The author has two goals: 1) to reintroduce humanity to the humanities, and 2) to present a foundation constructed in the reality of the natural languages upon which the studies of human thought and behavior can be successfully understood and explained.
In the first section of the book the effects of language upon human behavior are illustrated. It is argued that as water is to fish, language is to humans: the medium in which they live, think, and discover reality. The idea that humans are not simply biological animals, but thought evolving in language—humans are the conversations they construct in language—is amplified. The second section of the book discusses what this means for the subjects we call the humanities.
Grounded within the hermeneutic theories of Hans Georg Gadamer, the book is addressed to all the students, the teachers, and the teachers of the teachers of literature, poetry, history, and philosophy; in short, to the humanities and those who desire to comprehend and explain what we humans—beyond pure biology—understand and have made of ourselves.