Education's End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life
by Anthony T. Kronman
|
List Price: $17.00
Our Price: $10.34
Your Save: $ 6.66 ( 39% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
|
Average Customer Rating:   
|
|
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 370
EAN: 9780300143140
ISBN: 0300143141
Label: Yale University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2008-09-23
Publisher: Yale University Press
Studio: Yale University Press
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: ***1/2 Pretty Good and Fairly Interesting
Comment: I picked this up at the library because of the interesting cover. Its small size indicated an easy read, though glancing at the table of contents I suspected I would not like the author's conclusions very much, not being a fan of secular humanism, though open minded in general. Reading the first couple of chapters, however, I was favorably impressed with the author's well written thinking on the subject. In the end, I would say that this book has more substance than most attempts in this area and is also clearly written. So worth reading.
On the other hand, its perhaps unnecessary, but noticeable attempt at arguing that life as a whole has sufficient meaning outside of belief in God comes up fundamentally empty handed, as it must. Yet I mostly agree with the author's well meaning conclusions about the teaching of humanities, but with certain reservations. Importantly, I question whether, without at least acknowledging that people can indeed reaffirm belief in God, when delving into the meaning of life,one can truly be open to and show due respect for belief in God, contrary to several of the author's comments and protestations that political correctness is self defeating. I would like to see a humanities course which honestly reflected the development of human thought such that neither a atheist nor theist, without an ax to grind, could object as biased. Perhaps an impossibility these days. The very name "secular humanism" seems a politically charge one that holds unnecessary bias. Sorry, guess I'm not the Ivy League type.
As much as the author seems like a decent chap, one still gets the impression his philosophy of life is well designed for the affluent and bright. Forget about common human nature, on the plus side. What about the sick, the poor, the lame? What is that person's meaning of life? The author naturally fails to say. Why not give religion its due for at least being (and perhaps the author would disagree) universal and eternal in nature compared to secular humanism, which yes, does suffer from political correctness and other trendy confines associated with the liberal, affluent, materialistic (in the philosophical sense) myopia of much of US academia. If nothing is universal or eternal, then when the unavoidable dash of political correctness etc. in thrown in to poison the pot, there does not seem to be a valid answer to what is fundamentally in common, one which is not under attack by some favored minority interest group or post-modern nihilist. The author's pitiful offer of human commonality in the fact that we die is not very inspiring, to say the very least.
Nevertheless, with some reservations and limitations, a fairly interesting and well written book coming from the precincts of elite academia.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beware Author's Bias Against Religion
Comment: I read "Education's End" after the glowing recommendation Charles Murray gave it in Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality. I thought that Dr. Kronman made some interesting arguments, but I was very much turned off by his treatment of religion throughout the book.
He criticizes religion as "mindless obscurantism" and dismisses the idea that there is one answer to the meaning of life that actually *IS* better than all competing ones. He also claims that to have religious faith one must "sacrifice the intellect" as if reason and faith were set in opposition to each other, rather than being complementary ways of knowing. He argues that religion would "have us surrender our humanity" if we acknowledge a being greater than ourselves. He writes: "It is not God that needs to be remembered. It is man. Only the recollection of humanity is an adequate response to the meaninglessness that haunts us....This, and only this, has any real promise of leading us out of the spiritual crisis in which we find ourselves today."
The type of secular humanism for which Dr. Kronman argues in "Education's End" may absolutely be better than the current dismal situation of the humanities in today's universities. What is True, Good, and Beautiful may be found in secular works as well as in religious ones (though one of course must be careful to reject what is false in them). But secular humanism isn't the best solution to the spiritual crisis that plagues modern society. Humans cannot save themselves, only God can.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ FOR PROSPECTIVE GRADUATE STUDENTS
Comment: This book is a must read for anyone that is contemplating graduate school in one of the social sciences or humanities. Professor Kronman objectively explains the emphasis on the so-called "research model" that sometimes seems to be more interersted in statistics for their own sake rather than reasonaed substance.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Addressing life's meaning for some.
Comment: Education's End is fascinating and provides a persuasive argument for the restoration of liberal education. Kronman argues that the central role of the humanities should be to enable undergraduates to address the question of the meaning of life. He traces the historical development of colleges and universities as they have moved from the antebellum colleges with their theistic answers to this fundamental question and through the phase where secular humanism offered alternative answers. According to Kornman, the humanities in our institutions of higher education have recently been neutered by the dual domination of the academic research ideal and political correctness. His book concludes with an optimistic chapter predicting the return of secular humanism with the diminution of political correctness, the increasing hunger for answers to the question of the meaning of life, and the inability of traditional religions to provide answers to this question.
Kronman's central arguments are insightful and persuasive but some of his supporting arguments are overly simplistic. A minor point is that he states that nineteenth century German universities were first and most influential in promoting research as an academic ideal. In fact, academic specialization began in Scotland when the regenting system was abandoned at the University of Edinburgh in 1707 and at the University of Glasgow in 1727. Some of the chairs at Glasgow supporting specialization and the dates of their establishment were: mathematics (1691); botany and anatomy (1704); and medicine (1713). The discipline of chemistry flourished in Scotland during the second half of the eighteenth century.
