Defining Humanities Essay Example for Free

Defining Humanities Essay Humanities is the study of language, philosophy, communication, environment, history, religion, sociology, arts, culture, education and ethics. The word humanities originally comes from the Latin word, â€Å"humanus. † The word humanus means â€Å"human. † To be â€Å"human† is to possess the qualities and attributes of man. Being human also has the feelings and dispositions proper to man. However, humanities as the study of the different cultural aspects analyzes man’s weaknesses in life and how each can be improved. Culture includes speech, knowledge, beliefs, arts, technologies, ideals, and rules. To be cultured means to be refined and well versed in arts, philosophy, and the languages. It is also to be learned about great men and leaders in the past. Culture should regulate the type of behavior considered appropriate to an individual. Its teaching is essential for one to obtain the proper knowledge in his efforts to achieve the status of being a cultured man. On the other hand, understanding man and his affairs rather than just a body of accepted facts and theories is a purpose for humanities. It has various meanings in different historical periods, but it is only the same. This sums up to remind everyone about humanity. Humanities dealt with philosophy and theology in the 12th, 13th centuries and Renaissance period. This was the study of disciplines among languages, fine arts, music, and philosophy. Recognizing literature defined humanities in the past. There were different types of performing arts such as music, dance, theatre, philosophy, and religion. Humanities supported various categories of literature. Each and every one of these types were study academically. in the early centuries. Humanities is still an ongoing study of today and the future.

Post-colonialist Perceptions of Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet :: Post Colonialism Out of the Silent Planet Essays

Post-colonialist Perceptions of Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet The Italian artist Michelangelo Buonarroti viewed the goal of sculpting as the manipulation of a marble block until the figure within is set free. Just as a carving artist seeks to release its piece from rock, a literary artist desires his art form to be carved from an obscure idea into clear apprehension. The most beautiful of these art pieces are placed in a museum of their own right, the literary canon. A great part of literature’s beauty is the ability of the artist to present his purpose in indiscrete ways, in some degree or another, sliding his message in the literature’s elements during its construction. In an enjoyable science fiction/fantasy book, C.S. Lewis uses his own techniques to convey his feelings and attitudes as he often had in the past. With Out of the Silent Planet, Lewis reveals his acquiescence to â€Å"Post-colonialist† thought in a very hidden way. He presents a story on an alien world, navigating around a reader’s earthly par tialities to open their minds to his beliefs. Post-colonialism is a discourse draped in history. In one point in time or another, European colonialism dominated most non-European lands since the end of the Renaissance. Naturally, colonialists depicted the cultures of non-Europeans incorrectly and inferior. Traditionally, the canon has misappropriated and misrepresented these cultures, but also the Western academia has yet to teach us the valuable and basic lessons that allow true representations to develop. Partly in response, Post-colonialism arose. Though this term is a broad one, Post-colonialists generally agree on certain key principles. They understand that colonialism exploits the dominated people or country in one way or another, evoking inequalities. Examples of past inequalities include â€Å"genocide, economic exploitation, cultural decimation and political exclusion†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Loomba 9-10). They abhor traditional colonialism but also believe that every people, through the context of their own cultures, h ave something to contribute to our understanding of human nature (Loomba 1-20). This is the theme that Lewis prescribes in his, self described, â€Å"satirical fantasy†, Out of the Silent Planet (Of Other 77). Sold in bookstores throughout the world and mostly on the â€Å"religious† shelves, C.S. Lewis is hardly recognized in the post-colonial field. But of dozens of authors that could express this discourse, there is no better suited than the British professor.

