Humanity

Defining the field of “health humanities” requires careful attention to the fraught concept of humanity itself. As Raymond Williams (1976) points out, the use of “the humanities” to define an academic field inclusive of classics, philosophy, and modern literature arose in the eighteenth century. In this sense, the field of health humanities strives for an inter- or multidisciplinary approach to health inclusive of history, the arts, bioethics, and the social sciences, among countless other forms of thought.