Overview

In daily life we consciously attempt to reconcile what with why, factual knowledge with understanding. Currently, it is commonplace to presume that understanding is limited to the production of facts, which we place into narratives of understanding. We exist in a world of facts with no why to find, living in a culture that vacillates between identity and tolerance, authoritarianism and anarchism. Neglected is the importance of seeking good judgments in daily life, that is, of being wise.This book analyzes the millennial shift from seeking Truth to asserting subjective meanings, so that we can escape that sordid condition. It is necessary to challenge current dominant modes of thought and interpretation in order to live intelligently and peacefully. Western Civilization and the Enlightenment are historically associated with seeking to understand, with the goal of being right with an intelligible and therefore meaningful reality. That goal remains worthy of our efforts.

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9781036406936

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Arthur Pontynen is Professor Emeritus and former Chair, Department of Art, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. His research centers on the truth claims of works of art, the intellectual justification for the humanities, and the current truth-claims of academia. Involved is a philosophical and historical analysis of the interactions between science and culture. He is the author of For the Love of Beauty: Art, History, and the Moral Foundations of Aesthetic Judgment (2006), and Cultural Renewal. Restoring the Liberal and Fine Arts (2015), and is co-author of Western Culture at the American Crossroads: Conflicts Over the Nature of Science and Reason (2011). He was a Smithsonian Fellow, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, and a Heritage Foundation Fellow, and has been interviewed on National Public Radio and Radio Free Europe. Numerous book chapters, research references, catalogues, and articles have been published in American, English, Chinese and Israeli journals.

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