Being Open To New Experiences And Deeper Understanding

Yesterday I wrote about Elaine Scarry’s essay “The Difficulty of Imagining Other People” in Imagining The Complex Unique Individual. Today I was inspired to write about a quote from her book, On Beauty and Being Just. Scarry said, “This willingness continually to revise one’s own location in order to place oneself in the path of beauty is the basic impulse underlying education.” I believe she was suggesting that the desire to continually reevaluate and adjust our perspective to encounter beauty is a fundamental human impulse.

When she said “willingness to revise one’s own location,” I believe she meant that genuine engagement with beauty requires openness to changing our views, assumptions, or positions. By doing so, we open ourselves to new experiences and deeper understanding.

This process is central to education because teaching and learning involve not just acquiring knowledge but also being willing to shift one’s perspective to better appreciate beauty and truth. It emphasizes humility, curiosity, and growth—values that foster empathy and a more just, compassionate society. Scarry was portraying the pursuit of beauty as an active, transformative process that encourages ongoing self-reflection and openness, which are vital for personal development and social harmony.

Byron's Babbles