A major point is that Kronman uses a rather broad brush in dealing with those who believe in God, at one point casting into one group "the fundamentalist Protestant churches in America, the jihadist wing of Islam and the Pope." Jihadists are as Islamic as the IRA were Roman Catholic. Elsewhere, he suggests that members of organized religion cannot participate in the great conversation because their bigotry prohibits them from recognizing the positions of those of other religions or of secular humanists. Some of his general statements may lead the reader to believe that this characterization applies to all believers of all the world's great religions. Yale may be an exception but the majority of students at many universities who profess a faith in God would find themselves excluded from the dialogue Professor Kronman so passionately promotes.
Customer Rating:
Summary: reviving secular humanism
Comment: This book is, in short, an argument for reviving a curriculum in secular humanism in undergraduate studies. He begins with the argument that purpose of college is to encourage the young student to ask the the big questions on the meaning of life. He seems to believe that there are sufficient numbers of adults working in colleges today who have an interest and ability in doing this. He also does not appreciate the emergent spiritual values inherent in the study of the sciences. It is an interesting book (along the lines of Allen Bloom) advocating a restructuring of higher education that will never happen.
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: ***1/2 Pretty Good and Fairly Interesting
Comment: I picked this up at the library because of the interesting cover. Its small size indicated an easy read, though glancing at the table of contents I suspected I would not like the author's conclusions very much, not being a fan of secular humanism, though open minded in general. Reading the first couple of chapters, however, I was favorably impressed with the author's well written thinking on the subject. In the end, I would say that this book has more substance than most attempts in this area and is also clearly written. So worth reading.
On the other hand, its perhaps unnecessary, but noticeable attempt at arguing that life as a whole has sufficient meaning outside of belief in God comes up fundamentally empty handed, as it must. Yet I mostly agree with the author's well meaning conclusions about the teaching of humanities, but with certain reservations. Importantly, I question whether, without at least acknowledging that people can indeed reaffirm belief in God, when delving into the meaning of life,one can truly be open to and show due respect for belief in God, contrary to several of the author's comments and protestations that political correctness is self defeating. I would like to see a humanities course which honestly reflected the development of human thought such that neither a atheist nor theist, without an ax to grind, could object as biased. Perhaps an impossibility these days. The very name "secular humanism" seems a politically charge one that holds unnecessary bias. Sorry, guess I'm not the Ivy League type.
As much as the author seems like a decent chap, one still gets the impression his philosophy of life is well designed for the affluent and bright. Forget about common human nature, on the plus side. What about the sick, the poor, the lame? What is that person's meaning of life? The author naturally fails to say. Why not give religion its due for at least being (and perhaps the author would disagree) universal and eternal in nature compared to secular humanism, which yes, does suffer from political correctness and other trendy confines associated with the liberal, affluent, materialistic (in the philosophical sense) myopia of much of US academia. If nothing is universal or eternal, then when the unavoidable dash of political correctness etc. in thrown in to poison the pot, there does not seem to be a valid answer to what is fundamentally in common, one which is not under attack by some favored minority interest group or post-modern nihilist. The author's pitiful offer of human commonality in the fact that we die is not very inspiring, to say the very least.
Nevertheless, with some reservations and limitations, a fairly interesting and well written book coming from the precincts of elite academia.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beware Author's Bias Against Religion
Comment: I read "Education's End" after the glowing recommendation Charles Murray gave it in Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality. I thought that Dr. Kronman made some interesting arguments, but I was very much turned off by his treatment of religion throughout the book.
He criticizes religion as "mindless obscurantism" and dismisses the idea that there is one answer to the meaning of life that actually *IS* better than all competing ones. He also claims that to have religious faith one must "sacrifice the intellect" as if reason and faith were set in opposition to each other, rather than being complementary ways of knowing. He argues that religion would "have us surrender our humanity" if we acknowledge a being greater than ourselves. He writes: "It is not God that needs to be remembered. It is man. Only the recollection of humanity is an adequate response to the meaninglessness that haunts us....This, and only this, has any real promise of leading us out of the spiritual crisis in which we find ourselves today."
The type of secular humanism for which Dr. Kronman argues in "Education's End" may absolutely be better than the current dismal situation of the humanities in today's universities. What is True, Good, and Beautiful may be found in secular works as well as in religious ones (though one of course must be careful to reject what is false in them). But secular humanism isn't the best solution to the spiritual crisis that plagues modern society. Humans cannot save themselves, only God can.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ FOR PROSPECTIVE GRADUATE STUDENTS
Comment: This book is a must read for anyone that is contemplating graduate school in one of the social sciences or humanities. Professor Kronman objectively explains the emphasis on the so-called "research model" that sometimes seems to be more interersted in statistics for their own sake rather than reasonaed substance.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Addressing life's meaning for some.
