthetics, Kant explains how natural beauty is borrowed from nature in fine art. Art, according to Kant, can be tasteful, but soulless because it lacks the criteria that would make it more than just an artificial version of beautiful natural object. Therefore, as shown, love, beauty, and art can not be experienced with out, essentially, the other. Humans experience love as apart of the daily life. Humans love objects, family members, friends, significant others, and many more. Love is an emotion part of the human experience, in which follows the experience of beauty in natural objects, the art of those natural objects.

Ethics and human frailty was a unit which heavily related to the human experience. Ethics are set rules held by a particular person in which they follow by in their daily life. In Basic Teachings of Buddhist Ethics, there are ten non-virtues in which Buddhists follow by as their ethics. Things such as, taking a life, stealing, lying, harsh speech, and more define the means of ethics and the importance in the human experience. Humans hold ethics to help steer away from wrong doings and thoughts. Human frailty relates heavily on ethics, and hold a lot of the same reasoning. Human frailty means moral weakness. Ethics deals with the aspects of moral weakness, as to finding rules to prevent morally wrong doings and feelings. In The Ten Commandments, they similarly hold the same sayings as the ten non-virtues in Buddhism. Lying, murder, and stealing are all aspects of ethics and human frailty in which the ten commandments and the ten non-virtues hold similar. Ethics and human frailty are both apart of the human experience that prevent the daily life of an individual from wrongs and bad behaviors.

The inner journey and the meaning of human reality are both part of the human experience that are not as much covered as the others. The inner journey is usual spiritual or religious, however, it does not have to be. The inner journey can be a journey of self discovery, as shown in Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. Siddhartha went on a journey to discover himself, and although having a tough road, with considering suicide, he becomes wiser with his experiences with the life around him traveling with the Samanas. Discovering yourself as an individual comes with the discovery of the real aspects of yourself. Human reality, as shown in The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, shows that not all reality is real. In this story, it shows humans living in a cave in which display shadows of objects in the real world. These humans are forced to stare at these shadows, making it their reality. It is only when they finally come out of the cave do they realize that their reality was not what was actually real. This shows that each individual can have a different reality of life, however, there is only one right reality. Human reality is also heavily shown in Hamlet by William Shakespeare. The main character, the prince of Denmark, Hamlet, is turned mad by the reality of his fathers death and betrayal of his mother towards his passed father. Hamlet's reality was when he was mad with grief, however, the rest of his friends and family did not see his mad reality. This further shows that human reality is apart of the human experience in all different forms, for each different individual.

Humanities has been a gain in knowledge of all the aspects that the human can experience. All of these units discussed have defined a sense of understanding as to where and why we experience the things we do, and as to what exactly makes us human. To be human is not only to experience one of these topics, it is all of them. The human experience is contained of many different aspects, in which is different for every individual. However, the study of humanities defines and summarizes all of these aspects as a whole. The study of human culture has been a challenging ride for me, although, I am grateful for the knowledge I have gained on understanding what makes me human.