​The Meaning of Height takes seriously the traditional figure of “higher life” for intrinsically preferable manners of living. Reworking the Platonic model of ascent to the ideal and descent to responsible engagement with the world, The Meaning of Height lays out concrete possible itineraries of reaching (upward to new acquisitions of personal capacity) and righting (downward from prompts for good order), showing connections between individual and social fulfillment. By focusing on our diversely demanding encounters with the interesting, the important, and the transcendent, the book strikes a counterpoint to the commonly homogenized conception of personal “happiness.” It also counters illiberal views of higher education with a Humboldtian vitality argument for a meaningfully “high” higher education geared to full development of human faculties, a level of education to which the disciplines of philosophy and religious studies make essential contributions. The book concludes by considering the essential role of this sort of higher education in democratic societies.   Steven G. Smith is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Millsaps College (USA) and author of The Special Liveliness of Hooks in Popular Music and Beyond (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023).  

“On this account, for every strong value there is a turnaround from reaching to righting, for a value is a stable conjunction of desirableness and norm. One crucial element of righting in order to facilitate reaching is education, hence the importance of higher education ... a thoroughly worthwhile contribution to contemporary debate about values, impressive both in scope and in detailed analysis.” (Martin Warner, Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick, author of “The Aesthetics of Argument” (Oxford 2016))

Uses the idea of verticality to build a concept of social harmony and personal fulfillment Argues for the importance of liberal education in a vibrant and thriving democracy Offers a model of social and moral value that is neither absolutist nor relativist

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