The humanities, according to Stanford University, is the “study of how people process and document the human experience.” Studying the humanities teaches students to reason critically, and understand why people act the way we do. It explores our thinking from multiple viewpoints: religious, scientific, social, and cultural.

This video from Oxford University explains how the humanities focus not just on specialized knowledge, but the ability to be generalists and to think critically.

This article from Stanford University’s Humanities Center explains that this is a way to deeply understand the world in which we live:

Through the exploration of the humanities we learn how to think creatively and critically, to reason, and to ask questions. Because these skills allow us to gain new insights into everything from poetry and paintings to business models and politics, humanistic subjects have been at the heart of a liberal arts education since the ancient Greeks first used them to educate their citizens.