In the most general terms, the Enlightenment goes back to Plato's belief that truth and beauty and goodness are connected; that truth and beauty, disseminated widely, will sooner or later lead to goodness. (While we're making at effort at truth… — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“Sometimes realism seems to mean no more than the advice to plan ahead before you start a war. Sometimes realism means the recognition that the world cannot be divided as neatly into good and evil as George W. Bush's more notorious speeches would suggest. Sometimes realism means nothing more than cynical or even bad, which leaves ultrarealist to mean simply… — Susan Neiman Copy Share
“Ordinary goodness is fraught with veins of vanity and self-interest and above all with pleasure--because goodness makes you feel more alive.” — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
One great function of the arts is to keep ideals alive in a culture that does not yet realize them. — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“The dangers of sophistry and scholasticism are present in the possibility of philosophy itself.” — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
In the most general terms, the Enlightenment goes back to Plato's belief that truth and beauty and goodness are connected; that truth and beauty,… — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“The claim that there is no alternative but perdition to a worldview that shows how everything fits together and makes perfect sense is a… — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“When education is overwhelmed by hypermedia, travel facile or ruinous, and work a blurred mixture of more dependence and less meaning, it’s harder than ever to use those experiences to grow. But growing up, I have argued, has been dogged by dilemma ever since it was a real option. As Enlightenment philosophers knew, it’s a process that is as socially… — Susan Neiman Copy Share
“Vitality is not the denial of mortality, but the grown-up way of facing it.” — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“Negotiating small differences is part of being a grownup; no one can tell you in advance where to put your foot down.” — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“how can human beings behave in ways that so thoroughly violate both reasonable and rational norms?” — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“It’s a matter of logical structure: what is, just is, and any claim about what ought to be is a claim about our own… — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“Kitsch is much more than a question of style; it's a preference for consolation over truth. Disney's version of reality is not just cleaned… — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
