Abstract

If the editor had done a proper job, his introductory rhetoric would have been superfluous. Indeed in the second fit of hubris immediately consequent upon the heady act of initiating CRITICAL INQUIRY, its coeditors agreed that the success of our venture must be measured by the precise degree to which this issue was self-defining. Our goals would be fully explained by our accomplishment. Our commitment to reasoned inquiry into significant creations of the human spirit would be transformed from proclamation to actuality—revealed as less, and therefore more, than pompous aspiration—by a collection of essays, individually excellent, which, when viewed together, would represent the full range of interests and values implicit in our commitment