Liberal education has always been controversial. The controversy arises from its audacious and contestable claim that liberal education is that form of education most conducive to happiness. What does “happiness” mean in this context, and why is a liberal education most conducive to that end? Does it, in fact, make us better humans? Better citizens? Can it do both? These questions, raised at liberal education’s inception, remain hotly debated to this day.

Because liberal education has particularly deep roots in America, home of the small liberal arts college, it is appropriate to focus on how its attendant controversies have played out in this country. To set the stage for this discussion, we first consider the premises of liberal education articulated by Plato and Aristotle, as well as the challenges to those premises on behalf of an education that is, to use Descartes’s characterization, more useful.

We then examine the different arguments made during the era of the American founding as to whether a liberal education is most beneficial for the newly constituted republic. This will include consideration of the differing views expressed by Jefferson and Rush, Franklin and Tocqueville. Next, we review the arguments made in the 19th century by proponents of the modern university, who sought to supplant the liberal arts college as the dominant institution of higher education, along with an essay by Emerson that casts doubt on both. Twentieth-century efforts to find a place for liberal education within the large research university gave rise to similar debates, which we examine in the arguments of Robert Hutchins and John Dewey concerning whether the Great Books can contribute to those efforts.

Finally, to help us judge whether liberal education has any role in confronting our contemporary dilemmas, political and scientific-technological, we consider essays by Leo Strauss, Allan Bloom, and Richard Rorty that re-examine the premises of liberal education.

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Paul Stern describes the shape of his "Liberal Education in America" seminar with Humanities at Hertog

This course is offered by Humanities at Hertog. It takes place weekly on Wednesday, via Zoom, from 6 PM to 8 PM ET. Fellows who complete the seminar in good standing, including full participation, timely completion of the response paper, and submission of the course evaluation, will receive a $150 Amazon gift card. Required course materials will be provided.

Faculty

Paul Stern

Paul Stern is Professor of Politics Emeritus at Ursinus College and a scholar of classical political philosophy. His course connects great books teaching, institutional practice, and the enduring question of what liberal education is for.

Preview the Syllabus by Week/Session

Readings:

  • Plato, Republic, 521c–533d
  • Aristotle, Politics, Book VIII
  • Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, Parts I and VI

Discussion Questions:

  1. What does Socrates mean by “dialectic,” and why is it the peak of education?
  2. In his discussion of whether music belongs in a liberal education, Aristotle decides that it is more important to learn what we would call music appreciation than how to play an instrument. Why?
  3. Who does Aristotle think liberal education is for? Is his view pertinent to our own time?
  4. With respect to the end of education, Aristotle writes that “[t]o seek everywhere the element of utility is least of all fitting for those who are magnanimous and free.” Descartes, however, insists on utility as a crucial criterion of a good education. Which thinker is right?

Readings:

  • Benjamin Franklin, “Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania,” 1749
  • Thomas Jefferson, “Rockfish Gap Report,” June 1818
  • Benjamin Rush, “Thoughts upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic,” 1786
  • Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, II.1.2, 1.5, 1.10, 1.15, 2.15

Discussion Questions:

  1. Is Jefferson right to exclude a professorship in divinity from his proposed University?
  2. How does Benjamin Rush differ from Jefferson regarding the education best suited for a republican citizen?
  3. How do Franklin and Tocqueville differ regarding the ultimate aim of education?

Readings:

  • “Yale Report of 1828”
  • Charles Eliot, “Liberty in Education,” 1885
  • James McCosh, “Reply to President Eliot,” 1885
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar,” 1837

Discussion Questions:

  1. Do you agree or disagree with the following: Higher education in America should reflect American values and culture; this being the case, the student should be free to choose his own course of study and should concentrate on preparation for professional advancement in our highly competitive and specialized economy.
  2. How does Emerson’s view of individualism differ from that of the Declaration of Independence?
  3. Is character, however you understand that term, best formed in college or in activity in the world at large, whether labor or leisure?

Readings:

  • Robert M. Hutchins, excerpts from The Higher Learning in America, 1936
  • John Dewey, “President Hutchins’ Proposals to Remake Higher Education,” 1937
  • John Dewey, “Problem of the Liberal Arts College,” 1944
  • The Harvard Report on General Education, Chapter II, “Theory of General Education,” pp. 42-78, 1945
  • Daniel Bell, excerpts from The Reforming of General Education, 1966

Discussion Questions:

  1. How does general education differ from liberal education? Which is preferable?
  2. Have the great books been rendered obsolete by the progress of modern science?
  3. In what way, if at all, should higher education be democratic?

Readings:

  • Booker T. Washington, “Industrial Education for the Negro,” 1903
  • W. E. B. Du Bois, “The Talented Tenth,” 1903
  • W. E. B. Du Bois, “Of the Training of Black Men,” 1903

Discussion Questions:

  1. Are the great books inherently racist?
  2. Is liberal education a dispensable luxury for those trying to get a foothold in American society? Which author’s priorities seem sounder?
  3. Are colleges that are homogeneous with respect to race or gender beneficial to students, or a disservice to them?

Readings:

  • Allan Bloom, “Western Civ-and Me,” 1990
  • Richard Rorty, “Hermeneutics, General Studies, and Teaching,” 1982
  • Leo Strauss, “What Is Liberal Education?,” 1959

Discussion Questions:

  1. Are the great books obsolete?
  2. Is the focus on Western civilization in the curriculum of liberal education parochial?
  3. Just who, if anyone, is liberal education for in contemporary American life?

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Ryan P. Hanley

Ryan Patrick Hanley is Professor of Political Science at Boston College. His research in the history of political philosophy focuses on the Enlightenment. He is the author of Our Great Purpose: Adam Smith on Living a Better Life and Love’s Enlightenment: Rethinking Charity in Modernity.

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Robert C. Bartlett

Robert C. Bartlett is the Behrakis Professor of Hellenic Political Studies at Boston College. His principal area of research is classical political philosophy, with particular attention to the thinkers of ancient Hellas, including Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle. He is the co-translator of a new edition of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.

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Russell A. Berman

Russell A. Berman is the Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. His scholarship spans German and comparative literature, cultural theory, religion and culture, the Middle East, and international relations.