Chapter 1

我母静恒

Chapter1
Content Interpretation
This chapter positions digital humanities (DH) as a vibrant and contested field, rather than an established discipline. It begins by contrasting the methodologies of the sciences and the humanities, establishing the position that humanistic inquiry is fundamentally rooted in language, historical context, and interpretation. This sets the stage for the central question of DH: what happens when this tradition meets the logic of digital computation?
The chapter explores DH through a series of open questions – is it a methodology, a theoretical framework, a discipline in its own right, or simply a practical collaboration? It challenges the tired historical analogy of digital technology as a new ‘Gutenberg’, instead suggesting that digital technologies may fundamentally reshape the way we access, preserve, and think about knowledge.
It then cleverly links this modern dilemma to the origins of Renaissance humanism, pointing out that figures such as Petrarch were also innovators who used new tools (philology) to reform the world. This historical context highlights the deep contradictions of the present day, such as the shift from the lone scholar to collaborative, data-driven teams, and the risk that DH may create a new academic elite, marginalizing traditional scholarship in the ‘corporate university’.

Personal Insights
The most compelling point I took from the introduction was that digital humanities is a modern reincarnation of the humanist spirit. Both movements are highly practical, using the dominant "grammar" and "rhetoric" of the day – whether linguistics or programming – to reinterpret the past and reshape the present.
But I think the text also hints at a key difference. Renaissance humanism often celebrated individual intellect, whereas digital humanities is inherently collaborative and institutional, challenging the humanities' core myth of the lone genius. This shift is not just operational, but philosophical.
Moreover, the socio-economic caveats raised in the text are sobering. An over-emphasis on big-grant, high-tech projects risks turning digital humanities into a performative spectacle, a so-called "Ferrari digital humanities" – stunning but inaccessible to most scholars. This could in turn alienate the public that the humanities seeks to engage.
The real task of digital humanities, therefore, is not just to master the tools, but to ensure that those tools serve the humanities' mission – to foster critical thinking and responsible citizenship, while resisting technological determinism and corporate capture. It must be a critical practice, not just a digital one.