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}Gary R - that's an interesting post. I'll have to think a lot more
about it - but I have a few comments.
Traditionally, the areas of ethics, aesthetics, logic - have been
the domain of the upper classes. The lower classes focused on daily
material realities and accepted the 'wisdom' and edicts of the upper
classes about 'how to live'. This would have included the hereditary
aristocracy and church. With the development of the middle class - I
think they continued to accept the 'wisdom' of others, but the Wise
People became more of a meritocracy, i.e., within the universities
and educated professionals [aka experts] [rather than a hereditary
class].
We are now seeing a weakening of the middle class and as you say -
this sets adrift the concept of Who has the societal authority to
make decisions about aesthetics, ethics, logic?
And with relativism and identity politics - we even see that there
are no universal standards but each group has their own definitions!
That is - we see the emergence of tribalism, where people identify
themselves - and their values - within a tribe, be it religious,
ethnic, skin colour [I don't believe in race] , political or
whatever.
I always felt that a key course for college and university students
would have been ongoing courses in critical thinking, to enable them
to think through fallacious arguments, false statistics and etc.
But as an side, another trend I've noticed in the academic world is
the development not only of online courses but of online degrees.
That is - you don't even have to show up physically to take the
course and degree. You can live in eg, India, and take your college
degree in Canada - totally online. Of course, this enables, quite
possibly, fraud - and 'Buy Your Degree'...but..that's something else.
Edwina
On Sat 13/06/20 4:03 PM , Gary Richmond gary.richm...@gmail.com
sent:
List,
In a recent op-ed piece titled "The End of College as We Knew It"
(https://tinyurl.com/ybha8mhb [1]), Frank Bruni reflects on
something I've been informally discussing with friends and colleagues
now for years; namely, that "A society without a grounding in ethics,
self-reflection, empathy and beauty is one that has lost its way”
(Brian Rosenberg, recently president of Macalester College). It
seems to me that this has happened in the United States.
It has long seemed to me that America today has largely abandoned
what might be called the normative trivium of aesthetics, ethics, and
logic -- Peirce's three Normative Sciences, not the classical trivium
(for which see Sister Miriam Joseph's 2002 book, The Trivium: The
Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric ) that he generalized to
serve as the three branches of Logic as Semeiotic.
This philosophical trivium points to the possible application of
Peirce's three Normative Sciences -- not their theoretical forms, but
rather their ordinary and potentially pragmatic guises as they appear
in life practice, including reflection and action upon what is
beautiful in art and nature, what is ethical in our behavior in the
world, and how we can apply 'critical commonsenseism' in our
quotidian lives. Bruni writes: "We need writers, philosophers,
historians. They’ll be the ones to chart the social, cultural and
political challenges of this pandemic -- and of all the other
dynamics that have pushed the United States so harrowingly close to
the edge. In terms of restoring faith in the American project and
reseeding common ground, they’re beyond essential. "
Bruni's op-ed reflection came in part in response to a recent
article by Rosenberg in The Chronicle of Higher Education; see "How
Should Colleges Prepare for a Post-Pandemic World"
(https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Should-Colleges-Prepare/248507
[2] ). Rosenberg writes: “If one were to invent a crisis uniquely
and diabolically designed to undermine the foundations of traditional
colleges and universities, it might look very much like the current
global pandemic.” In a similar vein, Professor Andrew Belbanco,
president of the Teagle Foundation which gives as its purpose
promoting the liberal arts, writes: “This is not only a public
health crisis and an economic crisis, though Lord knows it’s both
of those. It’s also a values crisis. It raises all kinds of deep
human questions: What are our responsibilities to other people? Does
representative democracy work? How do we get to a place where
something like bipartisanship could emerge again?”
Commenting on the economic divide of the American university, Bruni
notes that "the already pronounced divide between richly endowed,
largely residential schools and more socioeconomically diverse ones
that depend on public funding grows wider as state and local
governments face unprecedented financial distress. A shrinking
minority of students get a boutique college experience. Then
there’s everybody else." Gail Mellow, former president of
LaGuardia College of the City University of New York (where I taught
for decades before my retirement) is quoted as saying, “We always
knew that America was moving more and more toward very different
groups of people," to which Bruni adds, "that movement is only
accelerating."
Confronting all this will undoubtedly be one of the great challenges
that America -- and for that matter, the world -- will have in the
years and decades to come. The question I pose is: Can Peirce's
version of pragmatism (or pragmaticism) -- which he also calls
'critical commonsenseism' -- creatively contribute to these enormous
challenges? And, if so, how? And are there ways in which Peirce's
philosophical trivium might help inform the aesthetics, ethics, and
critical thinking of the world as it emerges from the coronavirus
pandemic? If so, how?
[Note: I have Bcc'd this post to several former members of this
forum, a few members who rarely if ever post but who have stayed in
contact with me offlist, and a few friends and colleagues who have
not been members but who may have an interest in this topic. Those
who are not current members of the forum may send your thoughts on
the topic off-list to me letting me know if I have your permission to
post them.]
Best,
Gary
"TIME IS NOT A RENEWABLE RESOURCE." GNOX
Gary Richmond
Philosophy and Critical ThinkingCommunication StudiesLaGuardia
College of the City University of New York
[3]
Virus-free. www.avg.com
Links:
------
[1] https://tinyurl.com/ybha8mhb
[2]
https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Should-Colleges-Prepare/248507
[3]
http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail
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