The Humanities, which is represented as literature, history, philosophy, and arts, researches what human is, and what a well-lived life is. We get wisdom of life and meaning of life through the Humanities. We cannot say that we live well only because we live in rich life materially. It is important to live well economically, but pursuing philosophical, artistic and religious ideal is also important. Regardless of the East and the West, the aim of traditional universities was to educate the Humanities in a broad meaning. While the education of the Humanities in the West attaches great importance to studying humanism rather than learning the knowledge and skill in a specific field, the East sets a broad goal of training humans pursuing right things. With this meaning, the Humanities which aim at and realize humanism, are the flowers of a university. However, many think that the Humanities which don?t create many jobs and economic wealth are not necessary. Thus, the Humanities classes are not popular in universities, and students who major in literature, history, philosophy and arts are decreasing in number. From that point, the Humanities are under crisis. Natural Science or Social Science teaches us the ‘means’ of life and gives power to us, but the Humanities teach us the ‘purpose’ of life and give us wisdom. Also, the Humanities train the insight into true happiness and beauty. Thus, in order to raise an individual's quality of life and make the society richer, we need humane culture. Moreover, to live humanistically, all humans should be students who study Humanities. If we neglect the Humanities, we might cause the crisis of humans over mere crisis of the Humanities.      Moreover, we should study the Humanities and the society should invest more in the Humanities in order to prepare ourselves actively for cultural industry society and to restore humanism. In today's society where culture becomes an industry, the Humanities are very practical and beneficial. In the cultural industry society, the demand toward the Humanities is limitless, and its market is very wide.
      We call the 21st century the cultural era. Now, if we produce are remarkable movies and develop novel softwares, we would make profits as much as we sell thousands of cars.  Engineering technology for producing good movies and programs will be more supported in the future. Then, a problem is to come up with novel ideas and original contents. In other words, we need imagination of the Humanities. Therefore, creative ideas and concepts would bring economical wealth eventually. The Humanities are the source of original ideas and concepts. Literature leads us to the world of virtual reality, and its unique culture makes us experience what is not in the other world. Profound philosophical thinking also makes us progress to the new world that we haven t thought about till now. Besides, new and striking work of fine art makes our emotion awaken. It is in the Humanities that humans’ spirits of thousands of year has been accumulated. It have investigated the enduring, general truths that will be rather than are true and have explained dream and an ideal rather than the fact. Therefore, the Humanities are the fountain of creative ideas that have never been exhausted.
      In the society divided into victory and defeat by a creative idea, the Humanities, namely literature, history, philosophy and art will be in the limelight as the practical field. Besides, the Humanities are definitely indispensable in the economical aspect. Nonetheless, if our society neglects investment in humane study just on the pretext that the Humanities are unpractical, we will be failures in the future. When the Humanities are alive, the future will be fertile.
      Also, as humane study is needed to people of every social class, it is needed to all the regions. Now, the three waves are advanced in the world. One is the globalization tendency based on the neo-liberalism, another the localization tendency which emphasizes original character in each area. The other is the localization tendency that is not only to open but also to defend its culture and environment which are unique in a region. Nowadays, Jeju is riding the wave of the internationalization. Under the name of Free International City, local culture is being lost. Under the name of pluralism, the culture of a powerful country is being inundated. Thus, Jeju society needs the Humanities that explore human beings’ universal value with the distinctiveness of a region. Also, Jeju scholars should solve the conflict between the traditional culture and foreign one. They should find out, hand down and create Jeju's own characteristics in the flow of openness.
             The crisis of humane study can bring out the crisis of a human. Also, in the cultural industry society, the disdain for the human study can make our future dark.  However, a crisis is just an opportunity. The more many students evade the Humanities and we pay no attention to investments in humane study in all the society, the more the society that invests more in humane study and the students who study hard humane field will surely obtain good results, because the upcoming future is the time of the Humanities.

 Prof. Yun Young-taek

 

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