Are humans too bad to act justly?

Gornick has written a review, marked by genuine curiosity, of Sandel’s new book, Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? The book tours through the philosophical history of justice from the ancients to Rawls and beyond. Gornick, though, admits that she is a newcomer to the subject, and considers a general puzzle: how does all this theory square with the imperfection of the real world? More precisely, Gornick observes that for all the attempts that religious leaders and scholars have made to codify the norms of justice, real people tend to break the rules consistently.  She has her finger on an important problem in political philosophy and ethics, and one that often widens the gap between the theory of justice and practical matters like living a just life and creating a just community. The problem is moral psychology.

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Congratulations to Heather McHugh on her ‘Genius’ grant!

Heather McHugh first published her poetry in BR in our April 1986 issue. In that first poem, The Night, she explores the dependent relationships of language and proffers a paradox.

Just think of it,
and you surround it with

its opposite. Take here
and now, for instance. Do we see

a line where there is none? We draw
up sides, forgetting how

in cells, division
made things whole. To me

I’m complete,
but I’m partial to you.

Here, McHugh’s form compliments her content, as when she aptly uses a comma and enjambment to divide the line “in cells, division/made things whole.” The surprising confluence of these divisive words into a coherent union is juxtaposed with the breakdown of the “complete” self into a Read the rest of this entry »