Humanities and Business Ethics

The humanities have been variously defined, through the ages, to incorporate a range of subjects, including literature, philosophy, history, and language. The unifying theme of these arts and disciplines is inquiry into human culture, although they may be distinguished in contemporary institutions from certain so-called performing arts, such as music and dance, and fine arts, such as painting and sculpture, which also explore what it means to be human. The lines between the humanities, on the one hand, and the sciences and applied disciplines, on the other, are often perceived to be clearer, in that we study the former for their supposed intrinsic value and the latter for instrumental purposes. Needless to say, the way in which institutions define and distinguish disciplines is often imprecise ...