{"id":1173,"date":"2022-01-28T16:59:25","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T16:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/?p=1173"},"modified":"2024-06-10T17:00:31","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T17:00:31","slug":"in-defense-of-judgment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/2022\/01\/28\/in-defense-of-judgment\/","title":{"rendered":"In Defense of Judgment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\"college
\nCenter for Policy Studies
\nPublic Affairs Discussion Group<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
In Defense of Judgment<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\n

\"headshot\"<\/p>\n

Michael W. Clune, Ph.D. – Samuel B. and Virginia C. Knight Professor of Humanities<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
Friday January 28, 2022
\n12:30-1:30 p.m.
\nOnline Zoom Meeting<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Colleagues:<\/p>\n

Greetings from the dead of winter. There may not be enough cold for the good of the planet, but it\u2019s pretty obvious that those of us in Cleveland are not going to be sunbathing anytime soon. Which means doing Zoom meetings because of a virus is also sort of cozy, still.<\/p>\n

We continue with the\u00a0\u201cFriday Lunch,\u201d a CWRU tradition since 1989.<\/strong>\u00a0I would like to think we\u2019ll be able to have some in-person meetings sometime during the term, but it doesn\u2019t look like a discussion with people eating lunch in relatively close quarters is a good idea yet. For now, we\u2019ll continue presenting experts from campus and sometimes beyond to discuss important issues for the university, local community, nation or the international stage.\u00a0Friday\u2019s discussion is about the university itself: one of the core issues about liberal arts education.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This Week\u2019s Program<\/h3>\n

Michael Clune begins his new book,<\/span>\u00a0A Defense of Judgment<\/span><\/a><\/em>, by phrasing the question in terms of teaching literature \u2013 but it applies to education in the humanities in general. In his words:<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessors of literature make judgments about value.<\/strong>\u00a0Literary scholars \u2013 like art historians, musicologists, and classicists \u2013 say to our students: These works are powerful, beautiful, surprising, strange, insightful. They are more worth your time and attention than others. Such claims are implicit in choosing what to include on a syllabus. And yet for several decades now, professors have felt unable to defend those claims. So we pretend we\u2019re not making them. We bend over backward to disguise our syllabi, articles and books as value neutral, as simply means for our students to gain cultural or political or historical knowledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this stance is incoherent. It\u2019s impossible to cordon off judgments about literary value from the practices of interpretation and analysis that constitute any viable model of literary expertise.\u201d Nevertheless, \u201cpowerful barriers to acknowledging the central role of judgment in our professional practice have arisen over the past half century.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Clune considers a series of standard objections to \u201cexperts\u201d making judgments. Many of the objections to judgment are grounded in ideas about equality and of academic and other critical analysis as being \u201celitist\u201d or biased in a range of ways. Yet, he argues, the cost of rejecting all such judgment is to leave judgment in practice to consumer preferences in the market. His enterprise of rescuing judgment faces many pitfalls, on the right and left-hand sides of his path. Yet, as he argues, it\u2019s hard to see a path for the study of humanities that does not involve judgment. What are aesthetics without judgment? What can one learn from studying literature, and why would you want to?<\/p>\n

In his book Michael develops some answers that we might find useful for thinking both about liberal education and about how we personally engage with the liberal arts. Join us as he shares his thoughts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Signing In<\/h3>\n

This semester’s discussions will begin at 12:30 p.m., the usual time. The meeting will be set up as from Noon to 2:00 p.m., so people are not all signing in at the same time and to allow for the discussion to run a bit long.\u00a0Each week we will send out this newsletter with information about the topic. It will also include a link to register (for free) for the discussion.<\/strong>\u00a0Every Monday the same information will be posted on our website:<\/span>\u00a0fridaylunch.case.edu<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you register, you will automatically receive from the Zoom system the link to join the meeting. This week’s link for registration is:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/cwru.zoom.us\/meeting\/register\/tJcsf-mqrjwjHtYw6GIfcoouMVhnv-NhWHXR<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.<\/p>\n

