Books, Arts & Manners: And the Moral Is . . .

The Moral Sense, by James Q. Wilson (Free Press, 283 pp., $27.50)

THIS IS a beautiful book, and intellectually persuasive in its beauty. Among the many points made by Wilson—professor of public policy at UCLA and one of the most morally astute social scientists of our time—is that there is a closer connection than many think between the aesthetic, the philosophical, and the moral. Although Wilson does not put it this way, the “three transcendentals”—the good, the true, and the beautiful—are complexly interrelated, and it may be that most people intuit that this is the case. Wilson does assert that his purpose is to help people “recover confidence” in what they already believe to be the case.

RJ

About the Author

Richard John Neuhaus

Featured Tags

The Moral Sense, by James Q. Wilson (Free Press, 283 pp., $27.50)

THIS IS a beautiful book, and intellectually persuasive in its beauty. Among the many points made by Wilson—professor of public policy at UCLA and one of the most morally astute social scientists of our time—is that there is a closer connection than many think between the aesthetic, the philosophical, and the moral. Although Wilson does not put it this way, the “three transcendentals”—the good, the true, and the beautiful—are complexly interrelated, and it may be that most people intuit that this is the case. Wilson does assert that his purpose is to help people “recover confidence” in what they already believe to be the case.