,,the ,,meaning ,,of ,a ,,liberal ,,education ,the ,people's ,institute 8,lectures-in-,print0 ,series ,,psychology by ,everett ,dean ,martin #c4jj ,,behaviorism by ,john ,b4 ,watson #c4jj ,,influencing ,,human ,,behavior by ,h4 ,a4 ,overstreet #c4jj ,,industrial ,,psychology by ,charles ,s4 ,myers #b4ej ,,the ,,meaning ,,of ,a ,,liberal ,,education by ,everett ,dean ,martin #c4jj ,,modern ,,science ,,and ,,people',s ,,health ,edited by ,benjamin ,c4 ,gruenberg #b4ej ,other ,volumes in ,preparation ,w,w,,norton ,,company1 ,,inc4 #gj ,fifth ,avenue ,new ,york ,,the ,,meaning ,,of ,a ,,liberal ,,education ,,by ,,everett ,,dean ,,martin ,director1 ,the ,people's ,institute1 ,new ,york ,lecturer1 ,the ,new ,school for ,social ,research ,illustration ,,new ,,york ,w,w,,norton ,,company1 ,,inc4 ,publishers ,copyright1 #aibf ,w,w,,norton ,,company1 ,,inc4 ,,printed ,,in ,,the ,,united ,,states ,,of ,,america ,,for ,,the ,,publishers ,,by ,,the ,,vail-,,ballou ,,press ,to her who lovingly gave me the first and most important instruction1 and inspired the desire for scholarship1 ,,my ,,mother ,,this ,,book ,,is ,,dedicated ,,preface ,most books that deal with the subject of education1 and there are many1 are concerned with the training of the young4 ,much is said about educational methods but very little about content4 ,there is discussion1 also1 of the effectiveness of institutions1 schools and colleges1 and the interest of the ,state in education4 ,this book does not deal with such matters4 ,it is concerned with other problems4 ,what is an educated person like8 ,how does he differ from the uneducated8 ,does he think differently and1 if so1 why8 ,we shall be empirical in our study4 ,we shall study persons who are generally recognized as outstanding educated minds and ask what it is that characterizes them4 ,is an educated person one who is like ,socrates1 ,erasmus1 ,montaigne1 ,goethe1 ,arnold1 ,santayana8 ,the theme of this book is that education is more than information1 or skill1 or propaganda4 ,in each age education must take into account the conditions of that age4 ,but the educated mind is not a mere creature of its own time4 ,education is emancipation from herd opinion1 self-mastery1 capacity for self-criticism1 suspended judgment1 and urbanity4 ,it is often believed that education1 adult education in particular1 is an avocation or an interest to occupy the individual in his leisure time1 like music or stamp collecting4 ,the work of ,the ,people's ,institute at ,cooper ,union1 ,new ,york1 where these lectures were given1 is essentially that of adult education4 ,i have tried to think through with those who attended the lectures what it is that for ten years we have been trying to achieve4 ,adult education is now becoming an important interest in ,american life1 and the inquiry seems timely4 ,this book1 then1 contends that education is a spiritual revaluation of human life4 ,its task is to reorient the individual1 to enable him to take a richer and more significant view of his experiences1 to place him above and not within the system of his beliefs and ideals4 ,if education is not liberalizing1 it is not education in the sense of the title of the book4 ,i use the term 8liberal0 not in the political sense1 as if it meant half measures1 but in its original sense meaning by a liberal education the kind of education which sets the mind free from the servitude of the crowd and from vulgar self-interests4 ,in this sense1 education is simply philosophy at work4 ,it is the search for the 8good life40 ,education is itself a way of living4 ,i have written the book not from the standpoint of the professional educator for whom education is frequently--if it be adult education--an enterprise designed for the uplift of other people1 but from the standpoint of one who is concerned that his own education shall not stop in middle-life4 ,no one is fit to be a teacher in whose own mental process education has ceased to go on4 ,one is a student first and only incidentally a teacher4 ,the best teacher is the seeker after truth amongst his students4 ,probably the most successful educator cannot tell what is the secret of his success in teaching4 ,that which is important about the philosophy of education is not method but that background of knowledge which enables its possessor to judge what is worth knowing and doing4 ,,everett ,,dean ,,martin4 ,,contents ,,chapter ,,page ,,preface vii ,i4 ,,introduction #a ,,ii4 ,,liberal ,,education ,,versus ,,animal ,,training #bc ,,iii4 ,,liberal ,,education ,,versus ,,propaganda #de ,,iv4 ,,liberal ,,education ,,versus ,,book ,,learning #ff ,v4 ,,the ,,educational ,,value ,,of ,,doubt #hd ,,vi4 ,a ,,man ,,is ,,known ,,by ,,the ,,dilemmas ,,he ,,keeps #ajg ,,vii4 ,,the ,,free ,,spirit #abg ,,viii4 ,,the ,,appreciation ,,of ,,human ,,worth #adf ,,ix4 ,,education ,,and ,,work #afj ,x4 ,,education ,,and ,,morals #ahj ,,xi4 ,,the ,,classical ,,tradition3 ,,plato ,,and ,,aristotle #aig ,,xii4 ,,humanism3 ,,erasmus ,,and ,,montaigne #bbj ,,xiii4 ,,science ,,and ,,superstition3 ,,huxley #beb ,,xiv4 ,,the ,,fruit ,,of ,,the ,,tree ,,of ,,knowledge #bhf ,,xv4 ,,postscript--,,adult ,,education ,,in ,,america #cjh ,,the ,,meaning ,,of ,a ,,liberal ,,education ,,chapter ,i ,,introduction ,the evidence is unmistakable that there is an important change in the attitude of the public toward education4 ,there is an increasingly general demand for it in some form or other4 ,everywhere and in all classes of society the interest in acquiring better knowledge is apparent4 ,in ,england and on the continent of ,europe there are thousands of classes and groups patiently pursuing long and serious courses of study4 ,american colleges and universities are crowded and many students are each year turned away4 ,vast and increasing numbers register annually for correspondence and university extension courses4 ,the demand for more education is shown also in the increasing number of lecture courses1 people's colleges1 and other centers of public discussion4 ,while people do not always know just what it is they demand and frequently the thing which they receive is not education1 nevertheless there is a new and very wide-spread interest4 ,this new interest shows itself not only in the increasing number of persons engaged in some kind of educational activity but also in the fact that people are beginning to see that education properly may be extended into adult life4 ,until recently1 people have thought of education as something for children1 something which a man either got or missed in his early years1 something which he generally forgot in his mature years4 ,to the average person1 education was a matter of fond memories or of unpleasant associations with teachers1 school houses and experiences of childhood4 ,the 8highly0 educated person was the exceptional person in the community1 discussions of the philosophy of education did not appeal to a wide public interest4 ,now higher branches of learning are being pursued by numbers of people outside regular educational institutions4 ,something very significant is happening4 ,perhaps at no time since the thirteenth century has the desire for knowledge so nearly approached a mass movement4 ,certain qualifications must however be made4 ,while much of the demand for education is genuine and spontaneous1 much of it is spurious1 irrelevant1 inconsequential4 ,the increased attendance at school or university does not necessarily mean that more education is going on4 ,it is frequently said that our colleges are crowded with inferior students4 ,athletics1 fraternities1 schools of business and the automobile tend to displace science and the classics4 ,american youth has acquired its ideal of college life from the motion pictures4 ,we should not infer from the large numbers engaged in adult education that democracy has suddenly decided to rid itself of intellectual shoddiness4 ,if the advertisements of correspondence courses in self-improvement which regularly appear in the popular magazines are an indication of the instruction offered for sale1 people might better spend their money for patent medicine or in having their fortunes told4 ,at best adult education consists largely of brief courses of a vocational nature4 ,even worker's education1 a movement which has inspired hope in many liberals1 may easily be over estimated4 ,much of it is little more than a recrudescence of antiquated radical propaganda1 designed to enable the proletariat to 8emancipate itself from the slavery of capitalism10 and to get it 8ready for a millennial industrial democracy40 ,the initiative often comes not from studious minded workers1 but from enthusiastic intellectuals and idealistic uplifters4 ,the cultural gesture is often pathetic or comic4 ,it is not uncommon for those who have completed the courses of study in a 8workers0 college to find themselves more unadjusted than they were before4 ,it is sought to make of adult education something which will broaden the interests and sympathies of people regardless of their daily occupation--or along with it--to lift men's thought out of the monotony and drudgery which are the common lot1 to free the mind from servitude and herd opinion1 to train habits of judgment and of appreciation of value1 to carry on the struggle for human excellence in our day and generation1 to temper passion with wisdom1 to dispel prejudice by better knowledge of self1 to enlist all men1 in the measure that they have capacity for it1 in the achievement of civilization4 ,adult education is a way of living which should be open to all who care for it for its own sake4 ,it is not surprising that it frequently fails of its true aims4 ,education has always been regarded as a mere means to ends that have nothing to do with it4 ,it is to be expected1 therefore1 that education in our day should be regarded primarily as a means of entrance to the already overcrowded professions1 or to material gain or better social position4 ,doubtless it must remain so until the community becomes sufficiently civilized so that some degree of liberal education is the expected thing in all classes1 an interest and a goal1 a spiritual bond of union somewhat like the idea of catholic religion in the middle ages4 ,this is an ideal which will not be realized by magic4 ,there is no cheap popular substitute for education4 ,nor are we nearing the goal while as now almost anything passes for education4 ,almost any method of salesmanship or trick of influencing people for any ends whatever is now 8education40 ,every one educates the public4 ,it is marvelous how large a portion of the population of these states is qualified to instruct4 ,education has become the game men perpetually work to convert their neighbors4 ,it is the cure for every social ill4 ,how shall we put an end to the crime wave1 abolish war1 how to prevent social revolution1--or bring revolution about1 how induce unwilling people to accept cheerfully the coercion of national prohibition or give lip service to some one's favorite brand of patriotism8 ,the answer is in all cases--education4 ,if you are engaged in increasing the sale of a certain soap1 in putting everyone on guard against that social disability of which one's best friend will not tell him1 if you can frighten a multitude with the danger of pyorrhea and thus increase your profit in tooth paste--all this is now called education4 ,many see in the general movement for more education a great hope for humanity4 ,it was the belief in its political benefits that led to the compulsory education of children in the nineteenth century4 ,men were sure that all that held the world back was ignorance4 ,people would surely wish to have their ignorance removed4 ,remove it1 teach men the laws of a reasonable and beneficent nature1 and mankind in general would be wise and happy and good4 ,ingersoll used to rejoice whenever he visited a town where the schoolhouse was larger than the church4 ,as the humanitarians of the nineteenth century held that public school education must inevitably put an end to tyranny and superstition1 so many of our contemporaries look upon adult education as the guarantor of a new and better civilization4 ,there is to be an end of bigotry and partisan strife and of crowd hysteria and of the vulgarities which beset democracy4 ,they see genius appreciated1 a selection by the masses of a sincere and competent leadership4 ,men everywhere are to learn 8not only how to make a living1 but how to live40 ,finally1 it is hoped that adult education will give us new methods and aims which will be carried back into our schools and colleges and transform them4 ,a better informed adult population will naturally take a more active and intelligent interest in the education of youth4 ,and when teachers try to instruct adults it will become necessary for them to make their teaching interesting and significant4 ,the teachers will also learn something about life1 gleaning sheaves of ripe wisdom out of the mature experience of their students2 they will become better teachers4 ,all this may or may not come to pass4 ,the point of interest is that there is this tendency to make a gospel of education4 ,we ,americans have a weakness for new gospels4 ,they are a pleasant form of verbal exercise4 ,liberty1 ,democracy1 ,social ,reform1 the ,cause of ,labor1 ,psychoanalysis--all have been put to such evangelistic use4 ,now we are to become an educated nation by the simple process of everyone educating everyone else4 ,education is like reform1 it is something which is always good for other people4 ,there is much talk about adult education and there are many conferences4 ,but ,i have not attended a conference for the discussion of this subject in which anyone spoke of adult education as his own pursuit of knowledge4 ,and as with most gospels1 we are in such a hurry to save souls that we would begin proclaiming the new salvation to the nation before pausing to find out what education is4 ,education has one thing in common with religion4 ,one must come to it with clean hands and a pure heart or one can never know the secret power of it4 ,this is as true of a nation as of an individual4 ,as a people we have certain traits which may be praiseworthy in themselves1 but are distinctly hostile to the work of education4 ,i will enumerate them and then briefly indicate their element of hostility4 ,they are1 first1 our genius for organization2 second1 our well-known utilitarianism2 third1 our cleverness in finding shortcuts to the ends we seek2 and fourth1 our tendency to make propaganda4 ,the ,american way of doing things is to proceed to organize them4 ,our genius for organization is probably our most generally recognized national characteristic4 ,it has given us such prestige as we enjoy among the nations of the earth4 ,ours is the land of the ,woolworth ,building1 the ,ford factories1 the ,anti-saloon ,league1 ,rotary1 the ,ku ,klux ,klan1 and the college cheer leader4 ,in organization there is power and there is efficiency1 as seen in the success of our industries4 ,labor1 politics1 morals1 religion1 charity have all followed the same course4 ,in fact a man gains recognition in this country only by virtue of his membership in some power-seeking group4 ,he who remains unorganized is lost4 ,and without a chairman1 a committee1 an executive secretary and a press agent no human interest can survive4 ,we simply do not know what to do with it or how to think about it4 ,organization1 which is instrument or means1 tends to become an end in itself4 ,this is the fate of most organized causes2 a movement arises with its standardized labels and values1 its stereotyped mannerisms1 its rigamarole4 ,success is estimated in terms of material effects1 tangible results1 numbers and power4 ,the organizer takes precedence over those who possess the interest which it is his task to serve4 ,when a man becomes a labor organizer1 he stops work4 ,many university presidents are not themselves teachers or even scholars4 ,they are good organizers1 and with very much the same methods and standards of value one could as well organize a labor union or an insurance company4 ,this is no criticism of the college president4 ,his practical ability is requisite of modern conditions4 ,but ways of thinking and of feeling are elusive and essentially