Abstract

In An Education in Judgment, philosopher D. N. Rodowick makes his definitive case for a philosophical humanistic education as the development of a life guided by both self-reflection and interpersonal exchange. Such a life is an education in judgment, the moral capacity to draw conclusions alone and with others, and to let one's own judgments be answerable to the potentially contrasting judgments of others. Thinking, for Rodowick, is an art we practice with and learn from each other all the time. In taking this approach, Rodowick follows the lead of Hannah Arendt, who made judgment the cornerstone of her conception of community. Arendt was famously wary of mass culture, and so community (in an authentic sense) must be safeguarded from its many false guises. What is important for Rodowick, as for Arendt, is the cultivation of "free relations," in which we allow our judgments to be affected and transformed by those of others, creating "an ever-widening fabric of intersubjective moral consideration." This is a fragile fabric, to be sure, but one well worth pursuing, caring for, and preserving. This is an original work in which the author thinks with Arendt about the importance of the humanities and what "the humanities" amounts to beyond the university.