On the Utility of the Humanities

• Author(s): Magalhães, Susana ; Estrada, Rui
• Date: 2013
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10284/3902
• Origin: Repositório Institucional - Universidade Fernando Pessoa
• Subject(s): Literary texts; Bioethics; Narrative Medicine; Humanities
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Humanities have already been criticized for enclosing themselves in a self-referential world that needs to interact with other fields of knowledge in order to accomplish its original aim: to make human life meaningful. Based on The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann and on the concept of Narrative Medicine by Rita Charon, this essay sheds light on the role of Humanities in the world today and the importance of discussing this issue.