personal1 and when the attempt is made to institutionalize them they vanish and a lifeless imitation is substituted4 ,you may as well try to organize the weather as to organize faith1 hope and love4 8,organized charity0 is almost a contradiction in terms4 ,organized religion is a garden of artificial flowers1 badly faded too4 ,the spiritual life of the race was carefully weeded out long ago4 ,to know the effect of organization upon education1 one need only attend a convention of the ,national ,educational ,association1 or familiarize oneself with the public school system anywhere4 ,the system supplants education4 ,the present interest in adult education is in part a protest against the system4 ,the thirst for knowledge is nowhere more genuine and healthy than in such groups as those which attend ,the ,people's ,institute of ,new ,york and other educational centers where learning is pursued with a minimum of organization4 ,in such places people who desire further knowledge of some subject in which they are interested come together1 voluntarily1 and their only basis of association is their common intellectual interest4 ,there is no cult or 8movement02 there are no promoters for there is nothing to promote4 ,there are no ulterior ends to serve and there are no outside influences or regulations save those necessary to insure honest scholarship and competent instruction4 ,many adult students would resent any attempt at further organization4 ,there is in existence at the present time a ,world ,association for adult education1 and there was recently formed an ,american ,association4 ,but these associations have no ambition to guide or control or to standardize4 ,nor are they equipped to do so4 ,one of the greatest services that such an association1 made up of teachers and students1 could perform would be to work to prevent the diversion of the present interest in popular education to ends that are not educational4 8,adult ,education0 is becoming a slogan1 a phrase to capitalize1 a label to attach to various activities which have hitherto borne other brands1--,americanization for instance1 or social work1 or community organization1 or reforms and propagandas of one sort or another4 ,much that is now labeled ,adult ,education has a curiously familiar look4 ,there are faces one has seen before somewhere in other climes that then enjoyed the sunshine of popular interest4 ,praiseworthy enterprises no doubt1 and not less praiseworthy is the somewhat tardy discovery that the organizers have all along been speaking the prose of adult education without knowing it4 ,the danger is that persons with long experience in promoting and administering many things may also conceive of each educational task as primarily one of organization4 ,in a recent conference on adult education in a ,new ,england state1 an enthusiastic public school administrator in a burst of oratory proposed that adult education be made compulsory4 ,another called attention to the appalling extent of illiteracy1 particularly as regards the use of the ,english language1 and urged that adult education be promoted as a preventive of crime4 ,a third1 a dean in an eastern college1 insisted that adult education at once be departmentalized2 graded1 ,i suppose1 into its primary1 secondary1 collegiate and post-graduate branches4 ,nothing has yet been said about an adult kindergarten1 though doubtless many people could profit by attending such an institution4 ,perhaps the associated kindergartens have not yet discovered the fact that they also have been engaged in adult education4 ,we shall be disappointed if it is our hope to send the grown-up population of the country back to ,public ,school to receive still more of the thing that caused many of them to leave4 ,one of the leading educators in ,america recently asked a group of teachers whether any among them were so well satisfied with what they had accomplished in their own sphere that they could wish to extend their work through the adult years4 ,it is very difficult for the man of the system to think of education itself1 he is too much preoccupied with gradations1 requirements1 discipline1 reports1 with seeing that a given minimum of identical work is done by all in a given time4 ,he thinks in terms of buildings and equipment1 submission to authority1 conformity to herd opinion1 service to the state4 ,all or at least some of these things are necessary1 but it is obvious that they do not constitute an education4 ,this lesson ,america has got to learn4 ,there can be no quantity production of the things of the spirit4 ,another national trait which influences our education is our utilitarianism4 ,i do not use this term in the sense that it was used by those philosophers who held the principle of the ,greatest ,happiness4 ,i refer to that in us which is spoken of as 8,yankee shrewdness40 ,except in politics and religion1 we are a sensible people4 ,and by sensible ,i mean--and most ,americans would agree--practical4 ,we can be very efficient when we wish to1--that is1 when there is anything to gain by it4 ,we are straightforward1 and except in matters concerning which we prefer to deceive ourselves1 not easily taken in4 ,whatever we profess1 we are born pragmatists4 ,our first question about anything is #8what good is it'1 that is1 what use is it8 ,we demand results and we get them4 ,we get things done because our philosophy of life is one of action1 and our prevailing ethical standard is one of service4 ,in the solution of a practical problem1 and most problems to which we give our attention are practical1 we pride ourselves on our directness4 ,we come to the point4 ,we dispense with the unnecessary1 the ornamental1 the traditional4 ,it is a valuable trait4 ,but things sometimes have meanings other than that of usefulness4 ,there are values which can not be measured in terms of money or personal advantage1 or of time lost or gained1 or of industrial efficiency4 ,health for instance is good not merely because the healthy man can do more work2 it is good for its own sake4 ,yet people are frequently advised to guard their health for strictly economic reasons1 and practical people have the habit of showing us the cost of disease1 presenting statistics of labor-time lost1 estimating the loss to the community as so many thousands of dollars annually4 ,i have known people to take a like utilitarian view of human relationships1 making friends for the sake of commercial and social advancement1 furnishing their houses1 selecting their motor cars and even their clothes with the view to keeping up their credit at the bank4 ,many a man openly says that he belongs to certain clubs1 and sometimes one even joins a church1 for business reasons4 ,how much the practical man misses is evident from the fact that it never occurs to him that there are other reasons for doing these things4 ,practical men love to philosophize about the value of education4 ,when ,i was a student ,i once rode up to the college with a farmer who was passing the campus on his way home from town4 ,he informed me in no uncertain terms that he had no use for that institution4 ,it irritated him to see all those 8young loafers0 wasting their time learning ,latin and ,greek and lawn tennis4 ,not one of them1 not even the faculty1 knew how to do anything2 he had recently tested them out4 ,he had asked the professor of ,greek how many feet of lumber could be sawed from a log twenty-three inches in diameter and twenty feet long1 and the professor did not know4 ,the farmer's point of view is now that of many modern institutions of learning4 ,educators are determined to give people the knowledge they need for success in life and work4 ,courses are offered in scenario writing1 millinery1 salesmanship4 ,whether courses are anywhere offered in paper hanging--with credit toward the bachelor's degree1 ,i do not know4 ,but it is held that as thinking is really part of acting1 only that knowledge is real which can be put in operation4 ,there is a truth in this statement if one takes a sufficiently broad view of activity4 ,but the tendency is to make an easy and crude distinction between knowledge which is useful1 and that which is merely 8ornamental40 ,this distinction does not always hold4 ,knowledge may be like art1 it may have values which are more than use or ornamentation4 ,dr4 ,horace ,kallen divides values into economic values and sthetic values4 ,economic goods are those which are valuable because they are the means of getting some good other than themselves4 ,aesthetic goods are those which have value in themselves4 ,art is excellence4 ,education is the art of making living itself an art4 ,it is the achievement of human excellence2 it transcends both the useful and the ornamental4 ,it is a way of life1 just as truly as the religious life is a way of life1 or the moral life1 or the single life4 ,people motivated by a narrow utilitarianism do not really desire education4 ,they are quite content with a vulgar substitute--if it pays4 ,education does not transform them2 they tend to transform it after their own likeness4 ,that many are seeking 8education0 from such motives is evident4 ,one has only to study the advertising pages of the popular magazines to note the kind of appeal that is made to induce the ambitious to enroll in certain correspondence schools4 ,the prospective student is given the promise that if he will subscribe for certain courses he may some day sit in the boss's chair1 and associate with the big men at the top who do real things4 ,usually there is an alluring picture of these big men at their desks1 thinking great ideas2 a picture which gives about the same notion of the lives of the successful as one sees in the motion pictures4 ,sometimes the picture is of two men one on either side of the manager's desk4 ,one stands meekly1 hat in hand1 dressed as a laborer4 ,on his face are the marks of sorrow1 humility1 hunger4 ,the other man has the look of the typical 8go-getter40 ,the latter is seated2 he is evidently giving an order4 ,such a picture is not intended to be a comment upon the inequalities of our industrial system4 ,the reader is informed that both men started at the bottom1 that one improved his mind and his opportunities1 the other's is a wasted life4 ,such advertisements are typical1 and are worthy of note because they indicate something of the nature of the prevailing ,american interest in education4 ,here is an illustration of a domestic scene3 ,the man stands at the door dejected4 ,he has just been discharged from his position1 and has come home to tell his wife4 ,she sympathetically replies that he ought long ago to have bought that course of lessons4 ,or she consoles him with the question1 8,why is it that all the others have gone ahead and you have not80 ,by contrast there is a series of invitations to enter the temple of knowledge in which a wife is portrayed leaning affectionately over her husband's shoulder4 ,he holds a pay envelope in his hand and says1 8,i am making real money now40 ,it is well1 when telling people of the advantages of education1 to give them an idea of the conversation which takes place in the homes of the cultured4 ,but that anyone should seriously enter upon a course of study of the world's classics in order that he may impress people with his knowledge1 appear genteel1 make himself attractive to women or gain entrance to an exclusive social set1 is1 ,i believe1 a distinctly modern contribution to educational theory4 ,there recently came into my possession half a shelf of little old books bound in leather4 ,they contain a translation of the ,iliad and the ,odyssey1 some novels of ,fielding and ,smollet1 and a book or two of seventeenth century religious meditations4 ,the volumes are discolored with age and are worn with much reading1 broken bindings are carefully repaired with hand stitching and torn pages pasted together by someone who prized and reverenced their content4 ,they are part of the small library of a ,new ,england farmer of the early years of the ,republic1 who read his books by his kitchen fireside when the day's work was done1 who lived with them for years1 and found in them a perpetual source of interest and wisdom and a refuge in an existence of loneliness and toil4 ,imagine anyone trying to sell that man a work of art with the promise that a casual reading of it would enable him to appear more cultivated than he really was4 ,today a much advertised and in fact admirable selection of classic literature is offered with precisely this appeal4 ,a full page display appears in the ,sunday papers depicting a gaudy dining-room with three people conventionally dressed for dinner seated at the table4 ,there are two men and a beautiful woman4 ,she is talking to the man on her right1 and is evidently fascinated with his brilliant conversation4 ,the man on the left sits dumb and miserable and unnoticed2 he can not join in such sophisticated and scintillating discussion4 ,we are informed that the poor man has neglected to read his fifteen minutes a day4 ,it is to this sort of thing that popular utilitarianism1 aided and appealed to by commercialism1 would divert a hesitating interest in education4 ,even in the best of educational institutions the utilitarian point of view with its emphasis upon a narrow efficiency has its dangers4 ,it is the source of that specialization which crams the student's head full of information concerning one subject1 leaving him in ignorance of all else and hence unable to gain a proper perspective of the knowledge that he does possess4 ,in 8,science and the ,modern ,world10 ,whitehead says 8,the modern chemist is likely to be weak in zology1 weaker still in his general knowledge of the ,elizabethan drama1 and completely ignorant of the principles of rhythm in ,english versification4 ,it is probably safe to ignore his knowledge of ancient history4 ,of course ,i am speaking of general tendencies2 for chemists are no worse than engineers1 or mathematicians1 or classical scholars4 ,effective knowledge is professionalised knowledge1 supported by a restricted acquaintance with useful subjects subservient to it4 ,this situation has its dangers4 ,it produces minds in a groove4 ,each profession makes progress1 but it is progress in its own groove4 ,now to be mentally in a groove is to live in contemplating a given set of abstractions4 ,the groove prevents straying across country1 and the abstraction abstracts from something to which no further attention is paid4 ,but there is no groove of abstraction which is adequate for the comprehension of human life4444 ,the dangers arising from this aspect of professionalism are great1 particularly in our democratic societies4 ,the directive force of reason is weakened4 ,the leading intellects lack balance4 ,they see this set of circumstances1 or that set2 but not both sets together4 ,the task of coordination is left to those who lack either the force or the character to succeed in some definite career4444 ,the point is that the discoveries of the nineteenth century were in the direction of professionalism1 so that we are left with no expansion of wisdom and with greater need of it4 ,wisdom is the fruit of a balanced development4 ,it is this balanced growth of individuality which it should be the aim of education to secure40 ,a philosophy which reduces learning to mere efficiency1 makes of education only a means to something other than personal development4 ,it sees each good as an economic good1 a means only1 making everything exist only for the sake of something else to be obtained4 ,but there are goods which exist for their own sakes and one such good is human excellence4 ,in the words of ,dr4 ,l4 ,p4 ,jacks1 8,the civilization of power aims at the exploitation of the world1 which is thought of as a dead or mechanical thing1 existing that men may exploit it4 ,that of culture aims at the development of man1 thought of as a citizen of a universe which can be loved1 enjoyed and reverenced3 education being the name of the process which leads him to love1 enjoy and reverence it40 ,another and even more serious danger is our passion for shortcuts4 ,business prospers by rapid turnover4 ,practical men demand quick results4 ,we are an impatient people1 always in a hurry4 ,we have not time for the tedious labor processes necessary to produce