Abstract
This chapter describes the views on the humanities of ten senior humanities scholars based in Hong Kong in the present or in the past. Their views on the contributions that the humanities can make to society in general—for instance the humanistic values it teaches; the growth in personhood it leads to; and the crucial alternatives it provides to economic models of society—are paired with views on the ones they can make to Hong Kong as a special cultural and geographical habitat, for instance in light of its colonial history, and as an intercultural space combining Chinese and Western values. These views allow for a fuller understanding of the benefits the humanities can provide to Hong Kong. Humanities scholars also emphasized the breadth of the scope of the humanities, making it not possible or desirable to pin the humanities down to more narrow definitions.
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Notes
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See, for instance, Volney (2010), Progress and values in the humanities: Comparing culture and science.
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Chan, E.T.Y., Mak, F.K.Y., Yau, T.S.H., Hu, Y., O’Sullivan, M., Tay, E. (2020). Conversations with Senior Humanities Scholars. In: The Value of the Humanities in Higher Education. SpringerBriefs in Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7187-9_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7187-9_3
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