In his 1919 dissertation The Concept of Criticism in German Romanticism, Walter Benjamin writes, “Where there is no self-knowledge, there is no knowing at all […].” As America’s democracy is dealt yet another blow by the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we might ask why art criticism still matters. Yet if, as Benjamin’s text suggests, the critic’s reflection is a form of self-knowledge, through such reflection we can better know — ourselves, others, and the world around us.