well-made articles of handicraft4 ,consequently we have learned to be satisfied with hastily and cheaply made commodities which somewhat resemble the real articles and will do just as well--for the time being4 ,why should we not buy cheap furniture1 when we expect to move every first day of ,october8 ,why not wear garments made of shoddy1 when everyone knows the fashions will change even before shoddy can be worn threadbare8 ,why erect buildings that will stand for centuries in cities where everything is torn-down and rebuilt in a decade1 and even churches move about following the shifting elements of the population which constitute their membership8 ,just why we are all moving about in such a hurry no one knows4 ,some people think that this restless haste is progress4 ,whether it is or not1 it is certainly modern4 ,but something of the shoddiness enters into the minds and hearts of men1 when shortcuts are sought in matters of mental growth which are essentially processes of slow maturing4 ,education requires time4 ,the only time wasted is that spent trying to save time4 ,there should be no haste or crowding or cramming4 ,mastery of any subject requires years of familiarity with it4 ,the formal training one receives in an institution is but the introduction4 ,most people never get beyond a mere bowing acquaintance with knowledge4 ,a prominent ,american manufacturer1 so we are told1 once made the statement that if he wished to know anything he would employ an expert to tell him about it in five minutes4 ,among workers in adult education there is a demand for easy text books1 primers which will give to people in a few pages and in words of one syllable the essentials of philosophy1 psychology1 literature and natural science4 ,simple and clear statement is always desirable4 ,no author really knows his subject matter until he can 8talk ,united ,states0 in presenting it4 ,but that is another story4 ,people who can read nothing more profound than the tabloid papers are a menace to education4 ,they only retard the progress of any class they enter4 ,yet there is a wide demand for tabloid information4 ,we like outlines of history1 psychology1 philosophy2 primers of relativity2 ,,abc's of atoms4 ,such books have value only for the student who after reading them consults the original sources4 ,but what people want is education without effort1 ready-made education4 ,i recently saw an advertisement in which there was offered for sale 8a whole library in one volume40 ,another advertisement offers 8,the ,essentials of a ,liberal ,education2 ,twenty ,centuries of thought on your ,library ,shelf10--one shelf is all that is required6 ,and in addition the publishers will provide you with 8easy reading courses40 ,the following example is typical of what happens to education when wisdom lifteth up her voice in the street4 ,a full page advertisement appears in a ,sunday newspaper4 ,there is a picture of two successful business men looking at a newspaper4 ,the article which has caught their attention reads1 8,r4 ,p4 ,clark ,made ,president of ,big ,mercantile ,corp4 ,began as ,office ,boy #ba years ago40 ,here are a few lines quoted from their comments1 8,that fellow amazes me6 ,do you remember when he first came to us as an office boy8444 and all the other fellows had a head start on him with their college degrees4 ,he must have found an unusual way to make up for his lack of schooling--he must have found a secret means of improving his chances both in business and society4 ,clark knew how tremendously he was handicapped by his lack of schooling and he determined to find a shortcut to education4 ,and this he found in ,elbert ,hubbard's ,famous ,scrapbook40 ,there you have it4 ,i have never seen a more complete statement of the average man's idea of education4 ,mastery of the tricks which bring early success2 belief that there is somewhere a secret magic1 knowledge of which will immediately transform one's personality2--the shortcut4 ,no appreciation of the fact that it is never information which transforms a person1 but the persistent effort put forth to acquire it4 ,education is on the air1 in these enlightened times one can get it anywhere--like bootleg whiskey4 ,it is proposed now to give adult education by radio4 ,all you need do to achieve scholarship is to turn it on1 close your eyes1 and go to sleep4 ,you can get it without effort1 without knowing that you are getting it1 or just who is educating you4 ,i mentioned earlier that one of the dangers to education in ,america is our weakness for propaganda4 ,few people know the difference between education and advertising4 ,the latter is commonly spoken of as education by those engaged in it4 ,i once knew an advertising manager for a fruit grower's organization4 ,he conceived a brilliant idea4 ,just as we have ,health ,week1 ,clean-,up ,week1 ,fire ,prevention ,week1 he arranged in various localities an ,orange ,eating ,week4 ,he told me that he could educate the public to eat as many oranges as he chose4 ,press agents are everywhere busy 8educating the public0 for all sorts of objects2 to respect the rights of vested capital1 to give money to build cathedrals1 to vote a straight party ticket4 ,i once attended a banquet given by an organization of manufacturers4 ,there ,i met a splendid-looking elderly gentleman and was told that he was the attorney for the organization4 ,as ,i had never before seen him1 ,i inquired if he had offices in ,new ,york4 ,my informant said1 8,oh1 no1 he lives in ,washington4 ,his job is to educate ,congress40 ,in spite of all this popular interest1 or perhaps because of it1 the cause of education is in a bad way4 ,it is dangerous to encourage people to think they are educated when they are not1 or to believe they are acquiring it when they are in fact getting something else4 ,much that passes for adult education serves only to make people more superficial and opinionated than they were before4 ,it is very doubtful if the general level of our intellectual life has been raised by such knowledge as the public has gained4 ,the public can read and we have with us the ,hearst papers and the tabloids4 ,literacy has placed the bulk of the population daily at the mercy of the propagandist and the press agent4 ,with libraries and colleges and high schools everywhere1 and after a century of science1 vast sections of the population can be swept by such movements as the ,ku ,klux ,klan and ,fundamentalism4 ,state after state prohibits the teaching in its schools of such scientific knowledge as will lead to a belief in evolution4 ,crazy reform1 fantastic religious innovation1 political foolishness and unbalanced partisanship may at any time sweep over the country4 ,intelligence in this country makes a poor showing in competition with quackery and complacent ignorance for popular leadership4 ,it is common to lay the blame for the present state of affairs at the door of the schools and colleges4 ,without doubt they must accept some measure of responsibility in the matter4 ,in many instances the only alternative to a general slump in standards of scholarship has been a narrow academic pedantry4 ,there has been much yielding to the pressure of popular prejudice1 much display of conventional morality as a cover for second-rate educational activity4 ,faculties are well aware how little a student may know and get through college4 ,the colleges themselves seem to have participated in the general cheapening of education by their generosity in granting honorary degrees4 ,almost any one who is successful in business or prominent in politics becomes a 8,doctor40 ,erasmus in the fifteenth century1 even though he had already become probably the leading classical scholar of his times1 studied and taught at ,paris for nine years before he was granted his doctor's degree4 ,when the late ,mr4 ,bryan threatened to print all his college degrees on his card1 in answer to the repeated statement that he was an ignoramus1 the joke was really on the colleges4 ,but too much is demanded of institutions of learning4 ,large numbers of students come to them with no background of cultural tradition1 and they return to an environment which is distinctly hostile to intellectual pursuits4 ,the public clamor that some one educate us in spite of ourselves is only another way of shouting1 8,we have piped unto you and ye have not danced40 ,the ultimate responsibility for the condition of education rests upon the average members of society1 and it is reducible to a moral factor4 ,carlyle once said that people could only be taken in by quacks when they had a certain element of quackery in their own souls4 ,when multitudes regard education merely as a shortcut to financial success1 or as a device for appearing to be something they are not1 or as an instrument for converting others to their own partisan beliefs1 they will of course get the 8education0 they desire4 ,once ,i thought that ignorance was an innocent thing1 a sort of spiritual vacuum passively waiting to be filled with precious truths4 ,except in children ignorance is by no means an innocent thing4 ,it is a very active element in human life4 ,we must overcome strong resistances before we may begin to learn some things4 ,we keep ourselves in ignorance because there are facts and truths whose existence we prefer not to admit4 ,the man who strives to educate himself--and no one else can educate him--must win a certain victory over his own nature4 ,he must learn to smile at his dear idols1 analyze his every prejudice1 scrap if necessary his fondest and most consoling belief1 question his presuppositions1 and take his chances with the truth4 ,the greater the need of education1 the stronger the resistance to it4 ,whether the present increase of interest in education is to be an empty gesture depends upon whether the thing demanded is really education4 ,there is no one right way1 and certainly each age with its special needs and peculiar industrial and cultural environment should make its own contribution to educational achievement4 ,but there is something which belongs to no special time and to all times1 a way of approaching our tasks or valuing experiences4 ,no one who is merely a creature of his own times is really educated4 ,there is conceivable a world in which1--great as are the historical accidents that separate them--a ,socrates1 or a ,plato1 or a ,cicero1 or an ,erasmus1 a ,voltaire1 a ,goethe1 a ,huxley would be at home4 ,much as they differ1 there is yet something1 which the educated have in common1 a quality of spirit1 something that may not be defined1 but that right-minded people recognize4 ,we shall strive from various avenues of approach to envisage it1 for to miss it is to miss all4 ,it is the meaning of a liberal education4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,liberal ,,education ,,vs4 ,,animal ,,training ,in a sense no living person is yet educated1 for the learning process is never completed4 ,but there must come a time when the process results in some differences in behavior4 ,often these differences seem to be small and irrelevant1 amounting merely to added social grace or more correct use of language4 ,something more than this must differentiate the educated from the uneducated or so much human energy would not be expended in the effort to get education4 ,when we inquire what the difference is1 we find there is much confusion4 ,in the process of education knowledge is acquired4 ,many a person's education consists of what he has learned4 ,may one possess much knowledge or information and remain uneducated8 ,i know a physician who has great skill and wide professional information1 yet he is essentially vulgar in his tastes and enjoyments and bigoted in his human relationships1 and his judgments concerning most things are narrow and hasty and are determined largely by passion and prejudice4 ,you feel that his learning has never become integrated with his personality4 ,it is a property annexed to his estate over which he is an absentee landlord4 ,it has made no changes in his general habits of thought and behavior4 ,there are people whom no one would think educated1 who yet have an astounding amount of information4 ,they know all about race horses1 or bridge1 or baseball scores1 or stocks and bonds4 ,many have a knowledge of such things which may be greater both in range and accuracy than that which some professional scholars have of their special subjects4 ,shall we say then that some kinds of knowledge have educational value and that others have not8 ,but why should not all knowledge be equally education8 ,is there a psychological reason for the alleged difference or is the exclusion of some kinds of knowledge the result merely of a conventional attitude8 ,our discussion of education resolves itself into a philosophical problem4 ,the issue of practical education versus the so-called cultural comes up whenever people are interested in the subject4 ,partisans of the latter type of learning are inclined to look down upon the former4 ,they say it is not education but only skill and efficiency4 ,they hold that education is scholarship and properly has to do with such subjects as the classics1 the humanities1 philosophy1 etc41 which discipline the mind and ennoble the spirit4 ,this is the traditional view4 ,those who take the opposite view ask what earthly purpose can useless and sequestered learning serve8 ,they are suspicious of education for 8refinement0 or the 8genteel tradition40 ,is it not the aim of the pursuit of knowledge to enable one to do something1 to attain mastery1 to equip the mind to function well in an environment which demands activity of us all8 ,is not anything well learned culture8 ,an excellent statement of this point of view can be found in ,huxley's lectures on education4 ,there has been much discussion of this question in the universities and colleges4 ,there are those who deplore the decline of interest in the classics and philosophy4 ,they say that institutions of higher learning are becoming mere 8intellectual cafeterias10 that the change from classical education to an elective system embracing all sorts of vocational courses is a distinct loss1 inasmuch as the knowledge so acquired lacks coordination and balance1 while specialization crowds out the general and cultural subjects that form the foundation of education4 ,on the other hand1 why should not a ,university teach anything that people wish to know8 ,there was once resistance to including the sciences1 chemistry and physics and biology4 ,the liberalizing effect and cultural value of these subjects is now recognized1 and their usefulness is a social gain4 ,then why not domestic science1 agriculture1 mechanics1 business methods8 ,what is wrong with the schools of business at ,harvard and ,columbia8 ,a similar issue exists in secondary education4 ,it is often said that high schools pay too much regard to college entrance requirements1 since only a small portion of graduates expect to continue their education4 ,the students have gained only a most superficial introduction to the classics and have learned nothing practical4 ,schools of trade1 commerce1 and of technology are increasing in number and the movement for such training is guided by principles of education very different from those of the classical tradition4 ,those of us who are interested in adult education meet the same problem4 ,writing of worker's education ,dr4 ,horace ,m4 ,kallen says1 8444 ,the complexity of the tasks of any union official has grown so great1 their variety so considerable1 that it is no longer possible for an official merely to pass from the worker's bench to the official's desk and completely discharge his duties4444 ,schools would have to be provided analogous to the schools of business administration maintained in the colleges4444 ,out of the instruction there would in the course of time emerge a communicable permanent record1 on which the necessary accessories of books could be built4 ,such a school of officials would be a nucleus from which the educational process could ultimately radiate into every shop4 8,labor education would finally thus become conversant with control rather than escape4 ,in such a conversancy more and more of the energies now seeking relief in the vapors of the social mechanisms of escape1 would find satisfactory