On Beauty and Being Just

In On Beauty and Being Just, Elaine Scarry not only defends beauty from recent political arguments against it but also argues that beauty continually renews our search for truth and presses us toward a greater concern for justice. Taking inspiration from writers and thinkers as diverse as Homer, Plato, Marcel Proust, Simone Weil, and Iris Murdoch as well as her own experiences, Scarry writes an elegant, passionate manifesto for the revival of beauty in our intellectual work as well as our homes, museums, and classrooms.