Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!mcgill-vision!bloom-beacon!snorkelwacker!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!pacbell!well!fico2!everexn!karen From: karen@everexn.uucp (Karen Valentino) Newsgroups: news.groups Subject: Re: A Hum Domain Keywords: Objectivism, philosophy, sci.* Message-ID: <1990Feb7.183055.25715@everexn.uucp> Date: 7 Feb 90 18:30:55 GMT References: <3284@iitmax.IIT.EDU> <3285@iitmax.IIT.EDU> <9442@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> <7346@tank.uchicago.edu> <1990Feb1.005817.1786@everexn.uucp> <7402@tank.uchicago.edu> <1990Feb5.003806.13410@everexn.uucp> <1990Feb6.072511.21727@agate.berk Organization: Everex Systems, Inc. Lines: 31 gsmith@garnet.berkeley.edu (Gene W. Smith) writes: >In article , peter@ficc (Peter da Silva) writes: >>How about "arts" as in "arts and humanities" or "arts and letters"? >>It's broad, appropriate, and aesthetically lightyears ahead. > The trouble is, it's *not* appropriate. "Arts" is too narrow. >Putting philosophy and history and so forth under "arts" makes no >sense, and putting economics and the like there makes less than >no sense. I have to agree with Gene. It seems to me that the human sciences are both art *and* science. If you call the domain *arts*, then many of the human sciences--like anthropology, say--are not well-represented by the name. "Humanities," on the other hand, speaks to the dual nature of these sciences. I agree, though, that the abbreviation "hum" is darned unfortunate. (Makes me think of the Giants--"Humm, baby!") But I can't think of another name that is synonymous. Someone suggested "huma," which still seems pretty awful to me but may be better than hum. At least you'd get that long "u" sound in there. I was hoping that someone would come up with the perfect synonym for humanities, though. "Arts" doesn't seem like it to me. -- Karen Valentino <> Everex North (Everex Systems) <> Sebastopol, CA karen@everexn.uu.net ..{apple, well}!fico2!everexn!karen "My Freudian slip only shows when I want it to." -- Louis Valentino