Gary R, list, I just came across a piece of the reverse side of Turning Signs that strikes me as relevant to the “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” — and relevant in a way that I don’t think has been discussed in this thread before. It’s only a 3-to-5 minute read: http://www.gnusystems.ca/TS/snc.htm#x14 .
Gary f. From: Gary Richmond <gary.richm...@gmail.com <mailto:gary.richm...@gmail.com> > Sent: 13-Jun-20 16:04 List, In a recent op-ed piece titled "The End of College as We Knew It" (https://tinyurl.com/ybha8mhb), 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 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Miriam_Joseph> 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). 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
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