From Beyond Critical Thinking
by Michael S. Roth, intellectual historian
and president of
Sampling the article John Brock sent us.
"For many students today, being smart means
being critical. In a humanities culture in which
being smart often means being a critical un-masker,
our students may become too good at showing how
things don't make sense. That very skill may diminish
their capacity to find or create meaning and direction
in the books they read and the world in which they live.
Critical thinking is sterile without the capacity for
empathy and comprehension that stretches the self.
Critics [might] "exchange the judge's wig for the
guide's cap." I think we may say the same for
humanists, who can, in his words, "show us details
and patterns and relations which we would not have
seen or heard for ourselves."
&&&&&&&&
Stalwart Pioneers
Henry Jensen describes us in our
Toward Frontiers yet Unknown.
Critical thinking is sterile without the capacity
for empathy. and comprehension [and compassion]
that stretches the self.
Head-Heart dilemma all over again & again,
my double binding competing “economies,”
deep blue sees & devilish details, rocks &
hard places, Gordian naughts, tarbabies &
Chinese finger-traps: however you represent
& characterize my original spin, it’s an
incommensurate opposition between critical
thinking & compassionate relationship and
why can’t they Just Get Along; you got a
problem with that too?
I say this is a Liberal Art issue.
Not to be collapsed, conflated, and confused
with the liberal arts—majors and minors we
examine, assess and evaluate, provide capstone
experiences, credit for contact-hours and entrée
into the world of work and service.
In “The Purloined Letter,” Poe’s master-mind
& super sleuth, Auguste Dupin, outsmarts the
devil (Minister D.) because, not only is he
expert in math and art (as is his opponent), he
also could imagine what his antagonist is
thinking: putting himself in the shoes of
The Other. Empathetic. Compassionate.
The story is about blackmail.
The Queen’s reputation is at stake because
Minister D. has stolen a compromising letter
linking her to paramours.
She knows he has it.
He knows she knows.
He’s got the goods on her and she can’t
afford scandal, exposure, revelation, personal
apocalypse: a royal pain in the assessment &
matter of saving the appearances Cover up,
if not denial..
I myself have neither
the head nor the heart
nor their compatibility
for the work of humanities,
damnit: neither the critical
capacity nor the empathy
that goes with it not to
mention them just getting
along.
I wish I did
but wishing &
5 dollars gets me
a Starbucks is all.
How come?
I’m not uneducated.
If I only had a heart as well
as a head and some courage
in proper ratios I could wear
the guide's cap, uncover &
explore details, patterns &
relations: a stalwart pioneer
& pilgrim toward frontiers
yet unknown.
But I don’t.
I admit it.
Damnit.
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