The Art of Humane Education

Rating:
Summary: An Eloquent Defense of Humanistic Education
Review: I have read all of Donald Phillip Verene's books, and this is my favorite. Verene's career as a philosopher and a scholar has been centered on the philosophy of history and culture, particularly in the traditions of Italian humanism and German idealism. He is the most important Vico scholar and Vician philosopher working today, and has produced important studies of Hegel, Cassirer, and Joyce as well. Verene not only has a distinctive voice, but a distinctive style: a manly sort of eloquence, carefully hewn but not smoothed, rich in images, irony, and humor, innovative in form, and sometimes playfully esoteric. This is Verene's most accessible book. He is speaking here on a subject close to his heart, and he wants to communicate to as wide an audience as possible. Written in the form of four letters to a colleague in the sciences (an ideal slant, since all of us today are so heavily biased by the influence of the sciences), Verene talks about the aims of humanistic education, the idea of a canon, the role of the teacher, and the forces that work against humanistic education, such a modern scientism, gimcrack technological nostrums, and the corruption of the university by consumerism, careerism, and bureaucracy - all of this in about 80 pages. There are plenty of books directed to the general public documenting and decrying the decline of humanistic education today. Verene is not trying to compete with this literature. His primary audience consists of educators themselves. He reminded me why I chose this vocation in the first place. I recommend this book to all people in higher education and all those contemplating such careers.