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Title details for Let's Be Reasonable by Jonathan Marks - Available

Let's Be Reasonable

A Conservative Case for Liberal Education

by Jonathan Marks
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A conservative college professor's compelling defense of liberal education
Not so long ago, conservative intellectuals such as William F. Buckley Jr. believed universities were worth fighting for. Today, conservatives seem more inclined to burn them down. In Let's Be Reasonable, conservative political theorist and professor Jonathan Marks finds in liberal education an antidote to this despair, arguing that the true purpose of college is to encourage people to be reasonable—and revealing why the health of our democracy is at stake.
Drawing on the ideas of John Locke and other thinkers, Marks presents the case for why, now more than ever, conservatives must not give up on higher education. He recognizes that professors and administrators frequently adopt the language and priorities of the left, but he explains why conservative nightmare visions of liberal persecution and indoctrination bear little resemblance to what actually goes on in college classrooms. Marks examines why advocates for liberal education struggle to offer a coherent defense of themselves against their conservative critics, and demonstrates why such a defense must rest on the cultivation of reason and of pride in being reasonable.
More than just a campus battlefield guide, Let's Be Reasonable recovers what is truly liberal about liberal education—the ability to reason for oneself and with others—and shows why the liberally educated person considers reason to be more than just a tool for scoring political points.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 9, 2021

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

      • ISBN: 9780691207711

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780691207711

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780691207711
      • File size: 682 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      November 1, 2020
      Why colleges and universities should cultivate reflection and analysis. Marks, a political scientist, professor of politics, and blogger for the conservative magazine Commentary, is dismayed at criticism of liberal arts institutions coming especially from conservatives. Much as Allan Bloom did in The Closing of the American Mind, Marks, who has taught at private colleges, defends liberal education, aiming his book at readers "looking for an alternative to the despair that passes for realism in our understanding of the present and possible future of college." He underscores the importance of teaching critical thinking, decrying the "bland and scattered justifications" that liberal arts colleges fashion to define their mission, instead offering another: "to cultivate in our students an experience of and a taste for reflecting on fundamental questions, for following arguments where they lead, and for shaping their thoughts and actions in accordance with what they can learn from those activities." Drawing on such expected thinkers as John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Stuart Mill, John Dewey, and Robert Maynard Hutchins--and privileging a curriculum based on "the study of old books"--Marks posits that "the highest aim of liberal education is not a set of skills but a kind of person." That person must be initiated into a community of individuals "who pride themselves on following the evidence and arguments where they lead, and who share at least provisional standards for evaluating evidence and arguments, even in matters that can't be definitively settled." The author discusses efforts by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement to enlist anti-Israel support among students as presenting just such an unsettled matter. With little knowledge of the complexities of Middle Eastern politics, students, Marks asserts, cannot reasonably evaluate the claims of any speaker "who aims at conversion"--at odds, he argues, with the university, "which aims at reflection." A thoughtful but not groundbreaking contribution to debates about the value of higher education.

      COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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