The Long View

The Long View

Christopher Long  //  Christopher P. Long is Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State and Professor of Philosophy and Classics. I am a husband and father of two.

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Jan 17 / 11:09am

Baldwin on a Transformed Country

A country is only as good ... a country is only as strong as the people who make it up and the country turns into what the people want it to become.  Now, this country is going to be transformed. It will not be transformed by God, but by all of us, by you and me.  I don't believe any longer that we can afford to say that it is entirely out of our hands.  We made the world we're living in and we have to make it over.
via personal.psu.edu

On Martin Luther King day, and in the wake of the shootings in Arizona, I was reminded of these words from Baldwin about the need for each of us to take a hand in remaking our political community.

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Jan 13 / 8:51am

Moral Imaginations

let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together
via nytimes.com

In my philosophical writing, I have developed the idea of cultivating our "ethical imagination." The phrase is meant to point to our ability to imagine our way into the character, situation and position of others.

So, when I heard Obama speak of "moral imagination" and of the need to "sharpen our instincts for empathy," I was heartened.

They are lofty and important goals. To achieve them, however, will require hard work, generosity and good will. Characteristics not easy to come by in our contemporary culture.

But having elected a leader who understands this and is able to articulate it beautifully is a step in the right direction.

Filed under  //  Politics