enchannelment in the technique of control4 8,it is the essential function of labor education to envisage1 to forecast and to enable this transition4 ,the various arts would then develop no longer as compensations against1 but as expressions and prophetic fulfillments1 as criticisms and mitigations of1 the processes of this movement2 they too would more largely be coterminous with industrial life40 ,dr4 ,kallen would probably not go so far as to say that the sole aim of ,labor ,education is to equip the members of the working class with such knowledge as will enable them to master the industrial environment and change the social system4 ,but there are those who hold such a view1 just as there are those who hold that the worker should receive only such education as will make him a more competent workman4 ,both views1 one held by extreme radicals1 the other by conservative capitalists1 have in common the belief that education for workers is purely practical training4 8,cultural0 subjects are sometimes studied1 and there is a lively demand for them1 but the tendency is to regard this interest as an 8escape0 from reality into a world of fanciful contemplation and mere verbal exercise4 ,it is an intellectual luxury1 a form of entertainment or inspiration to which a worker is entitled1 but it is an interest which is a little under suspicion of being 8bourgeois40 ,hence in all phases of education1 this issue is debated4 ,the issue is inevitable in a time like the present1 with a classical tradition surviving in an industrial civilization4 ,have we any need in the modern world of cultural traditions which have their origin in antiquity8 ,should we or could we dispense with all educational values except those which are coterminous with the present industrial situation8 ,wherever such an issue arises1 ,i have learned to suspect both sides4 ,as a rule both are based upon a common presupposition which is an error4 ,here the presupposition is that the important factor in education is the question what is to be taught1 rather than the spirit of learning itself4 ,education is conceived of as knowledge acquired4 ,attention is fixed not on the learning process through which an individual becomes reoriented to his world1 but upon the end result1 something fixed and done1 a certain amount of information stored up4 ,is this what we mean by learning8 ,is it receiving and memorizing a given something either cultural or practical8 ,or is it an adventure in any kind of truth-seeking which changes the quality of one's future experience and enables one to behave not merely efficiently but wisely1 with a broad view and a sympathetic understanding of the many ways in which men have striven to create meaning and value out of the possibilities of human life8 ,if this last is correct1 the real question is not what shall be learned but how and why and to what end4 ,is learning a venture in spiritual freedom that is humanism1 or is it a routine process of animal training8 ,both cultural and practical knowledge may be reduced to animal training--and they generally are4 ,it is there that the issue between them arises4 ,to my mind1 an educated person is not merely one who can do something1 whether it is giving a lecture on the poetry of ,horace1 running a train1 trying a lawsuit1 or repairing the plumbing4 ,he is also one who knows the significance of what he does1 and he is one who cannot and will not do certain things4 ,he has acquired a set of values4 ,he has a 8yes0 and a 8no10 and they are his own4 ,he knows why he behaves as he does4 ,he has learned what to prefer1 for he has lived in the presence of things that are preferable4 ,i do not mean that he is merely trained in the conventions of polite society or the conformities of crowd morality4 ,he will doubtless depart from both in many things4 ,whether he conforms or not1 he has learned enough about human life on this planet to see his behavior in the light of a body of experience and the relation of his actions to situations as a whole4 ,such a person is acquiring a liberal education and it makes little difference whether he has been trained in philosophy or mechanics4 ,he is being transformed from an automaton into a thinking being4 ,the antithesis of liberal education and practical training arises in part out of a misunderstanding on both sides of a principle stated in ,aristotle's 8,politics40 ,in this book there is set forth the philosopher's theory of education4 ,he is seeking for his times just what our practical educators seek for ours--to train youth to deal masterfully with existing conditions4 ,unlike many moderns he sees that such training applies to the whole personality4 ,this is evident for example in his discussion of music where he considers the general psychological effects of various kinds of rhythm4 ,there were three important facts in the environment of the ,greek youth to which the educator had to assist the student to adapt himself4 ,the way in which the intelligent person faced these facts was the meaning of liberal education in ,aristotle's time4 ,there was first a psychological fact4 ,popular myth was ceasing to function as an explanation of the processes of nature and as a basis for the control of behavior4 ,fortunately for the ,greeks1 no priestly class had gained control of their spiritual life4 ,stories of the doings of the gods were coming to be regarded as mere poetry1 in the modern sense of the term4 ,philosophers did not hesitate to subject religious beliefs to the judgment of reason4 ,the assertion had been made that 8,man is the measure of all things40 ,a spirit of intellectual freedom prevailed that was unique in ancient times1 ,i might say in any time4 ,there was a disposition to investigate1 to classify natural phenomena1 to speculate upon their nature and causes4 ,men were faced with the necessity of thinking their experience through to find meanings which elsewhere were a matter of myth and folkway4 ,thought must be clarified and made exact if behavior was to be guided by reason4 ,philosophy1 which included the beginnings of science1 and education were almost the same thing1--the search for the good life4 ,i will discuss this point further in a later lecture4 ,the second fact concerning which the ,greek youth must learn to behave intelligently was political in its nature4 ,it was the existence of an aristocratic democracy in which as a citizen he must participate with important results for both himself and the state4 ,the free citizen must have learned to judge what is good4 ,the third fact which challenged the educator was sociological2 it was the existence of slavery4 ,this institution1 which in the end was one of the causes of the breakdown of ancient civilization1 seemed to be perfectly natural to the philosopher4 ,aristotle thinks that some people are slavish by nature4 ,he has no thought of educating such persons1 though they may be trained to perform their tasks well4 ,all should be so trained that they may live happily and well in the stations in life where they are4 ,as most mechanical labor was performed by slaves1 and by hirelings whose social status was not very different from that of the slave1 the ,greeks candidly despised mechanic arts4 ,knowledge of them was thought to be a slavish kind of skill4 ,aristotle likewise looked down upon trade and commerce as debasing the mind1 just as hard labor was thought to demean the body4 ,the free man must be so trained that his privileges1 his leisure and authority over others would make for general human happiness4 ,this education of the free man was called 8,liberal ,education40 ,it was the education of a leisure class4 ,it was a training for leadership and responsibility3 not a mere initiation into the idealogy of an exploiting class1 together with the passwords current in exclusive circles4 ,neither did it mean--at least for the ancient ,greek--the accumulation of dead and inconsequential knowledge the only purpose of which was a pedantic display of erudition4 ,in ages that followed1 the study of the classics tended to become something of this sort4 ,but this tendency marked a decline1 a loss of the spirit of liberal education as it had once existed4 ,athenian education1 in spite of the institution of slavery1 developed men of wisdom and nobility of spirit and civilization of interest in such numbers that ancient ,greece became the pioneer of western civilization and has remained the inspiration and guide to men in most of their efforts to attain a life of reason and beauty4 ,the fact that the liberal tradition had its origin in a society in which slavery prevailed has left traces in education which persist even to the present time4 ,it is one of the things that cause people to believe that there are different types of education proper to different social strata4 ,education becomes a mark of distinction4 ,it is for the privileged few4 ,it is itself a privilege and a kind of vested interest4 ,there is a higher knowledge and a lower knowledge4 ,in part this distinction goes back to primitive times4 ,in early civilization1 everyone learned to do everything which the people of the tribe could do4 ,there was no specialization2 all alike learned to fish1 to hunt1 to fight1 to dance4 ,the primitive magic was associated with every human interest and every form of activity1 and for every type of performance there was a magic formula4 ,in time it became the special function of the elders and medicine men to remember the formulae and pass them on to their successors4 ,knowledge of the formulae became the special privilege of the priestly class4 ,knowledge of labor processes remained with the mass4 ,the former was higher knowledge and developed into ancient wisdom4 ,in certain religions it led to an esoteric intellectualism4 ,the distinction gains emphasis among peoples like the ,hebrews1 ,moslems and ,christians whose religion is the 8,religion of the ,book40 ,the 8,higher ,knowledge0 is now a divine revelation preserved in the ,sacred ,book4 ,with each of the peoples mentioned religious scholarship becomes the basis of all learning1 and dominates education4 ,any accretions of general culture which are acquired and added to theology1 become tinctured by it4 ,a priestly tradition is mingled with the classic culture as the philosophy of ,aristotle becomes elaborated first by the ,arabs1 and then by the ,rabbis and ,christian scholars of the ,middle ,ages4 ,what ,aristotle meant simply as the training of the free man in self-mastery1 in time became a professionalized 8higher learning10 a sequestered scholarship largely unrelated to the existing environment4 ,medival education became scholasticism4 ,it was still a higher knowledge set apart from other interests3 it did not include proficiency in the arts of industry1 but rather in book learning and in disputation4 ,liberal it was not1 though it still in a sense had to do with leisure4 ,the good life had become one of pious contemplation4 ,aristotle's free citizen was displaced by the cenobite and the candidate for holy orders4 ,the life of ,reason became one of skill in the formal logic with which a given system of life and thought was elaborated4 ,scholastic education made possible a high type of scholarship2 it carried very far its training in the subtleties of argument4 ,but it exhausted itself in a world of abstractions which it mistook for realities4 ,it was a discipline1 not a voyage of discovery4 ,it was a matter of routine learning by memorizing4 ,its aim was to mold the mind of the student to a fixed type4 ,it placed him in an environment so manipulated as to determine his habits of thinking once for all1 to give support to required beliefs4 ,it was education by indoctrination4 ,it developed a type of mind which could be depended on to do and say the expected thing on the expected occasion1 one which would hold certain desired convictions and no others4 ,for such an educational system1 learning was accepting and retaining something provided in advance4 ,in this sense it was passive4 ,mentality was the product of environment4 ,scholastic education though it dealt with 8things of the spirit0 was from one point of view 8animal training40 ,in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the scholars of the ,renaissance turned from theological education to human letters4 ,a revival of interest in the literature of antiquity became a sort of passion4 ,those who sought through the study of ,greek and ,latin poets1 essayists1 and philosophers to revive the spirit of the lost pagan civilization were called ,humanists4 ,they had a philosophy of education very different from that of scholasticism which was at that time on the decline4 ,there was the promise that education might again become liberal1 in the sense ,i use the term4 ,wherever the 8,new ,learning0 was carried it had a liberalizing influence4 ,it roused the hostility of 8obscurantists0 and created a jolly row in many institutions of learning4 ,it awakened pagan ideas throughout ,italy1 even in high ecclesiastical circles4 ,it was bringing 8refinement0 to ,france4 ,it was receiving something of a triumph in ,northern ,europe under the leadership of ,erasmus1 when the ,reformation again turned general interest to theology4 ,what the result of this humanistic movement in education might have been had it gone on unchecked no one can say4 ,no one now believes it could have been what its leaders expected4 ,they tried to produce an imitation in their own times of the manners and ways of men who had lived centuries earlier in a wholly different environment4 ,such an attempt of course is futile4 ,but it is conceivable that as larger and larger numbers of people achieved freedom in the modern world a liberal education might have done in our day what the ,greeks sought to do in theirs--lay the foundations of freedom in a well-considered basis of philosophy4 ,in that event the whole of modern education might have been vitalized by a cultural tradition which could take into account the conditions under which modern men live and work without degenerating into narrow utilitarianism and mere mechanical efficiency4 ,what chiefly survived from the ,renaissance--at least in ,protestant countries--is the traditional education1 in which the ancient classics are taught as tedious drill in language with the aim of improving the student's literary style1 also of disciplining his soul by compelling him to do something disagreeable1 and finally so that he may be able to repeat a few ,latin or ,greek phrases1 remember the names of a few ancient writers and perhaps if he has been very diligent1 retain a sufficient number of vague memory traces to enjoy a book like ,professor ,erskine's 8,private ,life of ,helen of ,troy40 ,but to call this liberal education requires both humor and imagination4 ,little attempt is made to get behind the language into literary appreciation1 or back of the literature to the ways and values of ancient life and the wisdom of the ages1 or to see the relation of such wisdom to the problems of living in the modern world4 ,traditional education has again become an artificial thing1 aloof from reality1 a higher knowledge set apart by itself4 ,that is1 if one may call it knowledge at all4 ,most college graduates after a few years do not remember enough ,latin to enable them to translate their own diplomas1 so badly are the classics taught1 even as mere language drill4 ,much of the spirit of scholasticism1 though little of its thoroughness and subtlety1 persisted in the later ,protestantism4 ,its influence necessarily tended to make this teaching of the humanities formal and innocuous4 ,after the ,renaissance1 members of the nobility and gentry1 and later an increasing number of the middle class1 sought higher education for its refining influence1 as an adornment rather than as a way of life4 ,the result is a culture that is for the most part external to the sphere of our activities and interests1 something borrowed1 not won2 seldom an expression or valuation or glorification of modern life4 ,this also is a routine and a moulding to type4 ,it is again a form of animal training4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the development of science in the nineteenth century led to a demand for the education requisite for modern life4 ,the application of science to