The first edition of this book was criticised for making so little mention of photography, cinema and TV. How can you write about modern culture, I was asked, if you say nothing about the most striking cultural invention of our times? I have therefore added a short chapter on the photographic image, in order to show how. I have even found something to say about television, and if I went on in this vein I could include a learned disquisition on junk food, baseball caps and chrome-plated Cadillacs. There are plenty of works on modern culture which attend to such things, indiscriminately rejoicing in every fashion or fad that could conceivably be given ‘cultural’ credentials. But my purpose is not theirs: I wish to explain what culture is, and why it matters. I have therefore concentrated on philosophical questions concerning the moral life and the significance of our social emotions.
These questions are, it seems to me, vital to the future of what used to be called humane or liberal education – the education of the emotions through the study of history, literature and art. We read of culture wars’ in the academy, with radicals ranged against traditionalists in a battle for the curriculum and for the minds and souls of the young. If we are to make sense of these wars, and to know whether they are the real thing or just a game, we need to study what culture is, how it is transmitted, and what it does to those who receive it. That is the purpose of this book.
Malmesbury, 2000