This study aims at presenting a critical reading of the human sciences approaches during the last half of the twentieth century, as the human sciences plays an active role in the formation of societies cultures, and the critical process is closely related to the this field, subsequently, they are complementary. The critical process positively contributes to the realization of multiple readings and the cognitive and cultural enrichment. The twentieth century has witnessed cultural and cognitive shifts that led to the emergence of many critical trends which carries human studies from the focus on external contexts that produced the text to the focus on the cultural systems implied beyond and inside the text. We believe that human sciences have an effective role in orienting societies' culture towards the intellectual advancement and the civilizational progress. Therefore, this study seeks to highlight this important feature of modern and contemporary humanities. The study also attempts to link the human sciences with the digital transitions that the contemporary world has known, especially at the dawn of the third millennium, whereby television, computer, Internet, smart phones and so on have been invented. These tools have made qualitative leap and radical shift in critical studies and humanities. Cultural studies has dominated the field of humanities. Thus, literary and critical interest has shifted from the elite’s environment to the popular mass culture which represents the vast majority in human societies. Hence, the present study explores the mentioned shifts following basically the descriptive approach as well as the historical approach when necessary in order to achieve the research objectives. On the basis of what have been mentioned, the following questions are raised: What is meant by human sciences? What is its relationship to the positive construction of human culture? What is the relationship between the critical approaches and the humanities? How their integration can be realized? What are the proposed means to make the humanities achieve intellectual moderation and cultural balance? Finally, what are the prospects for contemporary human sciences in light of the computational dominance and the digitization?.
THE ROLE OF CRITICAL APPROACHES AND HUMAN SCIENCES IN ORIENTING CULTURE AND COGNITION IN HUMAN SOCIETIES (A STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL AND COGNITIVE SHIFTS)
