An Education in Judgment: Hannah Arendt and the Humanities
by D. N. Rodowick
University of Chicago Press, 2021 Cloth: 978-0-226-78021-4 | eISBN: 978-0-226-78035-1 | Paper: 978-0-226-82950-0 Library of Congress Classification B945.A694R646 2021 Dewey Decimal Classification 144
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Rodowick takes after the theories of Hannah Arendt and argues that thinking is an art we practice with and for each other in our communities.
In An Education in Judgment, philosopher D. N. Rodowick makes the definitive case for a philosophical humanistic education aimed at the cultivation of a life guided by both self-reflection and interpersonal exchange. Such a life is an education in judgment, the moral capacity to draw conclusions alone and with others, and letting one’s own judgments be answerable to the potentially contrasting judgments of others. Thinking, for Rodowick, is an art we practice with and learn from each other on a daily basis.
In taking this approach, Rodowick follows the lead of Hannah Arendt, who made judgment the cornerstone of her conception of community. What is important for Rodowick, as for Arendt, is the cultivation of “free relations,” in which we allow our judgments to be affected and transformed by those of others, creating “an ever-widening fabric of intersubjective moral consideration.” That is a fragile fabric, certainly, but one that Rodowick argues is worth pursuing, caring for, and preserving. This original work thinks with and beyond Arendt about the importance of the humanities and what “the humanities” amounts to beyond the walls of the university.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
D. N. Rodowick is the Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor in the College and the Division of Humanities at the University of Chicago. Among his books are Philosophy’s Artful Conversation, Elegy for Theory, and What Philosophy Wants from Images, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
REVIEWS
“In this elegantly crafted book, Rodowick offers a powerful defense of humanistic education. These pages resound both with Rodowick’s own voice and with the voice of his constant interlocutor, Hannah Arendt, as he works out, in spirited agreement and thoughtful disagreement with her, a philosophically rich account (which is also a model) of the conversations on which the human faculty of judgment depends.”
— Patchen Markell, Cornell University
“An Education in Judgment is a challenging and substantial contribution to Arendt scholarship and a major new work of critical self-reflection on the humanities by one of the field’s leading proponents. Rodowick offers an illuminating reexamination of a cluster of texts written in the last decade of Arendt’s life, illustrating their interconnectedness, probing their difficulties, and arguing for their compelling contemporary relevance.”
— Thomas Bartscherer, Bard College
“For readers familiar with now longstanding laments about the ‘crisis of the humanities’, An Education in Judgment is a breath of fresh air. Drawing on Hannah Arendt's evocative writings on aesthetics and politics, Rodowick brilliantly charts a new way forward on well-travelled terrain. The fate of the humanities lies not in shoring up what is left of the canon but in developing wholly quotidian practices of critical thinking and judging. Rooted in the ordinary capacities of all citizens, the humanities become a world-building activity that takes account of plurality and different perspectives on a common world. Recognizing with Arendt the crucial importance of publicity, this book breaks free of narrow academic debates and offers a public vision of the humanities as an imaginative space for creating a new genre of the human, not as telos but as open-ended future.”
— Linda M. G. Zerilli, University of Chicago
“A fresh look at Arendt’s philosophy on thinking and judgment [applied] to the current ‘crisis’ in the humanities.”
— Choice
"In An Education in Judgment: Hannah Arendt and the Humanities, D.N. Rodowick draws on Hannah Arendt’s writings on judgment to make the case for a philosophy of the humanities grounded in self-reflection and interpersonal exchange. This innovative and plausible thesis of an education in judgment as the unifying element of the humanities will likely trigger fruitful debate."
— LSE Review of Books
“Arendt’s reflections on judgment, thinking, moral action, and political courage show that she was not a system builder and was not interested in offering axioms by which to rearrange the world. Yet in following her train of thought, we experience the illuminating force of her insights.”
— New York Review of Books
“The question of the value of education and research in the humanities is a perennial topic of academic debate . . . Few thinkers have done more to bring clarity to these debates than [Rodowick]."
— The Review of Politics
"Convincing and illuminating. [Rodowick's] defense of the political importance of an education in the humanities is a beautifully written and insightful attestation to the lasting political relevance and remarkable fecundity of Hannah Arendt’s legacy."
