The Humanities Classroom with AI: Generative AI Ito-wo-Kashi (5)

Abstract

This work, The Humanities Classroom with AI: Generative AI Ito-wo-Kashi (5), presents a fictional university course in which a large language model embodies the personas of philosophers and artists—Kant, Turing, Gibson, Dennett, Wittgenstein, Zeami, Murasaki Shikibu, and Ozu Yasujiro—to explore the “symbol grounding problem” and the nature of meaning in AI. By reframing the Turing Test as both an assessment of machines and a mirror of human sensitivity, the narrative situates AI-generated intelligence within the aesthetic and emotional dimensions of human culture. Through references to Noh theatre’s “ma” (interval) and “yugen” (subtle beauty), it suggests that the silence and interpretive space between words may serve as a new site of grounding between human and AI consciousness. The study bridges literature, psychology, philosophy, and pedagogy, proposing a model of “affective intelligence” that redefines humanities education in the age of generative AI.