Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Reframed: Educating for the Virtues in the Twenty-First Century

Howard Gardner is an American Development Psychologist, thoughtful educator, and Professor of Cognition and Education at Harvard University. He was amongst the founding members of Harvard Project Zero in 1967. He contributed more than 30 books on leadership, intelligence and psychology. He is known for his famous book, “Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.” This book was written in 1983 and discussed the multiplicity of intelligences that students bring to the classroom.
In “Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Reframed,” Gardner aims to define the traditional virtues of truth, beauty, and goodness and explore how to educate across generations to cultivate these values. He argues that postmodern ideas and digital media have challenged the legitimacy of these virtues, leading to a chaotic state where truth is relative, beauty is subjective and goodness is ‘live and let live’. According to him, “traditional virtues in a world where nothing traditional seems to stand firm”. He thought that our conception of Truth, Beauty and Goodness is changing because of postmodern ideas and digital media. These two forces have challenged the legitimacy of the trio.
What is true, or beautiful or good is a matter of preference of whosoever holds the power. He was of the view that the rise of digital media led us to a chaotic state of affairs. We are in a mélange of claims and counterclaims and no one is in the position to check the validity of the claim and it seems truth is a meaningless virtue. In this era, we can ‘endlessly edit a masterpiece with the help of Photoshop’. Nowadays, it is easy to spread rumours. He expands the definition of the classic virtue, by stating that there is rising ‘insecurity in expressing the truth’. Post-modern ideas and digital media have changed our conceptions of these three virtues. Yet, Gardner insists, these virtues are crucial to our existence.
Gardner defines truth as a multifaceted concept, acknowledging that human understanding of truth evolves through sensory experiences, scholarly disciplines, and professional crafts. He emphasizes that truth is plural and context-dependent. He begins with the famous liar’s paradox, which amuses many but gives indigestion to the philosophers. He further explains that human beings ascertain truth initially from our senses. At a later stage, scholarly discipline and
professional craft explore the different spheres of reality. Every discipline has its methods and criteria for ascertaining truths. He uses the example of art.
We all know ‘Art is a lie that makes us realise the truth’ he said. However, youth like a favoured style with in the genre. Adolescents follow crowd slavishly. He cited example of historians that they rework on the chronicles of the past to find the truth. Their work made it possible to know about the old empires. Journalist work is different to purse the truth. He distinguishes journalist are different people from propagandist, spin-doctors rumor mongers. Determining Journalistic truth in this digital media era is becoming vey difficult. Digital media gives us various perspectives of a same issue and over the years, truth has not changed but the means to ascertain truth has changed. Truth is plural and has many sources and our journey to find the ultimate truth is still on. In this era, the notion of a single truth is only simpleminded.
In defining goodness, he quoted Joan Maynard Keynes that we all are slaves to the theories of dead economists. Goodness can be defined in terms of morality and ethics defined by others. This rasies a question of what is the fate of the concept of good in a postmodern, digital era. Good is defined as a property of our relations with other human beings. Good workers and good citizens emerged out of the “ethics of roles”. He continued by explaining that the acid rule of ethics occurs when our own self-interest is pitted against the right things to do.
Gardened cited his good work project in which he conducted interviews of more than 1200 intellectuals just to know ‘what is good work’? According to his findings: good work is, excellent, engaging and ethical. He further explained that in some cultures there is the reluctance to judge others or there is tolerance towards moral relativism i.e., “live and let others live”. He concludes that in the postmodern world and with the help of digital mediums, there is a need to define a universal code of good work and good citizenship.
After defining the trio, he raised the most important question of how to create a society that values these virtues? According to him the most important role of school education is to teach four pedagogical principles. Firstly, literacy and numeracy skills must be taught. Secondly, the student must be equipped to discern the truth. Thirdly, moral law in a chaotic society should be implemented where information is available from various sources. Finally, human-created cultural messages must be transmitted. The primary role of education is to teach how to behave not just towards neighbors but also in a broader sense, while interacting with others.
While he was defining the classic virtues of Truth, Beauty and Goodness, he was fully aware of two observations, which pull his ideas in different directions. In this global world, he believes that truth, beauty, and goodness are essential virtues, but the roles of chance, fate, and vagaries are equally important and decisive. “In all matters, the shake of dice matters,” he said.
Another crucial influence is leadership. Leaders help individuals achieve their mutual goals. Galileo altered our understanding of truth in the physical environment, James Watson and
others helped us understand the natural world, Michelangelo enriched our notion of beauty, and thanks to all other religious leaders and philosophers who helped us draw codes of ethics and morality. We should work towards a global world, and it requires us to work more responsibly. Truth, beauty, and goodness need to be reframed in ever changing world. “What would a world be like where no one had any agreement about truth, where there were no longer any experiences that people called beautiful, and where good and bad were indistinguishable?” he said.
The writer raised an important point that these virtues are losing ground in post modern society where influence of digital media is making it difficult to judge the truth, beauty and goodness. Perhaps, the writer has to reframe that these are important values but not core values. Educating young minds is important that what is right and wrong but more important to tell about ancient view that truth, beauty and goodness does not end in a conflict. According to Keats,
“beauty is truth, truth beauty,
that is all ye know on earth,
and all ye need to know.”
The book is a blend of theological philosophy, psychology and economics in defining classic virtues. The book points towards a truism and full of beautiful quotations. The reader gets fresh perspective and a must read for those who are interested in the development of a society based on these classic virtues. A word of caution for those who are interested in the development of a society based on these classic virtues. A word of caution for those who are not interested in ontological statements.