> The final essential element of the humanities is their focus on the individual human being, both in the study of the works of individuals within their cultural and historical context and in the effects that this study has on the individual humanist. As Lamm observes, "The discovery of multiple truths [by the artist] is a personal matter and . . . anyone who understands any work of art grows with each facet of experience shared with the artist" (6). Jones writes, "The humanities are . . . a group of subjects devoted to the study of man as a being other than a biological product and different from a social or sociological entity" (17). V. K. Lawson observes, "In their best form the humanities cause readers to think and to question, to build their own value systems" (2). Ultimately, the humanities are not the study of a particular body of facts, writings, works of art, or other specific fields of knowledge; instead, these fields form the basis for the ability of the humanities to stimulate independent thought and a personal set of
...