The great English essayist and linguist Samuel Johnson was writing during the Enlightenment – 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 “post-modern” style. But these two writers shared a common problem: once modernity fractured society’s 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.<br/><br/>Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Kirsten Hall Herlin<br/>Featured Scholars: <br/><br/>Walter Jackson Bate (1918-1999), Professor of English, Harvard University<br/><br/><br/>Matt Bucher, Managing Editor, The Journal of David Foster Wallace Studies<br/><br/><br/><br/>Jack Lynch, Professor of English, Rutgers University<br/><br/><br/>D. T. Max, Staff Writer, The New Yorker<br/><br/><br/><br/>Special thanks: Dutton Kearney<br/><br/>For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.<br/>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="http://megaphone.fm/adchoices" class="linkified" target="_blank">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a> <br/><br/>Get full access to Zachary Davis at <a href="https://www.zacharystevendavis.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_4">www.zacharystevendavis.com/subscribe</a>