Reading Literature for a Wiser World

Photo: Sri Lanka Guardian

Wise judgment is attuned to cognitive complexities in the world and to the ways in which historical and cultural contexts inform diverse systems of value.  Whatever their domain of action, wise practitioners evince high degrees of intellectual humility and empathy, together with a thoroughgoing commitment to fostering the well-being of both one’s self and one’s community.  

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Rethinking Liberal Education

Photo: Raphael, The School of Athens (detail), antigonejournal.com

Narrative imagination is an essential preparation for moral interaction. Habits of empathy and conjecture conduce to a certain type of citizenship and a certain form of community: one that cultivates a sympathetic responsiveness to another’s needs, and understands the way circumstances shape those needs, while respecting separateness and privacy.

Martha Nussbaum, Cultivating Humanity

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