About

By admin January 7, 2009

The Ohio Humanities Council encourages all Ohioans to explore the human story, to use history, philosophy, and the other humanities as the means to arrive at new insights.

The Ohio Humanities Council is an independent, nonprofit organization funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and private contributions. The OHC awards grants and presents its own cultural programs across the state.

What Are the Humanities?

In its definition of the humanities, Congress includes: Archaeology, Comparative Religion, Ethics, History, Languages & Linguistics, Literature, Jurisprudence, Philosophy, the History, Theory, and Criticism of the Arts, and certain aspects of the Social Sciences which use historical or philosophical approaches.    As fields of study, the humanities emphasize analysis and exchange of ideas rather than the creative expression of the arts or the quantitative explanation of the sciences.

History, Anthropology, Folklore and Archaeology study human social, political, and cultural development.

Literature, Languages, and Linguistics explore how we communicate with each other, and how our ideas and thoughts on the human experience are expressed and interpreted.

Philosophy, Ethics, and Comparative Religion consider ideas about the meaning of life and the reasons for our thoughts and actions.

Jurisprudence examines the values and principles which inform our laws.

Historical, Critical, and Theoretical Approaches to the Arts reflect upon and analyze the creative process.