Please e-mail<\/span>\u00a0padg@case.edu<\/span><\/a>\u00a0if you have questions about how the Zoom version of the Friday Lunch will work or any other suggestions. Or call at 216 368-2426 and we’ll try to get back to you. We are very pleased to be partnering this semester with the<\/span>\u00a0Siegal Lifelong Learning Program<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to share information about the discussions.<\/p>\n

Best wishes for safety and security for you and yours,<\/p>\n

Joe White
\nLuxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

About Our Guest<\/span><\/h3>\n

Michael W. Clune<\/strong>\u00a0is the critically acclaimed author of the memoirs\u00a0Gamelife<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0White Out: The Secret Life of Heroin<\/em>. His academic books include\u00a0Writing Against Time<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0American Literature and the Free Market<\/em>. Clune\u2019s work has appeared in venues ranging from\u00a0Harper\u2019s<\/em>,\u00a0Salon<\/em>, and\u00a0Granta<\/em>, to\u00a0Behavioral and Brain Sciences<\/em>,\u00a0PMLA<\/em>, and the\u00a0Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em>. He is currently Samuel B. and Virginia C. Knight Professor of the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University, and lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:<\/strong><\/p>\n

February 4: Cognitive Decline and the Workplace.<\/strong>\u00a0With\u00a0Sharona Hoffman, J.D.<\/strong>, Edgar A. Hahn Professor of Law.<\/p>\n

February 11: What, if Anything, Have We Learned From Cybersecurity Regulation So Far?<\/strong>\u00a0Wtih\u00a0Tom Alrich<\/strong>, consultant on cybersecurity regulation especially for the electric power industry.<\/p>\n

February 18: TBA<\/strong><\/p>\n

February 25: TBA<\/strong><\/p>\n

March 4: The Present and Future of Cryptocurrency.<\/strong>\u00a0With\u00a0Peter Zimmerman, Ph.D.<\/strong>, Research Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.<\/p>\n

March 11: Spring Break<\/strong><\/p>\n

March 18: Inflation.<\/strong>\u00a0With\u00a0Mark Sniderman, Ph.D.<\/strong>, Executive in Residence and Adjunct Professor of Economics, Weatherhead School of Management; former Executive Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.<\/p>\n

March 25: Covid-19 Through Covid-22: The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same?<\/strong>\u00a0Wtih\u00a0Mark Cameron, Ph.D.<\/strong>, Associate Professor of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences.<\/p>\n

April 1: The French Presidential Election.<\/strong>\u00a0Wtih\u00a0Patrick Chamorel, Ph.D.<\/strong>, Senior Resident Scholar and Lecturer, Stanford in Washington, Stanford University.<\/p>\n

April 8: TBA<\/strong><\/p>\n

April 15: TBA<\/strong><\/p>\n

April 22: TBA<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\n

Visit the\u00a0Public Affairs Discussion Group Web Site.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Center for Policy Studies | Mather House 111 | 11201 Euclid Avenue |
\nCleveland, Ohio 44106-7109 |\u00a0Phone: 216.368.6730 |\u00a0padg@case.edu<\/u><\/span><\/a>\u00a0|
\nPart of the:\u00a0College of Arts and Sciences<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2022 Case Western Reserve University |
\nCleveland, Ohio 44106 | 216.368.2000 |\u00a0legal notice<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Center for Policy Studies
\nPublic Affairs Discussion Group<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Defense of Judgment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael W. Clune, Ph.D. – Samuel B. and Virginia C. Knight Professor of Humanities<\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday January 28, 2022
\n12:30-1:30 p.m.
\nOnline Zoom Meeting<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Colleagues:<\/p>\n

Greetings from the dead of winter. There may not be enough cold for the good of the planet, but it\u2019s pretty obvious that those of us in Cleveland are not going to be sunbathing anytime soon. Which means doing Zoom meetings because of a virus is also sort of cozy,<\/p>\n

Continue reading… In Defense of Judgment<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1174,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173\/revisions\/1174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}