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Albert Einstein said, though no one can verify when or where he
said it, that the problems facing us cannot be solved at the level
of thinking that created them. If that is so, then it must surely
be true of global problems. To solve global problems we need a new
level of thinking. In Wide as the World: Cosmopolitan Identity and
Democratic Dialogue Jack Crittenden examines and brings to life in
a dialogue between two fictional characters this new level of
thinking: dialectical thinking. Found through psychological
research to be a higher-order thinking characteristic of advanced
adult development, dialectical thinking transcends but embraces and
integrates difference and ambiguity. It permits those using it to
expand their perspectives, their worldviews, and even their
identities to cosmopolitan or worldwide proportions. Crittenden
suggests that when built in as part of the structures of democratic
dialogue, dialectical thinking can help elected officials and
ordinary citizens alike, from local meetings to global
institutions, address and solve our most vexing problems
The philosopher-educator John Dewey wrote that 'Democracy has to be
born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.' In an
America where every vote--though considered equally--counts for
very little, Democracy's Midwife offers the vision of a new kind of
democratic system: a deliberative democracy energized by an
educated citizenry. Jack Crittenden's excellent new study looks
behind the modern democratic rhetoric to reveal a system of
government that excludes citizens from participating directly in
decision-making. The book combines a thorough examination of the
theoretical underpinnings of democratic education with radical
solutions for the overhaul of a system of civic education dating
back to the Founding Fathers. Democracy's Midwife is both a
denunciation of an education system that has failed to prepare
future citizens for participation in public life and a timely
blueprint for the creation of a civic-minded electorate prepared
for the responsibility of self-government.
How making up our minds and the makeup of our minds can help us
live better and die better. We live in a climate where feelings
trump reason and evidence. Lies are treated as "alternative facts."
At the same time, it seems our culture does not want us to treat
altered or higher states of consciousness seriously. Focusing both
on evidence and on such states of consciousness can reorient our
attitudes. Jack Crittenden asks the reader to think about life
after death, about the basis of morality and the essence of
spirituality, about the meaning of happiness, about the path of
dying, and about the proper role of work in our lives and how
education connects to that role. What if our memories, thoughts,
and whole personality lived on after we died? What if morality were
based on reasons and evidence and not on God and sacred texts? What
if happiness lies not in what we think, how we feel, and what we
long for, but in living in the present and in the dying of the self
itself? Experiences of and the evidence on altered and higher
states of consciousness can lead us to better lives and better
deaths.
Jack Crittenden examines the debate in political theory about the
true conception of human nature. On the one hand is the concept of
the liberal self which is self-contained, atomistic, even selfish;
on the other hand is the notion of the communitarian self which is
socially situated and defined in part by one's community.
Crittenden argues that neither view is acceptable and draws on
recent psychological research to develop a theory of `compound
individuality'. The compound individual retains the liberal
emphasis on personal autonomy, without the association of autonomy
with self-sufficiency. Crittenden concludes by reflecting on what
kinds of political institutions will invite commitment and
reflection from `compound individuals'.
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