The future of the Humanities. Thinking about them from the inhuman perspective

Abstract

What is the future of the traditional activities of human culture known as the Humanities, whose products seem to be losing the central place they have held for centuries in the Western world? Will theory or reflection on human action, both historical and creative, remain exiled only to the university world, distancing itself from the scholastic reality in which young students not only study but are also trained for life? To understand what is happening, it is proposed to introduce the meaning of the historical notion of the Humanities and recognize that it no longer conforms to the social and economic changes that characterize contemporary history. Therefore, it is proposed to consider the creative products of the humanities not based on the classical opposition between "humanity" and "barbarism," or on the more recent return of Vico and Heidegger to the poetic logos as the fundamental expression of human nature. This article proposes an attempt to understand the concept of Humanities from the notion of the “inhuman”, understood as the sensitive foundation of our body that relates to the affective and imaginative power that deeply characterizes us as human beings. In this context, it is possible to make an appropriate reflection on the future of these activities.