Education's End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life by Anthony T. Kronman (New Haven: Yale U. Press, 2007). My rating: 4 of 5 stars. Anthony Kronman had me by the time I got to the subtitle. I wanted to know, “why, indeed, have our colleges and universities given up on the meaning of life?” It brought to mind a conversation with a religious studies faculty about the evidence from studies of spirituality in higher education of the longing of students to talk openly about … [Read more...] about Book Review: Education’s End
existentialism
Science In Review — March 2013
The essay "Evolution and Existentialism, an Intellectual Odd Couple" by David Barash proceeds from the premise that evolution and existentialism appear to have contradictory answers about the meaning of life, and then attempts to reconcile them. I don't feel strongly about the conclusion, but I do find the premise to be faulty, for the reason that evolution does not tell us about the meaning of anything. If it does not speak to the question of meaning, then it cannot conflict with any particular framework that does … [Read more...] about Science In Review — March 2013