John McWhorter recently wrote a defence of Great Books in the New York Times. He offers the standard argument that Great Books (some version of the Western philosophical and literary canon) make us struggle with hard moral questions and therefore improve us as people. This can, no doubt, be true. Reading seriously can be instructive. But I think McWhorter makes the same mistake many humanities apologists makes: his argument is about inherent quality.
Can culture make progress?
Can culture make progress?
Can culture make progress?
John McWhorter recently wrote a defence of Great Books in the New York Times. He offers the standard argument that Great Books (some version of the Western philosophical and literary canon) make us struggle with hard moral questions and therefore improve us as people. This can, no doubt, be true. Reading seriously can be instructive. But I think McWhorter makes the same mistake many humanities apologists makes: his argument is about inherent quality.