人学 (rén xué) — anthropology; (philosophy) the study of humanity; humanistic studies

Definition

人学 is a formal/academic term for the study of humanity in philosophy or the humanities, broader and more theoretical than the social-science discipline 人类学 ('anthropology'), which studies human cultures and societies empirically.

noun
anthropology(philosophy) the study of humanityhumanistic studies
Easily confused

Examples

  • 人学。
    Tā dà xué xué de shì rén xué.
    He studied anthropology in college.
  • 人学。
    rén xué Shì yì mén yán jiū rén lèi wén huà hé shè huì de xué kē.
    Anthropology is a discipline that studies human culture and society.
  • 人学，。
    Wǒ duì rén xué hěn gǎn xìng qù, yóu qí shì kǎo gǔ xué bù fen.
    I'm very interested in anthropology, especially the archaeology part.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

人rénhuman
学xuéstudy

The 人 and 学 together mean the study of humans.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

Open 人 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 學; 学 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 學 may have used 爻 and 六 for sound, with hands and a child added later; the simplified 学 is a shorthand.

Open 学 →

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