The Search for Meaning

              Where is Meaning Located?
                         
”A sentence [whole} must express some kind of  meaning
 that does not clearly reside in [parts] the nouns and verbs
but  that embraces the entire combination and turns it into a
proposition that can be true or false.” (Steven Pinker
The Language Instinct)
 
And the same (regarding location or residence of meaning )
might be said of paragraphs, perhaps:  essays and articles,
books maybe. libraries, communities & conversations &
academic courses: show me the meaning.
Can’t  put my  finger on it: no place
but an embrace. True? False?    : 
 
                           Critical Thinking
                                         
Raise your hand if you are NOT a critical thinker.
Raise your hand if you have NO sense of humor.      
 
Some years back “critical thinking” was the fashionable
way to talk about the virtue of a liberal arts education:
all of us experts: the students, not so much.  Now
assessment,  evaluation, measurable goals & rubrics:
the rat-a-tattoos of industrialized higher ed:    .
 
I’m looking forward to when Sense of Humor becomes
our sign of Liberal Artistry (local foolin’) and justifies our
love and tuition—you know: payment for life-long orientation
and a frame of mind, attitude & outlook that only a liberal
arts educators  usually advertises as providing as opposed
to voc-tech community colleges & giant state universities
which don’t have the personal touch.   
 
Which would you choose for your own child:
 
*expertise in physics or sociology, say?  
* oil spill savvy?
* brain surgery dexterity?
* textual harrassmental abilities in many areas
   of the humanities?
* anthropologic? 
 
OR (critical distinction)

A Sense of Humor? 
 
(Practically speaking?)

Not an either/or, Sam--my students would say,
thinking critically: things aren't black & white
but shades of gray, so to speak.