Big Research Questions about the Human Condition : A Historian's Will

Ask bigger, fewer, and clearer questions! This is the major message of this book, comprising a set of issues to focus on, hereby suggesting a way to overcome the fragmentation characterising the humanities today. It also urges humanists to regard humanities research as an integral part of science, although uniquely dealing with humans as decision making, meaning seeking and self-reflecting agents.

The book is a manifesto-like essay aiming to redress some globally present drawbacks characterizing current research in the humanities: 1. Fragmentation and thematic volatility; 2. A reluctance to acknowledge that humanities research is a truth seeking enterprise as all scientific research; 3. A certain unwillingness (or inability) to ask clear questions and to provide distinct answers to these questions. The book consists of three parts: A. Introduction, where the problem and the purpose of the book is presented; B. six chapters, each presenting a certain topic that I suggest that humanist scholars gather around with sustained efforts; C. Conclusion with some words of how to proceed and a section discussing what the humanities or should and are not or should not be.