The Twilight Of The American Enlightenment (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
There were, of course, shared American traditions, such as liberty and justice, national loyalty, and equal opportunity, that carried some presumptive weight. But by what standards was one to determine the meanings of these very broad concepts when they conflicted or were matters of dispute? Or, when it came to what might be taught in the universities, or in the public schools, or in the magazines, advice books, or guides to life, what were the most commonly shared cultural authorities? At all these levels of mainstream American life, from the highest intellectual forums to the most practical everyday advice columns, two such authorities were almost universally celebrated: the authority of the scientific method and the authority of the autonomous individual. If you were in a public setting in the 1950s, two of the things that you might say on which you would likely get the widest possible assent were, one, that one ought to be scientific, and two, that one ought to be true to oneself.
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