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The great English essayist and linguist Samuel Johnson was writing during the Enlightenment \u2013 the period some historians identify as the beginning of the modern age. American author and philosopher David Foster Wallace worked more than two centuries later, in the \u201cpost-modern\u201d style. But these two writers shared a common problem: once modernity fractured society\u2019s sense of shared moral norms, how could you write persuasively about morality? This episode looks at how Johnson and Wallace attempted to solve this problem; what struggles plagued their solutions; and why our modern, pluralistic landscape makes their work more valuable than ever.\n\nResearcher, writer, and episode producer: Kirsten Hall Herlin\nFeatured Scholars:\xa0\n\nWalter Jackson Bate (1918-1999), Professor of English, Harvard University\n\n\nMatt Bucher, Managing Editor, The Journal of David Foster Wallace Studies\n\n\n\nJack Lynch, Professor of English, Rutgers University\n\n\nD. T. Max, Staff Writer, The New Yorker\n\n\n\nSpecial thanks: Dutton Kearney\n\nFor transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices