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The humanities are academic disciplines which study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytic, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural and social sciences. Examples of the disciplines related to humanities are ancient and modern languages, literature, history, philosophy, religion, visual and performing arts (including music). Additional subjects sometimes included in the humanities are anthropology, area studies, Communication studies and cultural studies, although these are often regarded as social sciences. Scholars working in the humanities are sometimes described as "humanists". However, that term also describes the philosophical position of humanism, which some "antihumanist" scholars in the humanities reject. The classics, in the Western academic tradition, refer to cultures of classical antiquity, namely the Ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Classical study was formerly considered one of the cornerstones of the humanities, but the classics declined in importance during the 20th century. Nevertheless, the influence of classical ideas in humanities such as philosophy and literature remains strong. More broadly speaking, the "classics" are the foundational writings of the earliest major cultures of the world. In other major traditions, classics would refer to the Vedas and Upanishads in India, the writings attributed to Confucius, Lao-tse and Chuang-tzu in China, and writings such as the Hammurabi Code and the Gilgamesh Epic from Mesopotamia, as well as the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
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