Pin Hole Camera

Pin hole camera was invented by a Muslim scientist ibn-al-haitham. An Egyptian polymath (born in Iraq) whose research in geometry and optics was influential into the 17th century; established experiments as the norm of proof in physics (died in 1040). Another inventor is the tenth century optician and physicist Abu Ali al-Hassan ibn al-Hassan ibn al-Haytham, simply known as al-Haytham, who invented the pinhole camera and discovered how the eye works. The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a laser, which enabled us to see. The first person to realize that light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th-century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haytham. He invented the first pinhole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters. The smaller the hole, the better the picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura (from the Arab word qamara for a dark or private room). He was also credited with being the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one. Pinhole cameras are one of the earliest styles of camera ever created. So what is a pinhole camera? It is essentially a small-enclosed box with a tiny hole placed on one of the sides. When light is allowed to entire through the tiny hole, an image of the object directly outside the hole is projected onto the opposite side of the box. We will explore pinhole camera history a little deeper so you learn more about how they first came into being. Many scientists and others observed and wrote about the phenomenon from the ancient Chinese to the Greeks. But it wasn't until the 11th century that someone actually wrote about the principals of the pinhole camera and created the camera obscura to study it. Ibn al-Haytham wrote his â€Å"Book of Optics† in 1021, and created his own pinhole camera, then later the camera obscura. Al-Haytham discovered he could sharpen his reflected, inverted image by shrinking the pinhole or aperture. Essentially, a pinhole camera is a light-tight box, usually rounded like an oatmeal box, with a pinhole in one side. The image outside the camera is projected through the pinhole where it is reversed and shown upside down on the rear of the box. With no film yet available to record the image, al-Haytham constructed the camera obscura, which is a room-sized pinhole camera where the observer can get inside the apparatus and observe the image. For hundreds of years, people used the camera obscura/pinhole camera to draw or paint the image projected. They used people, animals and landscapes as their models. While these images were not exact, they were an important step on the way to photography, because the pinhole camera served as a model for the first cameras. Discarded as quaint for many years, pinhole cameras first made a comeback with artists in the 1960s. Since then, they have become the focus of hobbyists, Cub Scout packs and other educational venues. Since all it takes to build one is an oatmeal box and some light-sensitive paper or film, the pinhole camera can teach children about physics, light and photography with a little bit of the old â€Å"gosh, wow† effect. Using the pinhole technique is one of the most authentic ways to record photographic images. The technique is based on the principle of the camera obscura which is centuries old. Basically it's nothing more then a lightproof box with, in the middle of one side, a tiny little hole instead of a lens. The light works its way through the pinhole right into the enclosed room and that is how at the opposite side of the pinhole an image appears which is upside down. We can preserve the image by putting material which is sensitive to light at the side where the image shows up and develop it after exposure. Al hazen (Ibn Al-Haytham), a great authority on optics in the Middle Ages who lived around 1000AD, invented the first pinhole camera, (also called the Camera Obscura} and was able to explain why the images were upside down. The first casual reference to the optic laws that made pinhole cameras possible, as observed and noted by Aristotle around 330 BC, who questioned why the sun could make a circular image when it shined through a square hole. http://www. muslimheritage. com/topics/default. cfm? articleID=382 Made significant contributions to the principles of optics, as well as to anatomy, astronomy, engineering, mathematics, medicine, ophthalmology, philosophy, physics, psychology, visual perception, and to science in general with his introduction of the scientific method. He is sometimes called al-Basri   after his birthplace in the city of Basra in Iraq(Mesopotamia), then ruled by the Buyid dynasty of Persia. 3] Ibn al-Haytham is regarded as the father of optics for his influential The Book of Optics, which correctly explained and proved the modern intromission theory of visual perception, and for his experiments on optics, including experiments on lenses, mirrors, refraction, reflection, and the dispersion of light into its constituent colors. [4] He studied binocular vision and the moon illusion, speculated on the finite speed, rectilinear propagation and electromagnetic aspects of light,[5] and argued that rays of light are streams of energy particles[6] travelling in straight lines. [7] Ibn al-Haytham described the pinhole camera and invented the camera obscura (a precursor to the modern camera),[14]discovered Fermat's principle of least time and the law of inertia (known as Newton's first law of motion),[15] discovered the concept of momentum (part of Newton's second law of motion),[16] described the attraction between masses and was aware of the magnitude of acceleration due to gravity at a distance,[17] discovered that the heavenly bodies were accountable to the laws of physics, presented the earliest critique and reform of the Ptolemaic model, first stated Wilson's theorem in number theory, pioneered analytic geometry, formulated and solved Alhazen's problem geometrically, developed and proved the earliest general formula for infinitesimal and integral calculus using mathematical induction,[18]and in his optical research laid the foundations for the later development of telescopic astronomy,[19] as well as for themicroscope and the use of optical aids in Renaiss ance art.

How to Ask for Directions in Italian

Michelangelos Sistine Chapel is around the corner. Or so you thought the sign said until you ended up lost and without any idea how to get where you wanted to be. Avoid missing the highlights of Italy with these simple phrases and keywords for asking for directions in Italian. Vocabulary Let’s start with some must know vocabulary words. Some of the most common words you’ll encounter are: Andare - To goCamminare - To walkGirare - To turnFermare - To stopDiritto (dritto) - StraightA destra - RightA sinistra - LeftNord - NorthSud - SouthOvest - WestEst - EastVicino - CloseLontano - Far When giving directions in Italian, the Imperative mood is used. For the most common verbs listed above, the Imperative mood  is as follows: Andare – (tu) VAI/va’, (lui, lei, Lei) vada, (voi) andateCamminare – (tu) cammina, (lui, lei, Lei) cammini, (voi) camminateGirare – (tu) gira, (lui, lei, Lei) giri, (voi) girateFermare – (tu) ferma, (lui, lei, Lei) fermi, (voi) fermate Besides this keyword vocabulary, it is also important to know how to describe where something can be found. In English these types of directions would translate to, â€Å"The bar is around the corner† or â€Å"It is in front of the market.† Phrases In Italian instead, you want to use these descriptive directional phrases: Vicino a - Close to / near / nearbyDietro a - BehindAll’angolo con - At the corner ofDavanti a (di fronte a) - In front of / across fromAll’incrocio con - At the intersection ofAccanto a - Next to Additionally, the following sentences are worth memorizing and will ensure you get the right directions every time. Mi sono perso/a, Lei puà ² aiutarmi? - I am lost, can you help me?Cerco†¦ - I am looking for†¦   Ã‚     - Il teatro - The theater   Ã‚     - La stazione - The train station   Ã‚     - Il supermercato - The supermarket   Ã‚     - Un ristorante - A restaraunt   Ã‚     - Un bagno - A bathroom   Ã‚     - L’aeroporto - The airport Quantà ¨ lontano a...? - How far is it to...Dove sono i gabinetti? - Where is the bathroom? (polite way to ask in a public place)Dovà ¨ il bagno? - Where is the bathroom?Posso usare il bagno, per favore? - Can I use the bathroom, please?Me lo puà ² indicare sulla mappa/cartina, per favore? - Can you show me on the map, please? Typical responses to requests for directions include: A destra - RightA sinistra - LeftVicino - NearLontano - FarGira a - Turn toIl primo/la prima a destra - First on the rightIl secondo/la seconda a sinistra - Second on the left Some more handy tips: Often times, when asked where something is, Italians will answer â€Å"Vada sempre diritto!†   It means Straight ahead!One kilometer (or un chilometro in Italian) 0.62 miles.If you cant find what youre looking for, enjoy what youve found. Sometimes when traveling, the best experiences happen serendipitously.