Humanities Theory

by Amanda Anderson, Simon During

Humanities Theory pioneers a new the theory of the humanities. It is an urgent topic right now because the humanities face a suite of forceful new challenges and are in a period of significant change. For these reasons, it has become important to analyse and understand what the humanities are as a whole, beyond disciplinary divisions and yet without resorting to simplistic notions of their worth. Remarkably little attention has been paid to this topic. Most discussions of the humanities have been polemical if not defensive.This book argues that there exists a global humanities world which not only transcends disciplinary divisions but joins the professional academic humanities to a thriving amateur public humanities. This world has no essence, it is plural. Nevertheless, powerful, if contested, ethical orientations run through it and help shape it, including a will to truthfulness, a will to openness and generosity, a will to examine values.In their essays Simon During and Amanda Anderson each bring different emphases to their shared orientation towards a large plural humanities During analyses how key disciplines--sociology, philosophy and history--might be used to think about the humanities as a whole and, on this basis, offers some predictions of the future awaiting the humanities.Anderson analyzes media representations of the humanities and considers the general conceptual frameworks through which the humanities focus on value and proffer critique. She analyses a series of examples of contemporary critical engagements in the humanities to press a case for value pluralism in the humanities and the university more broadly.

170 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 26, 2025

About the author

Amanda Anderson lives in North Georgia with her husband and two children. She spends part of her time teaching at a local preschool and writing, while the rest is devoted to family. Writing is new to her, but storytelling has been a life long hobby. Amanda loves using words to create images and feelings for others. Writing offers her an escape from the wonderful chaos that is her life. Raising two small children takes a lot of energy and she often collapses in her office chair late at night to let her ideas flow.

Amanda finds that she enjoys her self-published status because it gives her the freedom to write what she wants, how she wants it. She often chooses characters that may not fit the norm of what most think of as a hero or heroine. She likes that her characters are unique and that their stories flow from her instead of what someone else’s guidelines are.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first essay by Simon During is excellent, if very depressing about the state of the humanities. The second by Amanda Anderson outlines problems with some contemporary orthodoxies in a very cautious manner. Both conclude with Graeber and Wengrow's contentious book about the origins of the enlightenment.