industry created a new environment4 ,new knowledge was required and new mental habits must be formed if there was to be effective control4 ,natural science gave men a new intellectual discipline and a new world-view4 ,with it came a new hope for the race4 ,mankind need only learn the laws of nature and obey them to become wise and happy and good4 ,the new knowledge dispelled ignorance and superstition and set the mind free4 ,there was much criticism of traditional education1 and much faith in the liberalizing effects of scientific training as well as in its practical results4 ,today scientific research occupies a most important place in education4 ,in many colleges and universities it has almost supplanted the classical studies4 ,no modern person can be really educated without some training in scientific methods4 ,but science also may become mere animal training4 ,each science is a profession1 acquired as a technical training like learning a trade4 ,of things outside his own trade the scientist may be quite ignorant and lacking in curiosity4 ,he is often unable to see the significance of his specialty for knowledge as a whole4 ,within his chosen field of study he may come to resent new discovery--especially if it fails to confirm some favorite theory4 ,in some of the sciences1 notably psychology1 biology1 medicine and the social sciences1 there are intense partisan divisions1 often rivalling in dogmatism and bitterness1 those of theology4 ,each 8school0 develops its cult ideas1 its jargon credo1 and ritual4 ,herd opinion holds sway over scientists as over other men4 ,certain phrases and mannerisms are adopted1 just as among ,rotarians1 because they show that one belongs to the crowd4 ,the psychologist today1 for instance1 must boast his ignorance of philosophy and make a noise like a biologist4 ,the advancement of knowledge is by no means the sole motive in scientific training2 there is also much molding to type even though this latter objective is in conflict with the spirit of science itself4 ,much contemporary educational philosophy is openly and avowedly a technique of animal training2 so much so that it quite properly borrows its pedagogical principles from animal psychology4 ,it would be difficult to over estimate the importance of animal experimentation for modern theories of education4 ,schools of education are deeply interested in the psychology of the learning process4 ,education is learning1 and learning is habit formulation4 ,habits are the acquired modes of response of men and animals4 ,they may be organized in the nervous tissue by any environmental factors which 8condition0 certain reflexes2 that is1 chain certain responses to given stimuli4 ,it is possible for an animal experimenter or an educator of children to organize the environmental situation in such a manner that definite systems of desired responses may be regularly obtained whenever a stimulus of a certain kind is given4 ,a simple and well-known experiment which will serve to explain what we mean by the conditioned reflex is that of ,pavlov4 ,a hungry dog when shown meat secretes saliva4 ,at the time the dog sees the meat a bell is rung4 ,this is repeated a number of times until the dog will secrete saliva at the sound of the bell1 without the presence of the meat stimulus4 ,the saliva response1 induced by the bell stimulus1 is the conditioned reflex4 ,it is said that all learning takes place after this fashion4 ,an animal1 a cat1 may be placed in a cage1 the door being so arranged that escape is possible only when the cat strikes a certain latch4 ,after a period during which the cat makes all sorts of frantic random movements1 the successful movement finally occurs and the cat escapes4 ,the experiment is repeated and perhaps the period of futile activity will not be so long as at first4 ,after a number of trials the cat will give up the random movements and at once unlock the door4 ,the gradual shortening of the interval of time required for the desired response may be plotted4 ,it is then called the animal's 8learning curve40 ,such curves may also be made of human learning processes4 ,it is said that there is no essential difference between this animal learning and our own learning whether it be to swim or play tennis1 or to memorize a poem1 or solve a problem in algebra1 or to master the technique of a profession4 ,one's education thus consists wholly of one's organized systems of responses1 or habit patterns4 ,we speak of education as the development of personality4 ,but from this point of view personality is nothing but the sum total of an individual's conditioned reflexes3--that is1 it is merely the manner in which the organism has been taught to work4 ,one eminent ,behaviorist among the psychologists compares personality to the running of a gas engine4 ,i will not enter upon a psychological discussion of this view of education1 except to say that the method of animal training which is taken for granted is open to serious criticism4 ,the theory proceeds on the assumption that insight into the situation is not necessary to learning4 ,the cat in the cage hits upon the successful gesture as a matter of pure chance4 ,after a number of experiments1 each said to place the animal in an identical situation1 the successful action becomes 8over determined10 and fixed as a habit4 ,it is doubtful whether such training is learning at all4 ,the animal--and conceivably the human being--need never take in the situation4 ,the successful art1 the more this learning process is perfected1 degenerates into a mere gesture1 related to the event in a purely external and arbitrary manner4 ,it is difficult to see how educational methods guided by such a theory could do much to train the student in habits of independent judgment4 ,professor ,wolfgang ,khler spent four years studying the intelligence of apes at the anthropoid station in ,tenerife4 ,his experiments with these animals followed a procedure quite the reverse of that we have been discussing4 ,he arranged his experiments so that there could be no chance and no routine1 so that the situation as a whole implied a definite action on the part of the animal1 an action which would be natural to it once it gained insight into the situation4 ,from simple tasks he moved to more complex ones1 always keeping the moment of insight as the crucial factor in the experiment4 ,an ape is placed in a cage and fruit is put outside beyond the animal's reach4 ,a stick has also been placed within reach4 ,after vain attempts to reach the fruit with its hand1 the ape suddenly sits quietly looking the situation over3 it looks from the fruit to the stick1 then seizes the latter and pulls in the fruit4 ,later the animal is required to choose between a long stick and a shorter one1 then two sticks are put within reach which must be joined before success may be attained4 ,from such tasks the animal is led on to those which finally test the limitations of its insight4 ,so far as ,i know no use has yet been made of such psychological study of animal learning by our educators4 ,but if we must resort to animal psychology in order to understand the processes of human learning it would seem that ,khler's methods would be more suggestive to the educator than those which assume that the learner is throughout an automaton without understanding4 ,the so-called 8new psychology0 has filled modern education with confusion4 ,fads and fancies of all sorts prevail1 each with its psychological jargon4 8,progressive0 experimental schools everywhere give voice to 8modern ideas40 ,in many such schools there is a minimum of discipline1 pupils are encouraged to take the initiative in all things1 to study what they like1 and when they choose4 ,everything is made as easy and as interesting as possible1 and there is much talk about permitting the student to express himself and develop his personality4 ,so long as we confine our attention merely to the methods of teaching we have the impression that this 8new0 education is anything but standardized4 ,we get a different impression when we turn to examine the ideals of scholarship1 the valuations1 and general outlook on life which the newer philosophy of education accepts uncritically4 ,in fact very little thought is given to these matters4 ,the prevailing interests and trends of a democratic1 industrial age are taken as the ultimate criteria4 ,it might almost be said that education has come to be regarded merely as a function of the environment4 ,now it is one thing to train a mind to deal effectively with its environment and to achieve some value in the modifications which it makes in that environment4 ,it is a different thing to hold that mind is the product of the environment4 ,a well-known psychologist says that the aim of his science is to predict and control behavior4 ,he offers us the conditioned reflex as the means to any desired result1 and says that if he could have full control of the environment of a given number of children1 he would permit some one to select by lot the future life and career of each child1 and he would form the mind of each according to the chosen pattern4 ,our modern environmentalists have more in common with medival scholasticism than they think4 ,the aim of both is to produce an individual who will react under all circumstances according to a prearranged pattern4 ,scholasticism1 as we have seen1 consisted chiefly of memory drill and training in logic and disputation4 ,law and theology were sometimes studied1 but proficiency in such subjects does not in itself mean that a man has acquired a liberal education4 ,he may only have learned to do the conventional trick when the expected signal is given1 much like a trained dog in a circus4 ,the same must be said of much modern professional training4 ,the scholastic spirit haunts the legal mind to this day4 ,also it is possible--perhaps usual--for one to study medicine1 and never once get an idea of what medicine means to the scientist4 ,most people educated by school teachers and college professors are in fact trained in this way4 ,think of what passes for moral and religious training4 ,with respect to the most important questions in life1 people have been so 8conditioned0 that they do not try to solve problems as they arise1 but to say and do the expected thing on occasion4 ,i once heard a professor in a theological seminary instruct his class in the art of visiting the sick4 ,the students were busy copying in their note books the speeches which it is correct for a pastor to make on such occasions4 ,the following is typical of such instruction4 8,as you enter the sick-room it is well to say ,when ,god puts a man down on his back1 it is so that he may look up into ,heaven40 ,in such habit formation1 learning is mere repetition4 ,there is nothing of independence of judgment1 no reflection on ends1 no development of the capacity to deal with new situations4 ,the better one is trained the more automatic one's behavior becomes4 ,and here we see the limitations to much so-called practical education1--8education for work and for life40 ,yes1 but do we live simply to do things and to serve1 to perform1 however well1 the tasks required by our times8 ,is all the world a stage1 and are men merely actors who have learned well or poorly the lines written for them by someone else or dictated by necessity8 ,and is there to be no understanding of the meaning of the part we play1 or of the drama as a whole8 ,is no one through his education to contribute something original to the drama of life8 ,it seems to me that the animal training theory rests upon two presuppositions1 both of which are wrong4 ,the first is that the mind consists of what it has learned1 that is1 that it is the product of environment4 ,this is really not a psychological doctrine1 but a metaphysical assumption4 ,it is the mechanist theory2 an idea which works well as scientific method1 but which leads to false conclusions when taken as a description of ultimate reality4 ,the second presupposition is a by-product of present-day industrial democracy4 ,it is that education is a means to efficient service1 with its rewards1 getting on1 general prosperity1 etc4 ,but is industry the end and aim of our existence8 ,it is said that man if he is to be happy must be able to express himself in his work4 ,i would not dispute this statement1 but it is important to consider what it is that finds expression in one's work4 ,if work1 in addition to being the means to some material end or bodily good1 is also to be a form of self-expression1 then the point of interest is the kind of selfhood1 or quality of experience expressed4 ,then work exists for education1 not education for work4 ,something is possible to mankind1 which transcends work and by which work itself is valued4 ,as mere craftsmen we lose the sense of what good workmanship is and become the blind slaves of necessity or of desire the moment that education ceases to be the goal of labor4 ,i do not mean merely that we learn by doing4 ,that is the way animals learn and it is all they learn4 ,by repeated performance an individual learns how to do a task1 but he does not thereby learn what to do1 nor why it is done4 ,education has to do with insight1 with valuing1 with understanding1 with the development of the power of discrimination1 the ability to make choice amongst the possibilities of experience and to think and act in ways that distinguish men from animals and higher men from lower4 ,the ancients thought of education as the attainment of the virtues1 wisdom1 courage1 temperance1 justice4 ,it is the pursuit of that knowledge which gives self-mastery4 ,it is an interest which is never exhausted1 but grows always broader and richer4 ,it consists not in learning tricks but in developing ourselves4 ,it is a victory won in some secret chamber of the mind which gradually transforms the whole personality and reveals itself as an indefinable quality in every word and act4 ,it is a spiritual awakening2 and if this awakening does not come1 a person is not being educated however much he knows4 ,i think it is the inability to win this psychological victory1 or the disinclination to make the effort necessary to it1 that accounts for the fact that some people cannot be educated4 ,though the change in the quality of the personality is indefinable1 it is a very concrete fact in human life4 ,its presence is evident in the work of writers as different otherwise as ,sir ,thomas ,more1 ,galsworthy1 ,anatole ,france1 ,jonathan ,edwards1 ,henry ,adams1 etc4 ,there is a quality of the educated mind which may best be described as a kind of sincerity1 and conversely the outstanding trait of ignorance is that of clever insincerity4 ,the pathetic thing about the wrongly educated1--those who are trained merely to produce an effect1 or get results1 is that in the deeper human relationships they seldom know what sincerity is4 ,education is the antithesis of vulgarity4 ,directly and immediately1 it is useless4 ,it is a kind of living which is of value for its own sake1 a personal achievement which possesses intrinsic worth4 ,it is not for anything4 ,to subject it to an ulterior end--citizenship1 efficiency1 the economic emancipation of the working class1 increased income2 or to educate people for 8character10 or to perpetuate a religious faith1 or any other purpose however good1 is to make education a means to something quite irrelevant4 ,such misuse shows that people are not interested in their education but in something else4 ,education1 the development of people1 is not a means1 it is itself the true end of civilization4 ,while education is not for anything1 indirectly it improves everything that people do4 ,make education the aim and meaning of living1 and all becomes different4 ,experience has a new center of gravity4 ,facts fall into new and more significant perspective4 ,objects1 distinctions1 relationships1 qualities1 are seen which before passed unnoticed4 ,and as personality does not exist in a vacuum but in the relationships established between organism and environment1 no improvement of it can fail to make itself felt in the quality of one's work4 ,animal training may give one the means to make a living2 liberal education gives living a meaning4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,liberal ,,education ,,vs4 ,,propaganda ,whoever is concerned about his education should be on his guard against propaganda4 ,he who assists in the education of another should be doubly cautious4 ,the temptation to convert people to our own particular cause1 movement or belief is almost irresistible4 ,an epidemic itch for manipulating the public has infected the whole population4 ,perhaps never was the business of 8selling0 ideas and interests of all sorts so common a practice or so cleverly done4 ,press agents1 publicity experts1 advertisers and propagandists have become a pest4 ,much of the news is 8treated0 for interests which may or may not be disclosed4 ,militarists1 pacifists1 prohibitionists1 birth controlists1 social workers1 business interests1 anti-vivisectionists1 radicals1 reactionaries and all kinds of reformers insinuate themselves everywhere like crawling insects4 ,every legislative body is over-run with lobbyists4 ,every government1 our own included1 fights with propaganda as deadly as poison gas4 ,churches have reduced even the spreading of the gospel to the level of advertising4 ,and to judge by the popularity of one of the vulgarest books ever written about the founder of ,christianity1 a large number of churchmen are happy to believe that ,jesus ,christ was the world's greatest salesman and business executive6 ,it ought not to be necessary to say that propaganda is not education4 ,but the confusion of the two is common4 ,it is often very difficult to enlist the interest of people even in their own education if the propagandist motive is left out of it4 ,i find that our students are often at first perplexed4 ,they ask me1 8,what party or creed or social movement do you represent8 ,what are you trying to convert us to80 ,i have even been asked why ,i lecture at all1 if it is not my purpose to tell students what they should think and do4 ,the idea of a course of study as an adventure in truth-seeking1 an investigation deliberately planned without made-in-advance conclusions or ulterior aims1 is difficult for many minds4 ,if no partisan motive is apparent1 students often suspect that there must be some dark and secret conspiracy4 ,people like to have their instructors labeled and tagged4 ,otherwise they feel that they are not being given anything4 ,they prefer to be told what to think4 ,and of course everyone wishes to tell his fellows what to think4 ,the general interest in our neighbor's 8education0 rather than our own is responsible for much of the present confusion of education with propaganda4 ,this is especially true in the education of children4 ,scarcely one person in ten believes children should be told the truth4 ,children are credulous and easily acquire habits which become fixed for life3 hence the tendency to take advantage of their innocence and while giving them the instruction which it is now recognized that society owes them1 to add something which certain people wish them to believe when they grow up4 ,consequently there has hardly ever been a time when education was not to some extent diverted into propagandist channels4 ,governments and churches and ruling classes and commercial groups have always sought to get their hands on the institutions for the education of youth and utilize them for their own interests4 ,the tendency is universal4 ,radicals denounce the ,fundamentalists1 the capitalists and the ,catholic ,church for doing this sort of thing1 and then do the same thing themselves2 as for example1 in the revolutionary propaganda that sometimes passes as 8worker's education10 the socialist ,sunday ,school1 the system of public education in ,soviet ,russia4 ,the habit of speaking of propaganda as if it were education has grown with the activities of the advertising profession and other expert manufacturers of public opinion4 ,anyone with anything to sell 8educates0 the public to buy his product4 ,the word is so commonly used for advertising that few question the legitimacy of such use4 ,in fact the popularity of this use of the word education has a definite psychological cause4 ,many people would like to get their education by the easy method of reading subway advertisements4 ,it is pleasant moreover to feel that we are being educated when we glance at the billboards on the way from ,new ,york to ,philadelphia or look over the back pages in the ,saturday ,evening ,post4 ,i once heard an editor of a farm journal boast that his paper had educated the housewives of his state to buy cereal in packages rather than in bulk4 ,a recent well-written book on the psychology of advertising by a gentleman who styles himself a 8,public ,relations ,counsel0 explains the technique of making propaganda4 ,the author refers to such propagandist efforts as education1 and says that the difference between education and propaganda is this3 when your side of the case is given publicity1 that is education2 when your opponent publishes his side1 that is propaganda4 ,it is doubtful1 however1 if members of the advertising profession are the worst sinners in this respect4 ,nearly everyone with a cause to promote does the same4 ,we often hear single-taxers1 socialists1 patriotic societies1 or vegetarians1 speak of their propaganda as education4 ,in the report on the prohibition situation issued by the ,federal ,council of ,churches of ,christ in ,america1 the suggestion is made that there be a campaign of 8education0 in the interest of the enforcement of the ,volstead ,act4 ,although the educator and the propagandist are both concerned with the dissemination of information1 they have nothing else in common4 ,they use contrary methods and they strive for opposite goals4 ,the propagandist is interested in what people think2 the educator in how they think4 ,the propagandist has a definite aim4 ,he strives to convert1 to sell1 to secure assent1 to prove a case1 to support one side of an issue4 ,he is striving for an effect4 ,he wishes people to come to a conclusion2 to accept his case and close their minds and act4 ,the educator strives for the open mind4 ,he has no case to prove1 which may not later be reversed4 ,he is willing to reconsider1 to be experimental1 to hold his conclusions tentatively4 ,the result for which he strives is a type of student who will not jump at the propagandist's hasty conclusions or be taken in by his catchwords4 ,to the one 8learning0 is passively accepting something2 criticism of the matter offered is not encouraged4 ,to the other1 learning comes by examining4 ,the propagandist need have no respect for the personalities of those he manipulates4 ,the educator must respect his student1 since the development of personality is his aim4 ,in the end the question is whether people are to be used for purposes other than their own4 ,this is the sole object of the propagandist2 its successful achievement is the defeat of the educator4 ,even in the service of a good cause1 propaganda makes for superficiality in both him who gives and him who receives it4 ,the convert has seen the light4 ,he is on the right side4 ,he need have no more doubts or hesitation4 ,curiosity and further speculation are no longer necessary4 ,reasoning henceforth can become special pleading--mere rationalization1 an array of clever plausibilities designed to strengthen the faith and protect the devotee against the danger that he may change his mind4 ,he now becomes a propagandist himself1 a lay preacher as it were1 whose mission in life is to convert and uplift others4 ,he begins to harp on one string4 ,in his eagerness to convince he resorts to the obvious1 the thing said for effect4 ,he is more concerned with the force of his arguments than with the accuracy of his statements4 ,he is so busy with the general good that he neglects to purify himself4 ,with unwashed hands he breaks his bread and serves it to his neighbors4 ,i have seldom seen a person who has spent years making converts1 who has not lost in intellectual integrity4 ,emerson noted this trait in the abolitionists of his day4 ,it is a quality which world menders of all types have in common4 ,sooner or later the passion to convert1 like any other passion over-indulged1 warps the whole personality4 ,the propagandist becomes intemperate4 ,he loses something in delicacy and sense of humor4 ,there is in his manner a mixture of emotion and coercion and a kind of slyness4 ,finally from much repetition of stock phrases the great cause itself becomes hackneyed and professionalized4 ,most of the messages which men would carry to the masses slip through the propagandists' fingers and dribble out before they arrive at their destination4 ,i have tried to make clear the differences between propaganda and education4 ,if ,i am correct1 it follows that whenever the educator becomes a propagandist he gives up his proper function4 ,i do not mean that a school teacher should not advocate political change or any other reform he chooses4 ,he is a citizen as well as a teacher1 and has the right to express his convictions1 however unpopular they may be4 ,but it is not as a teacher that he does so4 ,ordinarily the public insists that there are certain views that he may not express either in or outside his class-room4 ,at the same time he is required to be the advocate of popular moral1 religious and political prejudices1 however erroneous he knows them to be4 ,public education suffers much from this lack of freedom1 for it operates to keep independent minds out of the teaching profession4 ,unless any subject may be presented and every relevant fact discussed without fear or favor1 the instruction offered students is a cheat4 ,it is however in the process of teaching itself that the spirit of the propagandist may supplant that of the educator4 ,it is much easier to appeal to authority than to experiment1 to command assent than to awaken curiosity1 to tell the student what he must believe than to wait for the maturing of his judgment4 ,there are five devices commonly in use among propagandists which may defeat the effort for a liberal education4 ,they are the fixation of ideas by repetition1 the trick of over-simplification1 insinuation by appeal to prejudice1 distortion of fact1 and coercion4 ,psychology has taught the advertising profession the selling power of mere monotonous repetition4 ,at one of the stations of the ,hudson ,tube ,i counted five posters all displaying the same advertisement of a certain shaving cream4 ,the advertiser had not leased so much space because of extravagance1 nor was he afraid that people would fail to notice his advertisement if he displayed it on only one board4 ,it was so large and vivid that the passerby could easily see it4 ,his aim was to deepen the impression by repetition4 ,for the same reason a flashing intermittent electric sign on which the same letters are illuminated again and again is more effective than one with a continuous light4 ,another example of this method is the poster containing the name of a popular cigarette together with the command1 8,read this out loud40 ,advertisement of this nature makes no attempt to argue or explain or persuade1 or to call attention to the merit of the article for sale4 ,many commodities in common use owe their popularity not to the fact that people are persuaded that they are superior to a rival but because a trade word has become fixed in memory through endless repetition4 ,a similar method is often used in selling ideas and movements4 ,santayana says1 8,a confused competition of propaganda is carried on by the most expert psychological methods--for instance1 by always repeating a lie instead of retracting when it is exposed4 ,a formula of this nature may not be a conscious lie1 it need only be so fixed in the mind by long repetition that it becomes compulsive4 ,the person who continues repeating it becomes unable to consider the facts which would contradict it40 ,thus the religious propagandist will continue repeating an obsolete dogma long after its untruth is a matter of common knowledge4 ,the use which propagandists make of rumor is another example of this principle4 ,during the war we saw much of this sort of thing4 ,the wildest fabrications were accepted uncritically2 when everyone was repeating them it seemed disloyal to question their bases of fact4 ,in any political campaign the editorials and speeches are made up largely of repetitions4 ,popular moral ideas are psychologically similar2 we call them platitudes4 ,in fact public discussion which is mostly propaganda of one sort or another consists almost wholly of monotonous repetition4 ,anyone who has had experience with an open forum will1 ,i think1 agree with me that the discussion from the floor--and not unfrequently the platform also--shows an amazing monotony of repetition4 ,i have known men for years to gain the recognition of the chair and repeat the same phrases night after night1 no matter what was the subject under discussion4 ,we love routine4 ,there is ,i believe less routine learning1 less mere memory drill1 in our schools now than in former years4 ,i doubt if many students learn geography or history or the multiplication tables or ,latin grammar in the manner ,i was made to learn these subjects4 ,however1 it is not in these subjects1 which are at best the mere scaffolding of knowledge1 that humdrum does the greatest harm4 ,it is in its failure to stimulate genuine thinking about the important human interests that education commonly falls short of its liberalizing function4 ,there is a dullness about sing-song repetition of the multiplication table or the recital of the names of the rivers of ,china1 but it does not equal in monotony the uniformity with which college graduates will say the same things about politics1 the protective tariff1 the labor problem1 the constitution of the ,united ,states1 or the relation of commerce to culture4 ,i recently heard a professor1 who holds an important chair in one of our leading universities say that his institution strove not so much for scholarship as to develop a certain type of college man4 ,no doubt he had in mind a desirable type of man1 but any attempt to mould a group to a single form can succeed only at the expense of the individuality of the student4 ,moreover1 such a goal naturally causes the authorities to adopt methods of drill and standardization4 ,whenever the aim of education is fixed in advance1 it tends to propaganda and illiberalism4 ,the habit of repetition develops a credulous and incurious mind4 ,it produces a type of person who not only accepts his beliefs second-hand1 but also tends to over-simplify any subject under consideration1 and so never get to the bottom of it as an educated mind should strive to do4 ,it is very convenient to stop speculation with a half-true generalization stated as the conclusion of the whole matter4 ,we love big words2 catch phrases are easy to remember and to repeat4 ,moral and religious teachers know this1 hence their use of aphorisms4 ,one does not stop to analyze an aphorism2 it is self-evident1 final4 ,propagandists and advertisers are also aware of this human trait1 and they delight in making slogans for us4 8,i'd walk a mile for a ,camel10 8,children cry for it10 8,four out of five now lose10 are examples of a type of advertising familiar to all4 ,recently an effort was made in ,new ,york to check the 8crime wave0 with a slogan4 ,a poster addressed to potential robbers was displayed in various parts of the city containing the words1 8,you can't win40 ,a comparison of the number of convictions with the number of crimes of violence would seem to indicate that this slogan had about the same measure of truthfulness as most others4 ,slogans used in commercial advertising are for the most part innocent enough4 ,but there are slogans used in types of propaganda which are not innocent4 ,i will discuss the distortion of fact later2 my point is that the type of phrase-making we are discussing tends at best to close the mind4 ,every movement tends to dry up into a verbal cult with a fixed phraseology the repetition of which seems to satisfy the adherents' hunger for truth4 ,the thinking of most men consists of little more than the repetition of the phrases which characterize the group to which they belong4 ,there are groups which regularly assemble to listen to their familiar verbal formulas repeated again and again1 deriving much satisfaction