WGU C100 Humanities Module 1 Final Exam Test Latest 2025 Graded A+) Questions and Detailed Answers (Well Explained

1. What Are the Humanities? 2. The study of Humanities 3. By studying the arts from various times and places, we learn about 4. Another primary function of the Humanities is to help us learn to 5. For our purpose, we will define the Humanities as 6. consilience*. Humanities Module 1 Final Exam Test Latest 2025 Graded A+) Questions and Detailed Answers (Well Explained seeks to understand what humans believe and why, along with what we have believed in the past and even what we might believe in the future. By studying beliefs and the ways such beliefs have been expressed through the arts, for instance, we gain a better understanding of human values. think critically and creatively about the human experience. Studying the Humanities allows us to understand the past as more than just a series of events. A pattern of human interactions within a rich context of beliefs, ideals, and experiences emerge when we look closely at how literary and artistic movements evolved over time When we explore these subjects, various windows open before us, and we practice consilience*. Consilience is the art and science of exploring the overlaps of what are often considered quite different subjects, such as the science and Humanities, in search of commonalities and places of agreement. By understanding how these subjects overlap, we are able to see a broader, well-rounded picture of humanity. a study of the various ways people, in all times past and present and in all places around the world, live out the human experience. Humans have engaged in religion, philosophy, literature, music, art, language, and history to better comprehend and describe our world. other cultures—their differences as well as their similarities. word "humanities" is derived from the Latin term, humanitas, which essentially refers to humans and their culture Another way to look at the Humanities is that it is the study of human ideas Additionally, it is important to see how these different subjects influence one another 7. . Studying the Humanities can help us better understand human relationships. True or False? True Correct. By studying the Humanities, we can see how people across time responded to different challenges and events and how people interacted with one another. 8. When studying the Humanities, you should not make connections between the past and the present. True or False? This is a false statement. Studying the Humanities allows us to see the connections between past and present and imparts a sense of cultural continuity. 9. Studying the Humanities has civic benefits. True or False? True Correct. Studying the Humanities can help us become better citizens and contributors to society. 10. Chronology (from Latin chronologia, from Ancient Greek χρόνος, chronos, "time"; and -λογία, -logia) is defined as a method of taking events and putting them in the order of occurrence. In the study of the Humanities, a chronological timeline or a listing of the sequence of events allows us to see connections between cause and effect. In other words, when we are able to trace one event back to another, or to extrapolate out of one event an event which follows, we are better able to see the source of a series of events. 11. Review the timeline below to get a good sense of when each chronological period occurs. Note that this timeline illustrates general designations for periods and movements related to literature and the arts and that the dates for each one are approximate. 12. Three inventions that altered the way that we live, and the way that we go about our business, are the printing press, electricity, and the Internet. The printing press- -the printing press, while it was invented originally in the 11th century in China--a simple, moveable-type press--it didn't really come to Europe and to the Western world until 1450, when Gutenberg invented his press in Germany. Now, the printing press had a huge impact on the dissemination of information. Prior to this, the production of manuscripts was time-consuming and extremely expensive. The printing press allowed for manuscripts, such as the Bible, such as materials that pushed along the Protestant reformation, to be produced in mass numbers. It changed literacy in Europe. Before the printing press, reading was really the province of the wealthy and the educated. The press made it so that many, many more people--including the rising middle class in the Middle Ages--could read. In 1476 it came to England, and the first text that Caxton printed on his press was The Canterbury Tales, which was then printed dozens and dozens of times. There were some texts in Germany that were printed tens of thousands of times. So, the amount of material, and the access, brought about by the printing press cannot be underestimated. second, of course, is electricity--and this changed, drastically changed, the way that we live. Now, electricity is not really an invention because it has been around for a long time. As a matter of fact, in ancient Egypt they knew about electric eels and knew about charges, so really it's a bit more of a discovery than an invention, but let's say, for instance, the invention of the light bulb by Thomas Edison or alternating or direct current--this changed the way that we lived our daily lives. last one, of course, is the Internet, and like the printing press, the Internet revolutionized the way that we access knowledge. Now if we have to wait for more than twenty seconds--ten if you're impatient--to get any sort of knowledge that we want, this is frustrating. So, the Internet has one: just changed that we access knowledge in a drastic way, it has also put knowledge about anything at anybody's finger tips and made education, business, that much simpler, has brought people together all around the world instantly, and I can't think of an invention that has had bigger impact on the globalization of the world than the Internet. 13. The first text to be printed on a printing press in England was The Canterbury Tales. True or False? . True Correct. The printing press came to England in 1476, and the first text to be printed was The Canterbury Tales. 14. The impact of technology on the Humanities is an example of how chronology is important for understanding the Humanities. True or False? True Correct. Studying the Humanities chronologically is important for understanding what technologies came into play at what time. 15. Themes* are unifying ideas that are repeated or developed throughout a literary or artistic work. Regardless of the culture or society that produces them, this Humanities course will explore both certain recurring themes that cross time and cultures, and themes that are distinct and defining for a period. 16. Throughout this course, there are themes that define a period, and each creative work or sets of contexts addressed in the period are firmly anchored in a specific set of themes. This anchoring exposes. the thematic narrative that runs throughout each period. In other words, the themes provided at the beginning of each module (each period) will help tell the story of that period through the contexts and work selected to represent that period. Many periods share themes, and we can think of these themes as more "universal" in nature (you will learn more about these kinds of themes shortly) The Classical Period balance, truth/reason, democracy/republic, polytheism, humanism The Middle Ages Period (not covered in this course): religion, deference to God, crusades, pacifism, humility, feudalism, chivalry The Renaissance Period: rebirth of classicism, humanism, rationalism, scientific expansion, university system, individualism, self-fashioning The Baroque Period (not covered in this course): counter-reformation, divine right, absolutism, commonwealth, unification of the arts, world as a stage The Neoclassical Period: skepticism, rationalism, empiricism, order, deism, classicism The Romantic Period: nationalism, exoticism, revolution, heroism, passion, individualism, nature he Realist Period: Darwinism, industrialization, individualism, age of doubt you can see, there are a few themes that—while not universal, per se—occur in two or more periods. This repetition indicates that these themes affect not just a single period or generation but are powerful enough themes that they have, historically, required revisiting and, in some cases, reimagining: individualism, revolution, and classicism*. These three themes tell us something about values central to the Western world, as these three themes have endured through tumultuous change and creative innovation. 17. Each period has its own distinct set of themes, which never overlap with other periods' themes. True or False? False Correct. This statement is false. While each period has its own unique set of themes, there are some themes that overlap in multiple periods, such as individualism, revolution, and classicism. Themes consist of unifying ideas that are repeated or developed throughout a literary or artistic work. True or False? True Correct. Themes are ideas that can be recognized in one or several literary or artistic works. Universal Themes Two examples of recurring universal themes* in the Humanities include love and the hero. Although you won't see these called out specifically on the previous page, in terms of "core" themes for the periods, you will see these called out multiple times as you begin to analyze art from each period. Love and the figure of the hero, then, tell us about two shared human principles in the Western world. Love Love is one of the most powerful emotions humans can feel, so it is no surprise that it is a prominent theme in the Humanities. The ancient Greeks developed the idea of a distinction between eros*, or erotic love, and agape* or platonic love Platonic love is s Selfless love of one person for another on a spiritual level, or love of pure beauty, either aesthetic or intellectual. This profound distinction gave the formal arts a construct for expressing the duality of love (physical passion versus love of soul, lust versus spiritual desire) that nearly all cultures recognize. It opened art, literature, and theater to exploring erotic subject matter. And it lent the framework in which philosophers developed the concept of an idealized and exalted spiritual love that transcends passion. The Humanities explore other distinct forms of love that define our humanity as well: love of God, family love, romantic love, and friendship. Courtly love becomes an important theme in the Medieval Period, particularly the 12th century. The video below explores this theme of courtly romance. In America today we celebrate romantic love—we even dedicate a holiday, Valentine's Day, to it. We can find similar attitudes towards love in works from other cultures. For example, the Odyssey, the seventh-century Greek epic* tells the story of Odysseus's ten-year journey home and his wife Penelope's fidelity in his absence. At one point in the story, Odysseus refuses to become immortal and stay with the goddess Calypso. He tells Calypso that while his mortal wife can't compete with her in beauty, still he wishes to return home. But the Greeks also were suspicious of love and its irrational effects. The Greeks wrote about the god Eros, a small capricious boy, who later became known as "Cupid" by the Romans. This god, born of Aphrodite, shoots people with his arrows, causing them to be overwhelmed with an irrational, uncontrollable emotion. It is not the attributes of the other person that cause love, but rather something that happens to you. The hero is an archetype found in virtually every culture. Stories of heroes seem to be essential in all societies. The hero's journey archetype has been termed a monomyth (a phrase popularized by the scholar of mythology Joseph Campbell) because the trajectory of the hero's quest or journey is fundamentally the same everywhere. We are prone to believe in heroes and await their coming. The hero archetype satisfies a psychological need to see the individual (to see oneself) as capable of stupendous feats (physical, mental, or moral) against seemingly insurmountable and antagonistic forces. We are introduced to the archetype in childhood and through mythic stories that cultivate and reinforce our expectations for the heroic. The hero embodies two somewhat contradictory elements: someone who is larger-than-life and someone who is like each of us. We can admire the hero and enjoy hearing stories about him because he can do things we cannot: the gods favor him, and he is stronger and more clever than an ordinary man. He travels to faraway places, often faces death or even visits the underworld, wins battles against great odds, and meets exotic creatures. At the same time, the hero usually has very human emotions and struggles. In the Old Babylonian heroic poem, Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, Gilgamesh, is two-thirds divine, but his response to his best friend's death is as self-centered as any human's. He mourns Enkidu but travels to the ends of the earth to meet someone who has been granted immortality because Gilgamesh fears his own death. The term for selfless love of one person for another on a spiritual level is . a. eros b. agape c. phileo d. None of the above agape The correct answer is b. The term for selfless love of one person for another on a spiritual level is agape. The hero is often both larger-than-life and relatably human. True or False? True Correct. The hero embodies two somewhat contradictory elements: someone who is larger-than-life and someone who is like each of us. We can admire the hero and enjoy hearing stories about him because he can do things we cannot. Humanism: The study of the creative and intellectual contributions of all human cultures. This consideration and examination began in the early Renaissance with the study of Greek and Roman civilizations, which were extolled as the pinnacle of human achievement. A second, common definition of humanism is a n ethical system that centers on humans and their values and emphasizes reason and the scientific method.