The academic disciplines that study on diverse human conditions using various methods is referred to as humanities.  These methods are largely speculative, critical or analytic, as distinguished by the empirical approaches of both the social and natural sciences.  Commonly, humanities include modern and ancient languages, as well as philosophy, history, literature, performing arts, religion and visual.  Sometimes, additional subjects are incorporated into it such as area studies, cultural studies, anthropology, and communications, in spite of being classified as part of social sciences.  The scholars who are working and studying in the field of humanities are sometimes called as “humanists.” 

Humanities in the Western region can be traced back to the ancient Greece, being the foundation of such broad education for the citizens.  In the Roman times, the main concept of the liberal arts were evolving, wherein it involved logic, grammar, and rhetoric, together with geometry, astronomia, arithmetic and quadrivium or the music.  These subjects then formed the foundation of medieval education, putting on emphasis on humanities as “way of doing” or otherwise known as “skills.”

But then, on the onset of the Renaissance period, major change happened such that humanities was regarded as the subjects to be learned instead of practiced, along with a shift away from traditional fields to areas like history and literature.  However, in the 20^th century, this was again challenged by certain postmodernist movement that wanted to outline the humanities into terms of something egalitarian, which were apropos for democratic societies.

In the United States, many of their universities and colleges believe in the prospect of a broader education on liberal arts, in which, every college student is required to study humanities as a welcoming addition to their standard areas of study.  E.D. Hirsch and Mortimer J. Adler were two of the prominent advocates of liberal arts in Amer

Traditional humanities or the liberal arts programs have been criticized as expensive and useless in the job market in the US, since specialized studies are required in many job fields and most of them take for several years.  This set-up was contrary to what took place on the early part of the 20^th century.  At that time, an approximate 3%-6% of the people held a university degree.  A university degree then was an easy path to a professional life.

Literature and language were considered as the chief subject in humanities.  Thus, the introduction of electronics communication caused such a concerning impact to the field of humanities.  Modern technology such as the Internet is a medium that hastens up communication but is somehow feared to defer some particular forms of essential communication like literature and thought to maybe “dumb down” languages.  Meanwhile, libraries too are changing.  Most libraries replaced their bookshelves with computer terminals, though, humanities can adapt and will adapt to such changes, it will be unlikely for the traditional literature to be totally abandoned. 

Furthermore, when one speaks about public humanities, it refers to the works of the state and federal humanities agencies, as well as other organizations that serve the same purpose: to support and to present exhibitions, lectures, and related programs for the public with regards to the areas of philosophy, arts and history.  There are already several colleges and universities in the United States that offer public humanities programs such as Brown University wherein their John Nicholas Brown Center is in support of any public humanities program, along with the American Civilization Department that is offering a masters degree in the same field.  More universities are University of Washington, where the Simpson Center for the Humanities conducts annual symposium and Michigan State University’s Public Humanities Collaborative offers a common and gathering place for outreach professionals, students and faculty to meet up and interact for them to build a strong campus small community partnerships and to enhance their understanding on the liberal arts for democratic welfare.