I think the biggest difference between the standard social sciences
and the humanities is the focus on expression. Humanities are all
about how humans express their emotions, whereas other social
sciences are primarily about the study of emotions, how they come
to be, and how they affect our actions. This means that there's a big
focus on the medium in humanities; more than any other social
science there seems to be a focus on the precise methods of human
expression. For example; why would an artist choose charcoal on
paper over oil on canvas, what does the color palette the artist chose
say about the emotions they were trying to convey, or does the artist
choose to blend colors together versus keeping them distinctly
separate amongst other questions.
