The Epistemologies of the Humanities and the Sciences

Abstract

In this essay, the author provides an overview of some of the main themes of his book, The Geography of Insight: The Humanities, the Sciences, How They Differ, Why They Matter (2018). In particular, he argues that there are four core differences between the sciences and the humanities: (1) it is proper for the sciences but not the humanities to seek insights not limited to particular locations, times, or things; (2) the sciences but not the humanities value findings as independent as possible of the perspectives of the inquirers; (3) the sciences should be wholly descriptive, while the humanities can also be concerned with prescriptive claims, which give expression to values; and (4) the sciences are organized to increase collective knowledge, whereas in the humanities individual insight is highly valued independently of its ability to generate consensus. Associated with these differences are a set of secondary distinctions: different attitudes about the possibility of endpoint of inquiry; different notions of intellectual progress; different roles for expertise; and different working assumptions about simplicity and complexity.