Maxine Greene’s piece1 is one of the more challenging essays, in terms of verbosity and ideas, that I’ve read. Typically, when I consume something this dense, I spend a day or two away from it before I once more review the contents and begin to pull together something that resembles coherent thought. I have done so with this piece. I take a risk here, as it would be safer to acquiesce, but I cannot.

So much of what the author advances resonates, as she meanders through history, tracing philosophical approaches to knowledge, and its pursuit. I subscribe to her underlying postulate regarding the nature of “truth”, specifically the interpretability and relative nature of truth. Moreover, the way in which Greene elucidates these intrinsic qualities, citing the preeminent philosophers of of the past, is particularly helpful. Finally, the way in which she, after what I describe below as a bit of a diatribe, comes back to the terms “imagination” and “metaphor”, relieves a modicum of tension. More importantly, this return to the center also provides the reader with some direction in terms of what might be a way to bridge the divide the author seems set on exacerbating throughout much of this work.

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