But the most essential and fundamental aspect of culture is the study of literature, since this is an education in how to picture and understand human situations. We are men and we are moral agents before we are scientists, and the place of science in human life must be discussed in words. This is why it is and always will be more important to know about Shakespeare than to know about any scientist: and if there is a ‘Shakespeare of science’ his name is Aristotle. I have used the word ‘attention’, which I borrow from Simone Weil, to express the idea of a just and loving gaze directed upon an
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Says the novelist...
