User:HDFoster

I am a retired college instructor with a specialty in Humanology. Humanology is the all- encompassing study of "us" human beings. During my academic and real world experiences I observed an ever increasing tendency on the part of my colleagues to become narrower and narrower in their research and view-points. This, of course, tended to produce highly specialized "experts" on the one hand, while reducing the number of individuals trying to put the whole puzzle of the human experience into some semblance of an understanding of just what it is to be 'Human'. Philosophy is supposed to fill this role but it too has become overly specialized with specialties in epistemology and logic, metaphysics, individual philosophies of life, religious, social and political philosophies, and, of course, the biggest 'bug-a-boo', ETHICS. And, these are only the general categories explored by philosophy, so let us not all those interestingly mind-blowing sub-categories to numerous to mention in polite company. However, I must admit that ‘Hermeneutics’ comes pretty close, but is just not ALL-encompassing. Of course, just so my philosophical friends don't feel picked on, the same holds true for anthropology, history, psychology, sociology, political science, business, economics, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, cosmology, et.al., ad-infinitum. We humble humans are rapidly becoming experts on just about everything, except, how all this knowledge fits together into a meaningful general understanding of the world we all live on. Fortunately, some colleges and universities are beginning to realize that there is a deficit in this area of study and are offering courses and degrees in broad-area humanities, and hybrid sciences which is a great step in the right direction, but has a long way to go in realizing that the theoretical study of just how all these 'special' areas of study fit together into a homogeneous understanding of our species, 'homo-sapiens-sapiens. Oh, and just so all those who spent all those long hours in the library and the laboratory into the wee-wee hours of the a.m. (no 'pun' intended), the substance of humanology is derived directly from their very hard, and necessary work. Humanology tries to put all this very special and narrow information into a meaningful whole.