Objectivity in the Humanities

Together with a group of distinguished guests (see poster) we will discuss the nature and scope of objectivity in the humanities. Our fundamental question is how and in what way the methodologies and target-system of the various disciplines classified as “the humanities” achieve their specific type of objectivity. What is to claim knowledge and to justify knowledge claims with respect to the objects of the humanities? One hypothesis we will explore is the idea that objects of the humanities are artifacts and, thus, embodied ‘objective’ meanings whose sensory dimensions are entangled with synchronic (trans-cultural) and diachronic (historical) variation conditions