Perspectives in Liberal Arts
Perspectives in Liberal Arts
Introduction
The key characteristics of humanities include emphasis on human creativity, appreciation of cultural diversity, and exploration of things created by humanity. Humanities provide insights into people’s experiences with the present, understanding of abstract concepts, as well as interaction with culture. As such, humanities study phenomena through creative mediums of expression such as film, television, literature, dance, social media, fine arts, and photography among others (Southern New Hampshire University, n.d.).
The key feature of the historical lens is telling stories about the past with the objective of helping people understand what shaped their present. Using evidence such as dates, artifacts, photographs, and diaries/letters, the historical lens helps in writing stories of particular periods in time. On the other hand, social sciences focus on studying how people and the society correlate. More precisely, the key feature of this lens is that it focuses on studying human behaviors together with interactions. In social sciences, evidence is obtained from interviews and observation of participants, as well as from secondary sources (Southern New Hampshire University, n.d.).
The fourth lens, natural sciences, focuses on studying the physical environment/world in order to gain a better understanding of people and the place they occupy in nature. It also studies the impact of nature on people. It explores curiosities as well as questions that have disturbed human beings for ages. Using research and scientific processes, natural sciences seek to not only describe but also predict the world (natural world). Evidence used in this lens includes is largely findings from research (Southern New Hampshire University, n.d.).
Although each of these lenses offers a distinct perspective and approach, a few similarities can be identified across lenses. For example, social sciences and humanities are similar in that they both study culture. Likewise, both history and social sciences may explore the past with a view to identifying social relationships.
Topic Proposal
The topic selected for this project is climate change. Currently, climate change is one of the major global issues governments are trying to address. There is a lot to know about climate change, but one of the things I am aware of is that human activities are a major contributor to climate change. I am keen on exploring the extent to which human activities cause climate change, and the interplay between this and other factors.
Reference
Southern New Hampshire University. (n.d.). The four general education lenses. https://learn.snhu.edu/d2l/lor/viewer/viewFile.d2lfile/660806/23936,-1/
