J. Scott Lee. 2020. Invention. The Art of the Liberal Arts. Santa Fe: Respondeo Books.
The Netherlands does not have a strong narrative of the liberal arts. In a way, this is a pity, as a strong narrative may help to position the liberal arts and sciences in the academic landscape. Be this as it may, J. Scott Lee’s Invention. The Art of the Liberal Arts offers an interesting and original argument about the value of the liberal arts in academia. The argument is particularly pertinent to the ongoing debate about how liberal arts and sciences curricula may help to prepare students to make a difference in the world.
Zena Hitz, Lost in Thought. The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2020: A Review
Due to Corona-crisis, one of my students defended her bachelor thesis in the middle of August, a time when I try to catch up with my reading. My student’s project was to chart the scholarly literature on climate change inaction from the framework of evolutionary psychology. The question of climate change inaction had obvious personal meaning to her, she was keen to understand on a psychological level why mankind was doing so little. Near the end of her oral defence she explained that she had certain doubts about the evolutionary framework as it seemed to allow too little room for human agency. What surprised me was not so much her intuition, which I considered valid, but her comment right after that this was “only her opinion”, and “obviously out of line with the classes she had taken and the literature that she had studied”. What struck me, in short and with a sense of shame, was her lack of intellectual confidence. Granted, it is not easy to follow up on an intuition that may depart from the opinions of one’s immediate environment – the college, teachers, and peers – and yet this seems to me important both on a scholarly and on a personal level.
Derek Bok. 2020. Higher Expectations. Can Colleges teach students what they need to know in the 21st century? Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Can colleges do more? Derek Bok, who is emeritus professor at Harvard University after having served for decades as dean and long-term president, argues that colleges should offer a kind of comprehensive education that involves training students in a range of skills and qualities that help them contribute to society and live flourishing lives. Such skills and qualities include resilience, empathy, creativity, problem-solving, the ability to work with others, to participate in community and politics, to be responsible, to hold strong ethical principles, and to have a clear sense of purpose.
