Course Description Art Appreciation focuses on the study and appreciation of representative examples of visual and performing arts, literature, music and significant famous structures around the world. The exploration of interrelationships of the arts and their philosophies emphasizes the nature of humankind and the need to create. The course explores human values, attitudes, and ideas by examining the history and nature of human creative expression from a variety of time periods, art forms, creators and cultural traditions. This course aims to introduce the students to the visual arts, literature, philosophy, music, and the performing arts. General Objectives 1. To provide the students with a general overview of the humanities making them see their own world from many vantage points and help them grow up to become better human beings. 2. To acquaint the students theoretically to visual, auditory, and performing arts (traditional and contemporary) through the study of the types, medium, basic elements and principles of organization of each form. 3. To become aware of his/her surroundings and associate them with man of the past thereby integrating the two periods together, thus making the world a better place to live in. 4. To help the students develop aesthetic satisfaction of the different forms of the arts, both local and foreign. 5. To enable the students to develop critical and analytical mind in the appreciation of the different form of arts. 6. To make the students aware of the different works of art particularly those of the Filipino artists to make them feel proud of their heritage. Significant Concepts and General Overview of the Humanities A. History of the Humanities In the West, the study of the humanities can be traced to ancient Greece, as a basis of broad education for citizens. During the Roman times, the concept of the seven liberal arts1 evolved, involving grammar, rhetoric, and logic (the Trivium), along with arithmetic, geometry, astronomia, and music (the Quadrivium). These subjects formed the bulk of medieval education, with the emphasis being on the humanities as skills or “ways of doing.” A major shift occurred during the Renaissance, when the humanities began to be regarded as subjects to be studied rather than practiced, with a corresponding shift away from the traditional fields into areas such as literature and history. In the 20th century, this view was in turn challenged by the postmodernist movement, which sought to redefine the humanities in more egalitarian terms suitable for a democratic society. B. What is Humanities? The humanities is a group of academic subjects united by a commitment to studying aspects of the human condition and a qualitative approach that generally prevents a single paradigm from coming to define any single discipline. The humanities are usually distinguished from the social sciences and the natural sciences and include subjects such as the classics, languages, literature, music, philosophy, the performing arts, religion, and the visual arts. Other subjects at times included as humanities in some parts of the world include archaeology, area studies, communications, cultural studies, and history, although these are often regarded as social sciences elsewhere. Many students approach Humanities with awe and dread. They feel the material is overwhelming or obscure or, worse yet, irrelevant to their lives. But this is a false impression. You may or may not believe this now, but you will be reflecting on the material of this course for the rest of your life. Right now, many of you are concerned with very immediate issues: Can I find a job? Can I find a life-partner? Where is the next dollar or peso coming from? Humanities may or may not have the answers to these practical questions right now. But after you have graduated, after you have gotten a job, after you have established yourself in the community, you will come to appreciate the Humanities courses even more. The Humanities courses have been formally defined as presenting Western civilization through the study of history and in equal measure the study of great books. But presented that way, we are actually focusing upon results rather than causes. The Humanities courses try to answer the questions: 1. What does it mean to be human? 2. What are we here for? 3. What is the meaning of life? (we can ask this in a philosophical way) 4. What do I need to do in order to live well and live better? (we can ask this in a practical manner) C. Three (3) Things that Humanities are and One Thing that it is not, Humanities deal with: 1. What humans are: the human 2. What humans do: our humanity 3. What humans can be: the humane 1. What Does it Mean to be Human? If humanities come from humanity and humanity comes from human, we might trace this step further. The word “human” comes from the Latin word “humus” which means “earth”, in the sense of “soil”, or “dust”. Interestingly, the