SKU: 589

Dr. James S. Taylor, a graduate of the Integrated Humanities Program at Kansas University (taught by Professors Senior, Quinn & Nellick), and himself currently Chair of Education at Hillsdale College and a teacher of English and American Literature, Humanities, Western Civilization, and Philosophy of Education, for over twenty years--has written a masterful work on the mode of education lost in modern times, and how the IHP program at KU sought to restore that moder of learning. This book rediscovers a traditional mode of knowledge that remains viable today. Contrasted to the academic and cultural fads often based on scientific methodology of the Cartesian legacy, or any number of trendy experiments in education, Poetic Knowledge returns to the freshness and importance of knowledge, a knowledge of the senses and the passions. Dr. Taylor reminds of Charles Dickens parody of the scientific influence of education in the character of Professor Gradgrind in Hard Times who said, "Now what I want is Facts." Like Professor Gradgrind, our society today equates intelligence and education with knowledge of facts. Dr. Taylor reminds us that the soul of understanding is much deeper and altogether alien to the modern notion. "Poetic Knowledge" is not the knowledge of poetry, nor is it even knowledge in the sense that we often think of today, that is, the mastery of scientific, technological, or business information. rather, it is an intuitive, obscure, mysterious way of knowing reality, not always able to account for itself, but absolutely essential if one is ever to advance properly to the higher degrees of certainty. From Socrates to the Middle Ages, and even into the twentieth century, the case for poetic knowledge is revealed with the care of philosophical archeology. Dr. Taylor demonstrates the effectiveness of the poetic mode of education through his own observations as a teacher, and two experimental "poetic" schools in the twentieth century (KU and France). REVIEWS: With pithy brevity he has managed to provide both a history of the treatment of poetic knowledge and to develop his own very persuasive account."--Ralph McInnerny, University of Notre Dame. "There are relatively few persons who can analyze as clearly and as lucidly the writings of Aristotle, Plato, Aquinas as does this author. Like Taylor's educational philosophy, he seeks to move his reader's affections and will as well as their intellects, and hes does this successfully."--Richard Harp, University of Nevada.

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