Prepare a 700- to 1050-word paper in which you differentiate between the humanities and other modes of human inquiry and expression. Be sure to address the following items in your paper:

• Define the term humanities.
• Distinguish the humanities from other modes of human inquiry and expression.
• List a current example of each type of the following humanities and explain why each example you provide reflects current developments in politics, socioeconomics, and/or technology:
  • Art
  • Music
  • Architecture
  • Philosophy
  • Literature

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines. Note: Use your Course Readings as a point of reference for this assignment. If you need additional sources, use the University Library. If you use the Internet to find sources, you should only access credible and reliable Internet sites such as those affiliated with a museum, magazine, newspaper, educational institution, or arts organization, for example. You should not use sites like Wikipedia, About.com, Ask.com, or blogs, for example.

For this assignment, it is important that you get a wide range of humanities definitions and not solely rely on a dictionary definition. Doing so will help you think about how to discuss the humanities examples you choose.

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As you are preparing to work on your Week 1 Humanities Today paper, please make certain that you carefully read the assignment requirements.

In addition to providing a definition of the humanities and explaining how humanities differs from other modes of inquiry, you are being asked to provide current examples of each type of the humanities: art, architecture, literature, philosophy, and music.

This means, then, that you should not reference the pyramids as an example of architecture or Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa as an example of art as these examples are not current. Current would be anything within the last few years. 

You should also make certain that you provide specific examples, noting, for example, not just a genre of music but a particular musician’s work that supports your discussion. You should provide more than a general definition of philosophy but specific examples of philosophical ideas or thinkers whose work helps us to understand the world in which we live. In talking about architecture, provide the name of a particular building or architect’s work that supports your discussion.

Additionally, you are asked to explain how the examples you have provided reflect current developments in politics, socioeconomics, and/or technology. You should, then, discuss the example in the context in which it was created. How does a current artist’s work, for example, reflect what might be going on socioeconomically or in politics? How might a musician’s work, for example, reflect developments in technology? What does a musicians’ music tell us about current developments in politics or about the socioeconomic landscape in which we currently live? What do current examples of literature tell us about what is happening in society at large, or about what we are interested in reading? How are discussions in philosophy informed by politics, socioeconomics, and/or technology? 

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1. Define the term renaissance. Why did the Renaissance take place in Italy?
2. What is meant by the phrase classical humanism? Why is it particularly important to the cultural and intellectual movement known as the Renaissance?
3. Why is Petrarch called the “father of humanism”?
4. Comment on the following quote: “I am like a man standing between two worlds: I look forward and backward.” – Francesco Petrarch
5. What are the primary characteristics of Castiglione’s courtier (Reading 16.5)? What are those of his court lady?
6. What is the role of Renaissance women? What were the basic concerns of the female humanists, Cereta and Marinella?
7. How does Marinella (Reading 16.6) defy traditional male attacks on female vanity? What does she say motivates men to slander women?
8. What, according to Machiavelli (Reading 16.7), are the duties of a prince? Is it better, according to Machiavelli, for the ruler to be loved or feared? What does the prince learn from the lion? From the fox? What are the primary qualities of the Machiavellian ruler?