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"The world we live in is loaded with value and meaning and intentionality."
René van Woudenberg
Dean of the Faculty of Humanities
We live in strange, unsettling, yes, even bizarre times. I don't have to explain why.
I have often wondered over the past year: as humanities scholars, in the face of what is coming our way, what is it that keeps us going? What is it that connects the faculty and broader community of humanities scholars? I have also often wondered: do the humanities have something positive to offer hope, something that can give us confidence in these strange, unsettling and bizarre times?
What keeps us going, I think, is the love for the disciplines we practice, the awareness of the significance of the study of languages, literature, the past, art, culture, media, philosophical questions, AI and more. This is all still very abstractly stated. Listening to what truly ignites my colleagues, I hear much more specific things than 'languages'. But the pattern is clear: in everyone burns a fire of intellectual passion. To me, this is what makes the faculty such an incredibly fascinating community.
What unites our faculty community is that the objects we study possess unique properties—properties for which the natural sciences have no antenna. By this, I mean that everything studied in the humanities is imbued with intentionality, meaning, and value. Consider a poem by Potgieter, a painting by Kandinsky, or the new materialism in philosophy. These objects are the result of intentional acts; they carry meaning and hold value. It is objects with these qualities that we study. This is what we are focussed on and what binds us together.
"Do the humanities have anything to offer in terms of hope?"
This brings me to an answer to my last question: do the humanities have anything to offer in terms of hope, can they provide a basis for confidence in the future? We humanities scholars are often very good at critical analysis, at unmasking, at deconstruction. This is often useful, necessary and important. But what I am increasingly interested in is whether we can also, through all our work, pondering and research, arrive at positive and constructive insights and positions. What positive things have we learned that we believe can and must be passed on to future generations? Which insights, ways of living, and ways of being give us hope and inspire confidence in the future? My answer is, therefore, a counter-question and, in fact, an invitation to contribute to positive humanities (by analogy with positive psychology).
We are approaching Christmas. The deep meaning of the Christmas event, if I may say so (and in the spirit of the tradition of the VU), is that the world we live in and are a part of is not meaningless, but is filled with value and meaning and intentionality. That, I would think, is what binds us as humans in a deep way, and with which humanities scholars should aim to find connection.
René van Woudenberg
magazine for humanities alumni december 2024