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Articles

Politeness, Philosophy’s Neglected Companion

Raymond Boisvert extols an under-rated virtue.

Liberal education is, as its etymology suggests, education for a free people. ‘Schooling’, from the Greek word for leisure, is for those with time and interest to pursue questions crucial to a community’s well-being: How is a good society to be characterized? What is evil? What is virtue? Do we owe one another any obligations? What, for that matter, is an obligation? How can equality and freedom be reconciled? What is justice? Philosophers, who spend lifetimes grappling with such questions, understand them as central to liberal education. This is true, not only intellectually, but, here is something too often forgotten, in terms of habit formation as well. The manner in which philosophical investigation is undertaken leaves as big an imprint on students as do the results of such an investigation.

Early in the 20th century, José Ortega y Gasset wrote about philosophy’s role in educating desires as well as the mind.

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