— Theory and Research in Education
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
I The Art of Thinking
II Judgment and Culture
III Culture and Curation
IV The World-Observer
V Politics and Philosophy, or Restoring a Common World
VI An as Yet Undetermined Animal
Acknowledgments
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
An Education in Judgment: Hannah Arendt and the Humanities
by D. N. Rodowick
University of Chicago Press, 2021 Cloth: 978-0-226-78021-4 eISBN: 978-0-226-78035-1 Paper: 978-0-226-82950-0
Rodowick takes after the theories of Hannah Arendt and argues that thinking is an art we practice with and for each other in our communities.
In An Education in Judgment, philosopher D. N. Rodowick makes the definitive case for a philosophical humanistic education aimed at the cultivation of a life guided by both self-reflection and interpersonal exchange. Such a life is an education in judgment, the moral capacity to draw conclusions alone and with others, and letting one’s own judgments be answerable to the potentially contrasting judgments of others. Thinking, for Rodowick, is an art we practice with and learn from each other on a daily basis.
In taking this approach, Rodowick follows the lead of Hannah Arendt, who made judgment the cornerstone of her conception of community. What is important for Rodowick, as for Arendt, is the cultivation of “free relations,” in which we allow our judgments to be affected and transformed by those of others, creating “an ever-widening fabric of intersubjective moral consideration.” That is a fragile fabric, certainly, but one that Rodowick argues is worth pursuing, caring for, and preserving. This original work thinks with and beyond Arendt about the importance of the humanities and what “the humanities” amounts to beyond the walls of the university.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
D. N. Rodowick is the Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor in the College and the Division of Humanities at the University of Chicago. Among his books are Philosophy’s Artful Conversation, Elegy for Theory, and What Philosophy Wants from Images, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
REVIEWS
“In this elegantly crafted book, Rodowick offers a powerful defense of humanistic education. These pages resound both with Rodowick’s own voice and with the voice of his constant interlocutor, Hannah Arendt, as he works out, in spirited agreement and thoughtful disagreement with her, a philosophically rich account (which is also a model) of the conversations on which the human faculty of judgment depends.”
— Patchen Markell, Cornell University
“An Education in Judgment is a challenging and substantial contribution to Arendt scholarship and a major new work of critical self-reflection on the humanities by one of the field’s leading proponents. Rodowick offers an illuminating reexamination of a cluster of texts written in the last decade of Arendt’s life, illustrating their interconnectedness, probing their difficulties, and arguing for their compelling contemporary relevance.”
— Thomas Bartscherer, Bard College
“For readers familiar with now longstanding laments about the ‘crisis of the humanities’, An Education in Judgment is a breath of fresh air. Drawing on Hannah Arendt's evocative writings on aesthetics and politics, Rodowick brilliantly charts a new way forward on well-travelled terrain. The fate of the humanities lies not in shoring up what is left of the canon but in developing wholly quotidian practices of critical thinking and judging. Rooted in the ordinary capacities of all citizens, the humanities become a world-building activity that takes account of plurality and different perspectives on a common world. Recognizing with Arendt the crucial importance of publicity, this book breaks free of narrow academic debates and offers a public vision of the humanities as an imaginative space for creating a new genre of the human, not as telos but as open-ended future.”
— Linda M. G. Zerilli, University of Chicago
“A fresh look at Arendt’s philosophy on thinking and judgment [applied] to the current ‘crisis’ in the humanities.”
— Choice
"In An Education in Judgment: Hannah Arendt and the Humanities, D.N. Rodowick draws on Hannah Arendt’s writings on judgment to make the case for a philosophy of the humanities grounded in self-reflection and interpersonal exchange. This innovative and plausible thesis of an education in judgment as the unifying element of the humanities will likely trigger fruitful debate."
— LSE Review of Books
“Arendt’s reflections on judgment, thinking, moral action, and political courage show that she was not a system builder and was not interested in offering axioms by which to rearrange the world. Yet in following her train of thought, we experience the illuminating force of her insights.”
— New York Review of Books
“The question of the value of education and research in the humanities is a perennial topic of academic debate . . . Few thinkers have done more to bring clarity to these debates than [Rodowick]."
— The Review of Politics
"Convincing and illuminating. [Rodowick's] defense of the political importance of an education in the humanities is a beautifully written and insightful attestation to the lasting political relevance and remarkable fecundity of Hannah Arendt’s legacy."
— Theory and Research in Education
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
I The Art of Thinking
II Judgment and Culture
III Culture and Curation
IV The World-Observer
V Politics and Philosophy, or Restoring a Common World
VI An as Yet Undetermined Animal
Acknowledgments
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE