The modern world and the humanities

Abstract

Based on an analysis of the technological and cultural form of the modern world (‘Leonardo World’), problems which arise from this duality with regard to the cooperation of the humanities with other sciences and to questions arising from a two cultures myth and from the so called compensation theory of the humanities are discussed. The particular task of the humanities is seen to be in the analysis and in the development of the cultural form of the world. The humanities in this sense should be the place in which the modern world, which is first and foremost the work of science and technology, acquires a knowledge of itself and does this in the form of science. In this respect the concept of culture used here, as opposed to the concept of an amputated culture that is marked as the territory of the humanities in the framework of the two cultures myth, includes the humanities as well as the natural sciences and technology.