The human sciences and historicality

Heidegger and the self-positioning of the western humanistic tradition

Tze-Wan Kwan

pp. 31-55

in: David Carr, Chan-Fai Cheung (eds), Space, time, and culture, Berlin, Springer, 2004

Abstract

In the Western academic world, the making of the notion of the "human sciences" has gone through a long and intricate path. As far as terminology is concerned, there were debates as to what would be the most suitable designation for the broad but vague field of humanistic studies. In English, there are notions such as liberal arts, humanities, social sciences, human sciences etc. In German, besides the central notion of Geisteswissenschaft, other terms such as Kulturwissenschaft ¹ or Geschichtswissenschaft have been used. Recently, even the ambiguous term Humanwissenschaft² is being considered.

Cited authors

Heidegger Martin