Abstract

Digital humanities, with its systematic use of digital resources in the humanities, fosters a new way of research, teaching, and publications, based on collaborative, transdisciplinary, and computational engagement. As such, digital humanities present a new platform for exploration of as yet known potential in humanities at the universal level. Incorporating the common denominators of various past and present theological, spiritual, philosophical, cultural, and political interpretations about the essence of being human, digital humanities allow us to comprehend anew the perennial question of what it means to be human, or, what is even more important, how to become more human. Following this logic, digital humanities open the door to a more nuanced and integrative understanding of the Ancient Greek belief that man exists at the center of the universe, as Protagoras claimed when stating that “man is the measure of all things.” While the Ancient Greeks were able to tackle this inquiry only within their own religious, philosophical, and cultural environment, the digital humanities allow us to create a universal humanitas, rooted in moral and spiritual education, magnanimity, dignity, respect, wisdom, gracefulness, sensitivity, mildness, kindness, and generosity as they have been understood in the past and present cultures, traditions, and religions. In short, digital humanities should be viewed as an instrument, necessary for the creation of a type of universal humanism in the sense of the Greek καθολου, comprising both universality (universal, general, altogether) and wholeness (entire, at all, whole, all inclusive), in a narrative where humans are flourishing in peaceful coexistence among themselves as well as with the cosmos and their gods.