In a Time of Change: Reflections on Humanities Research and Methodologies

This study begins with a question about research methods in humanities. It is grounded in the humanities, focusing on the changes that have brought light and darkness to the humanities, and focusing on discourse regarding research methods that explore those changes. If the role of the humanities is to prevent the proverbial "gray rhino," unlike the sciences, and if the humanities have a role to play in moderating the uncontrollable development of the sciences, what kind of research methods should humanities pursue. Furthermore, what kind of research methods should be pursued in the humanities, in line with the development of the sciences and the changing environment? This study discusses research methods in the humanities as follows: first, in Section 2, I advocate for the collaboration between humanities and scientific methods, utilizing accumulated assets produced by humanities and continuously introducing scientific methods. Prediction of change is highly precise and far-reaching in engineering and the natural sciences. However, it is difficult to approach change in these fields in a macro or integrated manner. Because they are not precise, they are not welcome in disciplines that deal with the real world. This is primarily the responsibility of humanities. Where science focuses on precision, humanities focuses on questions of essence. This is because while the ends of change have varied throughout history, the nature of change has not varied that much. Section 3 then discusses the changing environment, proposals for changes to humanistic research methods, reviews and proposals inductive change research methods, and makes some suggestions for humanistic change research. The data produced by the field of humanities accumulated by humankind in the past is abundant and has a wide range of applications. In the future, we should not only actively accept the results of scientific advances but also actively seek systematic humanistic approaches and utilize them across disciplinary boundaries to find solutions at the intersection of scientific methods and humanistic assets.