Video summary

Oh, The Humanities! | Kate Cottle | TEDxWilmingtonUniversity

Main summary

Key takeaways

Educational

Main ideas / concepts (with lessons)

  • Central claim: The humanities are relevant to everyone because studying them helps you become a better human, not just gain historical knowledge.
  • Four reasons to study the humanities:
    1. Workplace skills
    2. Life skills
    3. Global perspectives
    4. Seeing the beauty and history of human achievement

Detailed breakdown of each reason

1) Workplace skills

  • What employers want (from the talk’s “chart”):

    • Critical thinking
    • Communication
    • Numeracy literacy (numeracy)

  • How the humanities build these skills:

    • A key tradition mentioned is the Socratic tradition—it’s often assumed to be automatic, but the speaker argues it takes work.
    • Critical thinking is strengthened by reading and writing.

  • Study / evidence cited:

    • Book referenced: Academically Adrift by Aaron Roska
    • Reported study claim: the greatest gains in critical thinking come from students who:
      • Read at least 50 pages per week
      • Write 20 pages over the course of a semester

  • Why this matters in work life:

    • In workplaces, bosses often give projects, not step-by-step instructions.
    • The skill needed is to figure out the “a, b, c”: what to do, how to do it, and what information is missing.

  • Illustrative example using literature: A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens):

    • Ebenezer Scrooge is initially mean, crotchety, and exploiting.
    • He is guided by the ghost of Jacob Marley, then three ghosts, to see events from the past.
    • Lesson about critical thinking:
      • Dickens doesn’t just state the cause—readers must read between the lines and infer evidence.
      • Critical thinking includes asking the right questions and noticing what isn’t directly provided.
    • Workplace parallel: successful employees infer, analyze, and decide with incomplete guidance.

2) Life skills

  • The speaker presents a “laundry list” of benefits from different humanities fields:

    • Music
      • Greater cognitive gains over the lifespan
      • Study claim: music study helps stave off dementia longer
    • Foreign language
      • Benefits comparable to music study
    • Singing in choirs
      • Lower blood pressure
      • Higher reported happiness
      • A sense of community
    • Politics and economics
      • Higher rates of civic engagement
    • Drama
      • Better social skills
      • Ability to adopt personas suited to different situations
    • Literature
      • Increased empathy

  • Empathy example from literature: Oedipus Rex (Sophocles)

    • Plot summary provided:
      • Oedipus is fated to kill his father and marry his mother.
      • He tries to prevent fate, but the story unfolds toward fulfillment.
      • As a young man, Oedipus learns the fate, runs away, and on the road kills a man after conflict.
    • Lesson about human understanding:
      • People may seem irrational at first glance, but with context (history, culture, era), their actions make sense.
      • The play is set in 5th century BCE Greece, during intense warfare (Greek–Persian wars / Peloponnesian context), shaping expectations about conflict and killing.
    • Empathy outcome:
      • Instead of judging Oedipus as “ridiculous,” audiences understand why he might act as he does.
      • When Oedipus later realizes the truth and pokes his eyes out, the speaker suggests we can understand his emotional/cognitive logic more deeply.

3) Global perspectives

  • Problem framing: Humanity faces planet-scale issues, including:

    • Starvation
    • Pollution
    • Climate change
    • Gross inequity

  • Key idea: These problems can only be solved as a planet, requiring collaboration across cultures.

  • Challenge noted: People may misread cultural differences and assume others are disinterested or superior.

  • Humanities as access to culture:

    • Studying literature and humanities helps you understand cultural norms rather than misinterpret them.

  • Example with China (Confucian culture):

    • The speaker expects partnership with China, while noting misunderstandings can happen when individuals present a “still face.”
    • Explanation offered:
      • Chinese culture is described as Confucian.
      • Community is more important than the individual.
      • Emotional display can cause “disharmony,” so emotional labor is kept private.
    • Conclusion from this cultural lens:
      • A still face may not mean hatred or disinterest—it can be cultural practice.

  • Quote attributed to Confucius:

“The wise man is full yet seeming empty; offended against yet never contesting…”

4) Beauty and history of human achievement

  • Reframe of history: People often think history is mainly war, genocide, and weapon technology, but the speaker emphasizes that the humanities reveal:

    • Collective knowledge
    • Human achievement in art, science, music, literature, and more

  • Art example illustrating progress (timeline + method):

    • The speaker contrasts paintings from 1300 vs. 1500.
    • Observed differences:
      • Earlier art: flatter forms, weaker proportionality, less realistic perspective
      • Later art: advances such as:
        • Math/science contributions (e.g., vanishing point for perspective)
        • Shading for depth (shadow supports 3D representation)
        • Better proportions, approaching “almost photorealism”
    • Additional contextual learning:
      • Geography/history knowledge helps identify likely setting and time of the painting.

  • Overall lesson:

    • If society forgets collective knowledge, it must restart from an earlier point—costing time when there are major problems to solve.

  • “Everything is connected” message:

    • The speaker urges students to stop thinking in silos (math vs. history vs. English vs. art).
    • The humanities help you see interconnections, such as linking economics/history to deepen understanding of Ebenezer Scrooge.
    • Strong connections are presented as necessary to solve problems and use collective knowledge effectively.

Speaker / sources featured

  • Speaker: Kate Cottle (TEDxWilmingtonUniversity)

  • Authors / referenced works:

    • Aaron Roska — Academically Adrift
    • Charles Dickens — A Christmas Carol
    • Sophocles — Oedipus Rex
    • Confucius — quoted (attributed statement about the wise man)

  • Character / story sources mentioned:

    • Ebenezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley, and the three ghosts (from A Christmas Carol)

Original video