In sum, the speaker over-generalizes when it comes to the function and value of art and
science both of which serve in some cases to reassure and in other cases to upset. In any
event, the speaker misstates the true function and value of science, which is to discover truths,
whether reassuring or upsetting.
Issue 88
"Many problems of modern society cannot be solved by laws and the legal system because
moral behavior cannot be legislated."
I strongly agree that by studying any particular academic discipline we alter the way we
perceive the world. As intellectual neophytes we tend to polarize what we see as either right or
wrong, or as either good or bad. We also tend to interpret what we see by way of our emotions.
Once educated, we gain the capacity to see a broader spectrum of opinion and perspective,
and to see our own culture and even ourselves as a tapestry-like product of history.
Through the earnest pursuit of knowledge--particularly in history and literature--we reveal to
ourselves the flaws and foibles of other humans whose lives we study and read about. History
teaches us, for example, that demagogues whom society places on pedestals often fall under
the weight of their own prejudices, jealousies, and other character flaws. And, any serious
student of Shakespeare comes away from reading King Lear and Hamlet with a heightened
awareness of the tragically flawed ironic hero, and of the arbitrariness by which we distinguish
our heroes from our villains.
Through education we begin to see flaws not only in people but also in ideologies that we
had previously embraced on pure faith. A student of government and public policy learns that
many of the so-called "solutions" which our legislatures and jurists hand down to us from atop
their pedestals are actually Band-Aid comprises designed to appease opponents and pander
to the electorate. A philosophy student learns to recognize logical fallacies of popular ideas
and the rhetoric of our political parties, religious denominations, and social extremists. And, a
law student learns that our system of laws is not a monolithic set of truths but rather an
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ever-changing reflection of whatever the society’s current mores, values, and attitudes happen
to be.While education helps us see the flawed nature of our previously cherished ideas,
paradoxically it also helps us see ideas we previously rejected out of hand in a different
light--as having some merit after all. Through education in public policy and law,
once-oppressive rules, regulations, and restrictions appear reasonable constraints on freedom
in light of legitimate competing interests. Through the objective study of different religious
institutions, customs, and faiths, a student learns to see the merits of different belief systems,
and to see the cultural and philosophical traditions in which they are rooted.
Education also helps us see our own culture through different eyes. As cultural neophytes
we participate unwittingly in our culture’s own customs, rituals, and ceremonies--because we
see them as somehow sacrosanct. A student of sociology or cultural anthropology comes to
see those same customs, rituals, and ceremonies as tools which serve our psychological need
to belong to a distinct social group, and to reinforce that sense of belonging by honoring the
group’s traditions. And, by reading the literary works of writers from bygone eras, a literature
student comes to see his or her own culture as a potential treasure trove of fodder for the
creative literary mind. For example, by studying Twain’s works a student learns that Twain saw
19th-Century life along the Mississippi not as a mundane existence but as a framework for the
quintessential adventure story, and that we can similarly transform the way we see our own
culture.
Finally, education in the arts alters forever the way we perceive the aesthetic world around
us. Prior to education we respond instinctively, emotionally, and viscerally to the forms, colors,
and sounds of art. Post education we respond intellectually. We seek to appreciate what art
reveals about our culture and about humanity. We also seek to understand the aesthetic
principles upon which true art is founded. For instance, an earnest art student learns to see not
just pigments and shapes but also historical influences and aesthetic principles. An informed
listener of popular music hears not just the same pleasing sounds and pulsating rhythms as
their naive counterparts, but also the rhythmic meters, harmonic structure, and compositional
forms used by the great classical composers of previous centuries, and which provided the
foundation of modern music.To sum up, through education we no longer see our heroes, leaders, and idols through the
same credulous eyes, nor do we see other humans and their ideas through the
black-and-white lens of our own point of view. In the final analysis, through education we come
not only to perceive the world differently but also to understand the subjective, and therefore
changeable, nature of our own perceptions.
Issue 89
"The way students and scholars interpret the materials they work with in their academic fields
is more a matter of personality than of training. Different interpretations come about when
people with different personalities look at exactly the same objects, facts, data, or events and
see different things."
The speaker asserts that many laws are ineffective in solving society’s problems because
moral behavior cannot be legislated. I agree with this assertion insofar as it relates to
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constraints on certain personal freedoms. However, when it comes to the conduct of
businesses, I think that moral behavior not only can but must be legislated for the purpose of
alleviating societal problems.
Morality laws that impinge upon freedom of choice about our personal lives--to control what
we do with and to ourselves--simply do not work in a democratic society. People always find
ways to circumvent such laws, which ultimately give way to more lenient laws that
acknowledge personal freedom of choice. The failed Prohibition experiment of the 1930s is
perhaps the paradigmatic example of this. And we are slowly learning history’s lesson, as aptly
demonstrated by the recognition of equal rights for same-sex partners, and current trends
toward legalization of physician-assisted suicide and the medicinal use of marijuana. In short,
history informs us that legislating morality merely for morality’s sake simply does not work.