The Problem with Rules: Essays on the Meaning and Value of Liberal Education (The Malcolm Lester Phi Beta Kappa Lectures on the Liberal Arts and Public Life)

Between 1737 and 1746, James Knight a merchant, planter, and sometime Crown official and legislator in Jamaica wrote a massive two-volume history of the island. Completed not long before his death in the winter of 1746-47 and held in the British Library, this work is now published for the first time. There is a constant drumbeat of commentary claiming that STEM subjects--science, technology, engineering, and math--are far more valuable in today's economy than traditional liberal arts courses such as philosophy or history. Many even claim that the liberal arts are "under siege" by neoliberal politicians and cost-conscious university administrators. In a forceful response, The Problem with Rules establishes the essential value of the liberal arts as the pedagogical pathway to critical thinking and moral character and argues for more not less emphasis in higher education. John Churchill asserts that the liberal arts are more than decorative frills. Drawing from the philosophy of Wittgenstein to craft a cogent, inspired argument, Churchill insists on the liberal arts' indispensable role, providing in this book a clarion call to politicians, university administrators, and all Americans to recognize and actively support and nurture the liberal arts. -- Provided by publisher "This previously unpublished eighteenth-century history of Jamaica provides a narrative history of the colony's development up to the mid-1740 along with a broad survey of most aspects of Jamaican life as it had developed up to that time"-- Provided by publisher "A defense of the liberal arts and clarion call to recognize and support their study. Drawing on Wittgenstein, John Churchill insists on the liberal arts' indispensable role in the practice of critical thinking"-- Provided by publisher