Humanitext Antiqua

What is Humanitext Antiqua?

As its name suggests (Antiqua is Latin for “ancient things, classics”), Humanitext Antiqua is a project that aims to reinterpret the great intellectual heritage of the Western Classics through modern technology, liberating it for everyone to access.

Traditional textual research has generally relied on keyword searches. However, this method can only capture superficial matches and struggles to uncover deeper connections between ideas and concepts.

Humanitext Antiqua overcomes this challenge with the “contextual understanding” of AI. Even without a direct keyword match, the AI comprehends the “intent” and “context” of a user’s question, discovering semantically relevant passages from a vast corpus of original texts, such as those in the Perseus Digital Library. This is an experience more befitting the term “dialogue” than mere search.

Purpose: Bringing the Wisdom of the Classics to All

The Western Classics are the wellspring of virtually all modern disciplines and a treasure trove of wisdom that stimulates our thinking across the ages. Humanitext Antiqua dismantles the various barriers that different people face when trying to access this repository of knowledge.

• For Professionals and Researchers It dramatically reduces the time spent on extensive literature reviews, allowing researchers to focus on more creative and analytical work. The AI can also suggest unexpected connections between texts from different fields, powerfully supporting interdisciplinary studies and the discovery of new ideas.

• For Students Students can ask the AI to “explain this difficult philosophical concept in simpler terms” or have it compare and contrast how multiple sources discuss a specific theme (e.g., “justice”). It serves as a reliable learning partner for efficiently finding supporting citations for reports and papers.

• For All Curious Minds Pose universal questions like “How can one live a happy life?” to the Stoic philosophers. Explore what historical figures like Caesar or Cicero thought about events in their own time. Humanitext Antiqua opens the door for everyone to engage in these rich, intellectually satisfying dialogues.

Core Functions and How to Use Them

While highly advanced, Humanitext Antiqua is designed to be remarkably simple to use. Its intuitive interface allows anyone to begin exploring the world of classics instantly.

1. Select Authors or Works (Optional)

To increase the precision of your inquiry, you can limit the scope of the conversation to specific authors or works. For instance, by focusing only on the works of Plato, you can trace the evolution of his thought from his early to late periods. For more advanced use, you can set the works of Aristotle and Plato as a comparative basis and ask about the philosophical differences between the master and his student.

2. Choose an Output Mode

You can flexibly switch the AI’s response style to match your objective and level of knowledge.

• Q&A Mode: Ideal for when you need a quick overview. It generates concise, to-the-point answers to your questions.
• Study Mode: Perfect for beginners to the classics. Original Greek and Latin are quoted in modern translation, technical terms are annotated, and historical context is provided, making the content accessible even without prior knowledge.
• Expert Mode: A mode for researchers who value the nuance of the original texts. It quotes directly in Greek and Latin and can generate expert-level interpretations, sometimes delving into grammar and syntax. It proves invaluable when examining variations in translation or investigating the precise usage of a specific term.
• Dialogue Mode: A unique function for a more immersive learning experience or to spark creative thinking. The AI adopts the persona of the selected author, responding in the first person. A question like, “Socrates, what is virtue?” will be met with an answer in his characteristic style.
• Custom Mode: This mode allows you to build your own optimal AI assistant. By fine-tuning settings such as the language of citations (original/translation), the level of detail in explanations, and the response style, you can elicit responses that perfectly match your research and learning style.
• No Context Mode: This mode generates responses based on the AI’s broader knowledge, without being limited to the context of Humanitext’s source text database and translations. It is useful when you want to translate particular original passages and consider how a specific interpretation is positioned within a larger context.

3. Enter Your Question

Type what you want to know into the chatbox in plain English (or Japanese). You can start with a broad question and then progressively refine it based on the AI’s answers to arrive at deeper insights.

(Example Questions)

• How does Augustine discuss the concept of time in his "Confessions"?
• What are the differences in the views on life and death between the Roman Stoics and the Epicureans?
• Explain Plato's theory of Forms using the allegory of the cave, in a way that a middle school student can understand.

4. Review the Answer and Its Sources

Each part of the AI-generated response is appended with a citation, such as [Plato Republic, 588b], indicating the source text. This commitment to citation is the bedrock of Humanitext Antiqua’s reliability. It not only ensures academic transparency but also encourages users to move beyond passively accepting the AI’s answer. By clicking the citation, you are prompted to return to the original text to verify and contemplate for yourself. This back-and-forth movement—between the “dialogue with AI” and the “return to the source”—is the new form of learning that Humanitext Antiqua proposes.

Humanitext Antiqua is a new gateway to the world of the classics. We invite you to enjoy a dialogue with timeless wisdom through this platform.