from the time-worn phrases4 ,any deviation from regularity or omission of any part is resented in the same spirit that caused primitive men to hold that any deviation from the magic ritual was sinful4 ,it was the observation of this wide-spread trait in many forms that led me to the conclusion that there is practically only one soap-box speech on socialism1 one address on the principles of the single tax1 one revival sermon1 one type of campaign speech for each party4 ,at least ,i find that most members of any movement all say the same thing4 ,if one knows what kind of an 8ist0 a man happens to be and is familiar with the ritual of that 8ism10 one can ordinarily predict what the man will say on any subject4 ,frequently propagandists do not recognize their own principles when they hear them stated in ordinary ,english4 ,and once the cult phrases are thoroughly learned it is very difficult for an individual to learn anything more4 ,this is why the teaching of any subject should never be permitted to take on a set form1 for cult ideas reduce an issue or situation to a statement so simple that it is a mere caricature4 ,subjects that require exhaustive analysis and deep meditation or much more information than anyone possesses are settled with amazing finality by oracular-minded people4 ,how many matters of vital importance are met with such phrases as 8,one hundred percent ,american10 8,my country right or wrong10 8,every ,bolshevik should be stood up against a wall and shot10 8,plenty of room at the top10 8,reward of ,merit10 8,progressive10 8,reactionary10 8,the cure for democracy is more democracy10 8,let the people rule10 8,down with capitalist exploitation10 8,labor produces all wealth10 8,the demon rum10 8,godless evolution40 ,the habit which politicians1 professional reformers and other propagandists have of appealing to popular prejudice in order to gain adherents is a well-known phenomenon of social psychology4 ,every political campaign is an orgy of this sort of thing4 ,mayor ,hylan of ,new ,york1 when his incompetence was exposed1 diverted attention by denouncing the 8interests40 ,in the same city a few years ago those who were opposed to modernizing the public school system stirred up a large section of the population with the assertion that the 8,gary ,school0 was a ,steel ,trust school4 ,during the war men were elected to office not because of their record but according to how strenuously they professed their ,americanism and denounced alleged pro-,germans and socialists4 ,a 8friend of the people0 attacks ,wall ,street as a matter of course4 ,any man who questions the wisdom of the prohibition laws is immediately said to be in league with the 8liquor interests40 ,in prohibition propaganda effective use was made of the fact that many brewers were of ,german descent4 ,in the ,south the ,ku ,klux ,klan is mainly anti-,negro1 in the ,middle ,west it is anti-,catholic4 ,in the ,east it takes on an anti-,semitic coloring4 ,it is by such appeals that multitudes are marshalled and led first in one direction and then in another1 always to the temporary advantage of a group of leaders4 ,into all this an ulterior purpose1 a quite personal interest is often insinuated4 ,during the war ,i made a collection of advertisements in which all sorts of articles were urged upon the purchaser with the statement that in buying such goods the public was helping win the war4 ,it is obvious that whenever a crowd movement is created its propaganda has a marked illiberal influence upon institutions of learning4 ,during the war public education in this country suffered seriously4 ,a spirit of intolerance often wholly irrelevant to the winning of the war took possession of many educators4 ,eminent scientists lost their heads and ceased to behave with that good judgment which people expect of a scholar in a critical situation4 ,such results of propaganda are not limited to times of warfare4 ,i know a college where the work of every department was seriously disorganized for a semester by a religious revival in the town4 ,the pressure of religious prejudices upon institutions of learning in this country is one of the most serious forces with which education has to contend4 ,the hostility in the ,west and ,south toward the teaching of any other account of the origin of man than that contained in the book of ,genesis1 is not new4 ,it is merely the giving of legislative support to religious dogma which strikes us as new4 ,and that has also happened many times in history4 ,popular religion has always watched education with jealous eyes4 ,however1 there is one factor in the present ,fundamentalist attack upon the theory of evolution which seems to have escaped general notice4 ,there is revealed an attitude toward education in general which should give us concern because it seems to be held by many people who are not rural ,fundamentalists4 ,when those who conceived of teaching as imparting a doctrine--let us say of special creation or the authority of the ,bible--found that students were being made acquainted with biological science and its various hypotheses regarding the evolution of species1 they could not understand that science could be taught in any other spirit than that of theology4 ,they still thought of teaching as imposing upon the uncritical student mind a system of belief1 a rival creed but still something alleged to be a final truth1 which must be accepted on authority4 ,persons who speak in this manner of teaching simply do not know what education is4 ,how could a scientist go about teaching evolution in this way8 ,nobody but a propagandist ever teaches a theory4 ,the scientific laboratory itself is a witness against such a philosophy of education4 ,here the student is exposed to the phenomena to be studied1 and to the sources of information and is aided to discover the facts for himself and draw his own conclusions4 ,science learned by any other process is a mere pretense to knowledge4 ,i suspect it was not the doctrine of evolution so much as permitting the student to draw his own conclusions from the facts that most disturbed the advocates of popular religious dogma4 ,yet few people saw the issue in this light4 ,at the ,dayton trial of the instructor who broke the statute passed by the legislature of ,tennessee1 chief emphasis seems to have been laid on the issue whether after all evolution is contrary to ,genesis4 ,most people seem to have accepted without comment the ,fundamentalist notion of what teaching is4 ,the whole meaning of education is involved in this issue4 ,education is not the substitution of new creeds for old4 ,appeals to popular prejudice will continue to do harm to education so long as it is conceived of as 8teaching0 any beliefs whatsoever4 ,as long as students are to be indoctrinated1 naturally every group will wish its own propaganda taught4 ,in this connection ,i should say a word about adult education4 ,those engaged in this branch of instruction are loud in their criticism of the propaganda which passes for education in school and college4 ,many of them have turned to adult education in order to spread some propaganda of their own4 ,teachers in this field are constantly tempted to yield to the prejudices of their students in order to gain popularity and keep up attendance4 ,each type of institution or special group has its peculiar prejudices and will insist that the instruction given in its classes be so presented as to lend support to its interests and beliefs4 ,where churches maintain classes1 adult education will tend to take on a certain color4 ,it will assume another in the trade union1 still another when the appeal is to radicals4 ,we have already seen that a school of adult education may be in fact a socialist theological seminary4 ,many others merely provide continued employment for people who had been professional ,americanization propagandists in the hectic years that followed the war4 ,a favorite method among propagandists is distortion of fact4 ,it is difficult for anyone who takes an intensely partisan view of a situation to be honest with himself or careful about matters of fact4 ,respect for the truth is1 ,i think1 an acquired taste4 ,and the propagandist is a special pleader4 ,there is always the tendency to load the dice1 to over-emphasize anything that lends support and to gloss over and explain away any fact that might weaken the case4 ,rumor1 allegation1 mere surmise1 will1 if it happens to be useful1 to put out as fact established beyond the possibility of doubt4 ,an excellent example of this practice is a statement recently issued by a committee of one of the large ,protestant denominations attacking both the ,governor of the ,state and the ,mayor of ,new ,york4 ,on the occasion of the latter's visit to the ,south ,i quote a sentence or two4 8,the ,south will be interested to know ,mr4 ,walker's connection with ,new ,york's odorous prize-fighting game and with those elements in ,new ,york which are doing their best to murder ,american standards of morality4444 ,let it remember the propaganda which is systematically organized to incite to crime in the ,south and ,west in order that the prohibition law may be overthrown by these criminal activities4444 ,let it remember that ,governor ,smith and his friends were the first political group in ,america to introduce a religious issue into a convention of a political party1 an atrocious thing to do in a country where all religions stand on the same basis40 ,note how the impression is given that the ,mayor's alleged sympathy with those who wish to repeal the ,volstead ,act is a connection with propaganda systematically organized to incite to crime and undermine ,american morals4 ,the reference to ,governor ,smith is typical of much propaganda4 ,this method of championing causes is so common that it is almost impossible to get at the truth about any public question4 ,i have very little interest in what is happening in ,russia4 ,if ,i had1 ,i should not know what to believe4 ,spokesmen for both the ,bolshevists and their enemies seem to be about equally unable to tell the truth4 ,the pursuit of knowledge is the pursuit of the truth about something1 and since propaganda is not the pursuit of truth1 its influence upon educational institutions is illustrated by many of the text books on ,american ,history in common use in the ,public ,schools4 ,when attempts were made to write the account of the ,american ,revolution with fairness to both sides and1 in the light of established fact1 certain over-patriotic propagandists became much excited and thought they had discovered a pro-,british conspiracy to deliver this republic again into the clutches of the ,british monarchy4 ,subject matter which is even remotely associated with popular dogmas of religion1 morals1 patriotism1 is likely to be modified so as to appear to be in harmony with such dogmas when presented to students4 ,each religious sect has its own version of ,church history4 ,radicals who wish to hold the environment--hence the present social system--responsible for human failure1 are always inclined to accept uncritically the biological doctrine of the inheritance of acquired characters4 ,patriotism makes it almost impossible for students anywhere to gain a correct knowledge of the history of their own country4 ,the moral interest inevitably influences the study of literature4 ,we have already discussed the teaching of the classics4 ,their educational value consists chiefly in opening windows upon a way of life very different from our own4 ,it broadens our sympathy with all that is human to gain an understanding of men who were inspired by ideals often the contrary of those held sacred in our own parish4 ,yet it is just this educational value which is commonly lost in the teaching of the classics1 especially in ,puritanical communities4 ,the least significant books of antiquity1 writings like ,caesar's ,commentaries and ,cicero's political orations1 are often selected as required studies4 ,it is not an accident that the works most commonly studied are those least shocking to conventionally minded people1 not those which give the student the best account of ancient civilization4 ,likewise in the teaching of modern literature1 there is so much expurgation1 censorship1 evasion1 that most students get the impression that literature is produced by ,sunday ,school teachers for the edification of very nice people4 ,if1 as many believe1 it is best to protect younger students in this manner1 ,i think they should at least be led to understand what is happening4 ,otherwise they are likely to leave school convinced that their own one-sided and somewhat infantile view of life and letters is the correct and only possible view and so influence the public authorities to enact legislation establishing censorships over literature and art1 designed to impose their own limitations upon everyone4 ,finally when opportunity is favorable or occasion requires it1 most propagandists will resort to coercion4 ,history has revealed this fact again and again4 ,it has often been said that the martyrs of today are the persecutors of tomorrow4 ,with the possibility of the seizure of power in sight1 methods of moral suasion become irksome2 they are too slow4 ,men must be forced to do what is good for them4 ,propaganda is designed to gather a crowd to the support of an idea4 ,i have shown elsewhere that when the crowd mind appears any group will practice coercion if it can4 ,hardly a generation passed after the ,edict of ,milan1 setting ,christians free from persecution1 before the ,christians themselves practiced persecution4 ,the ,french ,revolution set up a guillotine in the name of liberty1 equality and fraternity4 ,new ,england pilgrims of religious liberty persecuted ,quakers and other 8heretics40 ,radicals proclaim their faith in industrial democracy1 free speech1 the brotherhood of man1 and the ,bolsheviks gain power by a coup d'etat1 and hold it by means of a policy of terror4 ,santayana says that the many propagandas which today float in the blue sky of liberalism are only waiting to show their true colors and resort to open attack and that whoever is victorious will make an end of liberalism4 ,when physical force is not in actual use1 it hides just around the corner4 ,in much moral suasion there is a note of intolerance and of invasion4 ,the man who knows he is right puts you always on the defensive4 ,even commercial advertising frequently reveals this spirit4 ,perhaps advertisers got the idea from the posters used by the government during the war4 ,we all remember the commanding figure of ,uncle ,sam1 finger pointed at our faces and beneath the figure the words1 8,you buy ,liberty ,bonds40 ,many advertisements now seek to command in such a manner4 ,we are ordered to buy this and that--not asked if we want it4 ,or our privacy is otherwise invaded4 ,i recently saw on a subway platform an advertisement of soap which contained these words1 8,are you clean or only nearly clean80 ,when a crowd of world reformers becomes a crusade1 men do not confine themselves to asking impertinent questions4 ,they are not even deterred by constitutional guaranties of personal rights4 ,the storm rages until it blows itself out and leaves behind only the debris of what before had been good feeling among men4 ,when a crusade is on--and there are usually several going at the same time in a democracy like ours--educational institutions are pressed into its service1 and are forced to take sides1 or at best maintain a precarious middle of the road policy4 ,this is not the task of those interested in education4 ,they are not 8in the middle of the road40 ,they are not on the trampled highway at all4 ,their task1 while others are wrangling over unreal issues that today take their toll of life and tomorrow are forgotten1 is to keep the lights of civilization burning1 to humanize their own behavior with reasonableness and good taste4 ,as ,emerson said1 history has been mean3 all nations have been mobs4 ,the populace runs after this passing cause and that popular hero4 ,to the populace your rejection of popular standards is a rejection of all standards4 ,but there is a time in each man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance1 that imitation is suicide1 that he must take himself for better or for