humanities
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humanities
An academic discipline that deals with the products of the human mind and culture, such as philosophy, history, or literary studies. The term is usually used in the plural.
Die Linguistik ist eine Geisteswissenschaft, die sich mit Sprache beschäftigt.
Linguistics is a humanities discipline that deals with language.
This word is made up of 'Geist' (mind, in the sense of intellect or culture) and 'Wissenschaft' (science/academic discipline). It therefore describes academic fields that deal with the products of the human mind.
Philosophie ist eine klassische Geisteswissenschaft.
Philosophy is a classic humanities discipline.
Although the singular form exists, the word is usually used in the plural: 'die Geisteswissenschaften' (the humanities). This refers to the entire academic field that includes subjects such as history, literature, and philosophy.
Sie hat an der Universität Geisteswissenschaften studiert.
She studied humanities at university.
In an academic context, this word is often combined with verbs such as 'studieren' (to study), 'lehren' (to teach), or 'forschen' (to research). You also say that a subject 'zu den Geisteswissenschaften zählt' or 'zu den Geisteswissenschaften gehört' (counts as/belongs to the humanities).
Er forscht im Bereich der digitalen Geisteswissenschaften.
He conducts research in the field of digital humanities.
natural science
'die Naturwissenschaft' and 'die Geisteswissenschaft' are two major academic fields and are often contrasted with each other. Natural science studies nature and works, for example, with experiments, measurements, and observations. The humanities deal with culture, history, language, literature, or philosophy. The words can be confused because both refer to academic subjects and often occur in the plural. A helpful memory aid is: natural science looks at nature and matter; the humanities look at culture and human thought.
In den Geisteswissenschaften liest Lena viele Texte über Geschichte und Literatur.
In the humanities, Lena reads many texts about history and literature.
Für die Naturwissenschaft braucht Tom besonders gute Kenntnisse in Chemie.
For natural science, Tom needs especially good knowledge of chemistry.