Comment: Education's End is fascinating and provides a persuasive argument for the restoration of liberal education. Kronman argues that the central role of the humanities should be to enable undergraduates to address the question of the meaning of life. He traces the historical development of colleges and universities as they have moved from the antebellum colleges with their theistic answers to this fundamental question and through the phase where secular humanism offered alternative answers. According to Kornman, the humanities in our institutions of higher education have recently been neutered by the dual domination of the academic research ideal and political correctness. His book concludes with an optimistic chapter predicting the return of secular humanism with the diminution of political correctness, the increasing hunger for answers to the question of the meaning of life, and the inability of traditional religions to provide answers to this question.
Kronman's central arguments are insightful and persuasive but some of his supporting arguments are overly simplistic. A minor point is that he states that nineteenth century German universities were first and most influential in promoting research as an academic ideal. In fact, academic specialization began in Scotland when the regenting system was abandoned at the University of Edinburgh in 1707 and at the University of Glasgow in 1727. Some of the chairs at Glasgow supporting specialization and the dates of their establishment were: mathematics (1691); botany and anatomy (1704); and medicine (1713). The discipline of chemistry flourished in Scotland during the second half of the eighteenth century.
A major point is that Kronman uses a rather broad brush in dealing with those who believe in God, at one point casting into one group "the fundamentalist Protestant churches in America, the jihadist wing of Islam and the Pope." Jihadists are as Islamic as the IRA were Roman Catholic. Elsewhere, he suggests that members of organized religion cannot participate in the great conversation because their bigotry prohibits them from recognizing the positions of those of other religions or of secular humanists. Some of his general statements may lead the reader to believe that this characterization applies to all believers of all the world's great religions. Yale may be an exception but the majority of students at many universities who profess a faith in God would find themselves excluded from the dialogue Professor Kronman so passionately promotes.
Customer Rating:
Summary: reviving secular humanism
Comment: This book is, in short, an argument for reviving a curriculum in secular humanism in undergraduate studies. He begins with the argument that purpose of college is to encourage the young student to ask the the big questions on the meaning of life. He seems to believe that there are sufficient numbers of adults working in colleges today who have an interest and ability in doing this. He also does not appreciate the emergent spiritual values inherent in the study of the sciences. It is an interesting book (along the lines of Allen Bloom) advocating a restructuring of higher education that will never happen.
The question of what living is for—of what one should care about and why—is the most important question a person can ask. Yet under the influence of the modern research ideal, our colleges and universities have expelled this question from their classrooms, judging it unfit for organized study. In this eloquent and carefully considered book, Tony Kronman explores why this has happened and calls for the restoration of life’s most important question to an honored place in higher education. The author contrasts an earlier era in American education, when the question of the meaning of life was at the center of instruction, with our own times, when this question has been largely abandoned by college and university teachers. In particular, teachers of the humanities, who once felt a special responsibility to guide their students in exploring the question of what living is for, have lost confidence in their authority to do so. And they have lost sight of the question itself in the blinding fog of political correctness that has dominated their disciplines for the past forty years. Yet Kronman sees a readiness for change--a longing among teachers as well as students to engage questions of ultimate meaning. He urges a revival of the humanities’ lost tradition of studying the meaning of life through the careful but critical reading of great works of literary and philosophical imagination. And he offers here the charter document of that revival.
|
|
|
- Ask about this education product "Education's End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life" in the forum
- Give review on this education product "Education's End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life" in the forum
- Search related information in the forum
|
|
|
|
|
| OOEN Referral Program Spotlight |
 | | Advanced Technology Institute
Advanced Technology Institute (ATI), located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, offers hands-on degree and diploma programs in some of today’s hottest service careers. Choose from ASE and NATEF certified programs in Automotive Technology, HVAC and Refrigeration, Diesel/Heavy Vehicle, Commercial Driving, and High Performance Repair. Extensive job placement assistance is available, as well as financial aid for students who qualify. | |  | |
 | | Akron Institute
Are you ready for a career you’ll really love? Akron Institute offers career-track diploma programs that will prepare you to become a Dental Assistant, Medical Assistant, Medical Biller, or Insurance Coder. The best part? You can complete your program in as little as 9 months. Akron offers externships that will provide you with the real-world experience you’ll need to succeed. You’ll also benefit from extensive career placement services. If you’re serious about improving your future, start at Akron Institute. | | | |
 | | American Career College
American Career College (ACC) is one of the largest and most respected vocational training schools in the country. With campuses in Los Angeles and Orange County, ACC can provide you with the skills to become a Pharmacy Technician, Medical Assistant, Medical Biller/Health Claims Examiner, Optical Technician, Dental Assistant, Vocational Nursing, Computerized Business Specialist, or Surgical Technician. The best part? ACC can provide you with the skills you need in less than a year. | | | |
|
What is OOEN Referral Program Spotlight?
OOEN provides comprehensive listing of online courses, degree programs, colleges and universities.
Also OOEN provides links to their information request pages; if you want to find out more about any course,
degree program, college or university, you can just fill out the form linked from OOEN and request information.
It is completely free for anyone to request information, and you can request information from as many colleges
and universities as you'd like. We list featured schools and their brief information
in this "OOEN Referral Program Spotlight" section of OOEN Store for Education,
in case that you are interested in taking a class or two or even pursuing degree program
through these featured schools.
|
|
|
