Humanities- Assinment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Humanities- Assinment - Assignment Example The humanities and the arts contribute to epistemology because their works have elements that help people achieve a deeper understanding of the world, and they stimulate imagination that produces knowledge; therefore, students should still take humanities courses, because they promote creative thinking, critical analysis, and communication skills that are essential to succeeding in numerous fields. People can learn knowledge from the arts because they have elements that help people see the world or themselves, or both, in a new light. Worth (2005) considered that art can inspire certain â€Å"emotions or activities that are able to facilitate or produce knowledge† by tapping into something that cannot be stated in words. Consumers of the arts and literature can gain new insight and awareness through their interpretations of the latter. Stolnitz (1992), however, argued that the arts do not produce knowledge because they do not offer any kind of truth (cited in Worth, 2005). Plato, however, contended that knowledge can be attained through artwork that represents it (cited in Worth, 2005). He gave the examples of poets, who can talk about courage and beauty, even when they lack complete knowledge of what they mean (cited in Worth, 2005). In other words, it is possible to produce knowledge without using the traditional ways of knowing and learning. Moreover, people can just ify knowledge gained from the arts through using its own elements. For example, literature analysis proposes arguments that are based on evidence from the text or artwork. The arts can offer knowledge through non-conventional processes that lead their audience to new ways of seeing their world and lives, while it can also use argumentation methods to justify gained knowledge. The arts also stimulate imagination that generates knowledge. Romantic epistemology argued that imagination is also a valid source of knowledge (cited in Worth,