We live in an era which seems to be dominated by the rationalisms of science-technology and economics-commerce. These appear daily as enormously powerful forces, driving us alternately to doom or salvation. They make their domineering presence felt ever more heavily in places of learning and research, and often at the expense of the humanities.

There is no science-technology, however, without the human. There is no commerce-economics without the human. Not only are the humanities a third major area of inquiry; the object of study of the humanities is integral to the other two. The humanities interrogate the nature of the human and build a normative agenda for the human, developing programs of action for the humane, the humanistic, human rights, global humanity, the locally humanised ...