Elaine Scarry

Elaine Scarry, author of Thinking in an Emergency, discusses her new book about how only a powerful few in the world are in charge if disaster strikes - and what everybody else can do about it.

Elaine Scarry, Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University, talks about the ways modern democratic governments have undermined democracy by invoking the idea of emergency—they’ve bypassed constitutional provisions concerning presidential succession, the declaration of war, the use of torture, civilian surveillance, and the arrangements for nuclear weapons. In Thinking in an Emergency, Scarry looks at why citizens devalue thinking and ignore checks and balances on government power during emergencies, and offers rigorous, effective ways of thinking in times of crisis.

Elaine Scarry, author of Thinking in an Emergency, discusses her new book about how only a powerful few in the world are in charge if disaster strikes - and what everybody else can do about it.

Kurt Andersen and philosophy professor Elaine Scarry, examine at how contemporary artists embrace and reject notions of beauty. We’ll look at artists who not only see beauty in unusual subjects — but in the unorthodox tools they use to create.

A professor of aesthetics at Harvard University, Elaine Scarry is ...

Kurt Andersen and his guest, Harvard philosophy professor Elaine Scarry, look at different kinds of beauty.

Elaine Scarry is the author of On Beauty and Being Just. A professor of aesthetics at Harvard University, her interests are wide-ranging; she is also the author of The Body in Pain, Dreaming By ...