worse4 ,all men preen themselves on the improvement of society and no man improves4 ,society never advances1 it recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other4 ,society is a wave2 the wave moves forward1 but the water of which it is composed does not4 ,whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist4 ,such a suggestion as this at once meets serious objection4 ,it is contrary to the habits of this busybody age4 ,many will ask1 how can we have done with propaganda8 ,we live in the age of publicity and organization1 of causes and needed reforms4 ,great movements challenge our complacency and invite our support4 ,what1 without these interests1 could we live for8 ,how could we accomplish anything for the common good8 ,is not the educated person as you depict him aloof and ineffective1 a monastic sort of person who disdains the common ways and devotes his days to idle contemplation8 ,and have you not yourself said again and again that intellect does not exist as a sequestered1 inactive thing or end in itself1 but that thinking is a part of doing8 ,how then can intellect be trained in indifference to the affairs of men8 ,but ,i have not argued that one seclude himself4 ,is there nothing to occupy the modern man except to stuff himself with half-truths and regulate society8 ,does existence lose its value at the mere suggestion that man mind his own business8 ,what ,i have said is that a person cannot educate himself by filling his head with propaganda4 ,i do think people of our age are too much devoted to causes and not enough to their own education4 ,perhaps ,i should say that people's devotion to causes is too narrow1 too impatient1 too uncritical4 ,doubtless we should serve our cause better if we stopped to look before we leap4 ,i am not sure that ignorance1 however devoted and active1 ever accomplishes much good for mankind4 ,i might ask in turn1 do our propagandas often get the results expected8 ,look at pacifist propaganda1 or the slogan about the war to end war1 look at socialist propaganda today after a half century and more of it1 consider prohibition4 ,the intellectuals of our generation have exhausted themselves running after this and that new sociological magic4 ,and there is a general feeling of frustration and futility4 ,where progress has been made in our times1 it has been in matters that do not lend themselves easily to propaganda2 success had been achieved in the arts and sciences4 ,intellect has failed when playing at leadership of social movements4 ,the ends sought by propaganda may be and often are good4 ,but education is also an end4 ,we are not required to occupy ourselves with any cause to the extent that we fail to educate ourselves4 ,the first social obligation of any man is his own education4 ,i am a mere muddler and a nuisance if ,i act on the principle that ,i have any obligations to society that go beyond my knowledge of means and ends and of good and evil4 ,social service should be a by-product of education4 ,i do not imagine that ,socrates or ,erasmus sought education in order that they could be more useful to society4 ,social obligation or no social obligation1 you and ,i have the right to such education as we have the native intelligence to acquire4 ,we have that right because we are the kind of animals we are4 ,no cause is more important than this4 ,let us serve where and when we can1 but let us not surrender our mental integrity for any man's sake4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,liberal ,,education ,,vs4 ,,book ,,learning ,is education something one can 8get0 in an institution8 ,we are seeking to discover what an educated person is like1--as ,plato would say1 to 8find0 the educated man4 ,whether the learning process takes place in an institution or out of it is from this point of view a matter of small interest4 ,i should like to picture the liberally educated individual as a mellow amateur1 competent and well-informed1 but with all natural and human1 wholly at ease with his knowledge and master of his technique2 one whose thinking is play and whose mind does not squeak as it runs along4 ,but there frequently appears in educational circles a professionalism that is rather formidable and terrifying4 ,i do not mean the specialized knowledge requisite for the so-called learned professions4 ,one may be highly trained professionally1 and like ,william ,james and ,mr4 ,justice ,holmes1 retain the spirit of the amateur always4 ,by professionalism ,i mean a certain artificiality of manner1 bookishness1 over-strictness in regard to petty rules1 a disposition to identify education with the display of just that knowledge which the educated are conventionally supposed to possess4 ,many people think of education as something 8high-brow10 a fastidiousness which belongs to the lite4 ,there are those who give the impression that education is a thing of books and schools and formalities2 and that there is a recognized fraternity of the finished products of the system4 ,as proof that one belongs to this fraternity there are degrees and credits which show that the candidate has passed certain examinations and has done a required amount of reading4 ,we have seen that people may seek education because they hope it will give them a certain prestige4 ,i once heard a man say1 8,i'd give ten thousand dollars if ,i only knew ,greek40 ,i wondered why ,greek had such value in his eyes4 ,i learned that he had been in the company of two elderly men1 one a clergyman and the other a physician4 ,he was humiliated because of his ignorance when the two fell to discussing some ,greek text reminiscent of college days4 ,it never occurred to him that he could secure a few text books and acquire this coveted knowledge in his spare time whenever he chose to do so4 ,people persist in thinking that education comes to a man by virtue of his attendance at some place where it may be 8got40 ,we frequently hear someone say1 8,i had so many years of ,latin10 or 8,i took mathematics10 or 8,i did not get much history40 ,formal education1 which is book knowledge acquired in a school1--this possession which men measure and grade and standardize1--may or may not be an aid to general culture4 ,the thing ,i mean by liberal education is too elusive for the man with the yard stick4 ,with the modern theories of learning there has come some difference of opinion regarding the educational value of books4 ,traditional education consisted almost wholly of book knowledge4 ,knowledge of the books written about a subject was rated as familiarity with the subject itself4 ,there is a recent tendency1 both within and without institutions of learning1 to skim over as many as possible of the latest books4 ,this leaves little or no time for the great books1 knowledge of which is essential to a liberal education4 ,in the library of a very up-to-date writer on sociological and economic subjects1 ,i did not find a single book1 except a few school texts1 written before nineteen hundred4 ,modern writers all seem to desire to express the movements of the day4 ,but it is difficult to see how one's judgment of the present can be very sound1 if one has no background of the cultural traditions of the race4 ,ideas of life gained from an exclusive study of the present are necessarily second-rate4 ,professor ,john ,erskine says1 8,to live only in the moment1 to imagine only one's own place was once thought to be the fate of the stupid4 ,we have made it the ideal of education4444 ,no college is liberal which trains its students to identify the excellent or the important exclusively with the contemporary40 ,he says that education should prejudice us in favor of authors who are wise1 and that there have not been many great men nor many great ideas4 ,one may acquire a liberal education from the reading of relatively few books4 8,the ,student 444 ought to know ,hobbes2 he ought to know ,pascal1 and ,plato and ,bacon and ,homer1 and ,spinoza and ,galileo1 and ,leonardo da ,vinci40 ,and ,i would add that anyone pursuing his education ought to know ,erasmus and ,montaigne1 ,butler's 8,hudibras10 and something of ,hume1 ,voltaire1 ,anatole ,france1 and the best of the classic poets4 ,this is not a great deal of reading4 ,it can moreover be done in a leisurely manner1 and this is important4 ,our modern habit of cluttering up the mind with all sorts of second-rate1 up-to-date printed matter accounts in part for the jumpiness and hectic quality of the modern spirit4 ,no one seems to take time for quiet reflection any more4 ,everyone is too busy keeping up-to-date1 gaining a superficial knowledge of the latest thing1 and before we can pause to separate the true from the false in it1 it is already out of date and something still more 8modern0 is the fashion4 ,there is a tendency among very modern educators to reduce book learning to a minimum4 ,it is said that book knowledge is only hear-say1 second-hand information4 ,the student does not make a fact his own so long as he must take someone's word for it4 ,what books tell you prevents your finding out for yourself4 ,you know an emotion only when you feel it1 a fact when you deal with it1 a truth when you discover it4 8,we learn by doing40 ,a leading progressive educator says1 8,the school of tomorrow is going to get away from mere reciting what has been got from books4 ,that is1 we are going to give up the notion that the school is the place where we assign certain set tasks and the child goes off and prepares those things and then comes back to convince us that he has done what was required4444 ,in the school of the future1 the child is going to live1 really live4 ,this means what he learns he learns because he needs it then and there40 ,this rather extreme form of protest against formal book learning is really an attempt to correct the opposite extreme4 ,we all know persons1 conventionally educated1 who substitute reading for living1 and the book for reality4 ,there are those who never talk about events or ideas1 but always quote what some book says about them1 as if they believed that work1 love1 joy1 pain1 became fit subjects of contemplation only in print4 ,the world of actions and things gives way to a world of words only4 ,human existence becomes a sort of grown-up children's game of authors4 ,education becomes an evasion of the challenge of real situations4 ,emotion and fancy are exhausted in doing nothing4 ,it becomes preferable to read about things than to experience them4 ,the individual thinks he has acquired wisdom2 he merely has a taste for reading and a good memory4 ,in these days when educators are frantically striving to find some new method of teaching which will save democracy from mediocrity1 it is the habit to blame the older education for any and all intellectual futility4 ,i believe1 however1 that futile persons would be ineffective no matter what the method of instruction4 ,the statement quoted above to the effect that in the schools of the future the children are going to live and are to stop reciting required lessons and learn what they need 8here and now10 is a little like the platitude that one can learn more out of life than out of books1 a saying which always flatters the illiterate4 ,it seems to be thoroughly modern to believe that the best way to get an education is to stop studying and just live1--whatever that is4 ,i am of the opinion1 however1 that anyone who can learn from life can also learn from books without spoiling his mind4 ,there is a difference between learning from books and merely learning to repeat passages from them1 and ,i had thought that in really learning from books one was learning from life4 ,whether one can get more information from books than from things depends somewhat on the books1 also what it is one wishes to learn1 as well as one's capacity to learn4 ,manipulation of objects--doing--has no more educational value than repeating words4 ,either may become a mere routine exercise4 ,education is the organization of knowledge into human excellence4 ,it is not the mere possession of knowledge1 but the ability to reflect upon it and grow in wisdom4 ,it would seem that as few people acquire wisdom from practical experience as from books4 ,the high-school educated multitude1 which prefers the radio to reading1 finds the tales of classic literature tedious except when presented in the 8movies10 reads history only in outline1 and natural science only when popularized in a series of ,,abc books1 is probably correct in its feeling that books cannot teach it much2 and what it is learning from life is manifest in the sort of life it lives4 ,the habit of reading good books1 ability to know the good ones from the inferior1 capacity to enjoy books for the beauty and wisdom that may be found in them1 are essential parts of a liberal education4 ,a school that implants good habits of discriminating reading in its students is a good school4 ,one that fails to do this is a bad school4 ,the modern educational system has taught the public to read1--and the public reads mostly trash4 ,that education in a so-called democracy may be official and professionalized and at the same time superficial and illiberal is manifest4 ,thomas ,davidson1 a pioneer teacher of adults in this country1 expressed great hope in the promise of public education in ,america4 ,but there is one fact about such intellectual life as there is in this country which seems to have escaped ,davidson's attention1 ,i suppose because his own case was an exception4 ,it is a fact which ,i believe may be one of the causes of the small influence which learning exerts in the daily life and thought and preferences of our people4 ,thousands of people say that their education is of no use to them in later years4 ,it is an interest which they do not keep up but leave behind at the school-house door4 ,they think that education belongs properly in the school1 and except for some practical advantage most people seldom think of making any cultural achievement of their own outside the school4 ,most advance in scholarship in this country is the work of professionals1 members of university faculties4 ,outside the institutions of learning1 there is very little independent creative thought4 ,exception must be made of our literary men1 but these too are professionals4 ,there are almost no men of leisure who carry on the progress of civilization as educated amateurs4 ,in this respect we are much like ,germany before the war1 where advance in scholarship was almost confined to the universities and the attempt was made to create knowledge by the machinery of organized research4 ,an example of the situation in our country is to be found in the fact that almost every member of the ,american ,philosophical ,association is a ,ph4,d4 and a teacher of philosophy in a degree-granting institution4 ,it might almost be said that philosophy1 beyond the merest introduction to the subject1 is studied in order that students may become teachers of still other teachers4 ,i suspect that a similar situation exists in other learned societies4 ,this confinement of scholarship to the professional student leaves the public without guidance and at the mercy of quacks4 ,it causes a break between education and other interests which the public school strives in vain to bridge over1 because in such a situation the school itself becomes official and sequestered4 ,thus education is constantly being done up in little packages and sent out from the places where it is grown1 like the garden seeds which ,congressmen used to send to their constituents and which nobody planted4 ,education does not take root because nobody plants it4 ,people think that culture is the special function of the professional gardeners1 and there are even educators who would be astonished and jealous if they saw anything but elementary scholarship growing at large outside their walls4 ,in this respect1 it seems to me1 ,great ,britain has had the advantage4 ,many of her greatest contributions to science and philosophy came from outside the regular university faculties4 ,such men as ,hobbes1 ,milton1 ,bacon1 ,locke1 ,hume1 ,spencer1 ,mill and ,darwin may have received conventional training1 but they went out and did something with it afterwards4 ,they helped create an ideal of the educated man which we have yet to gain4 ,hence ,great ,britain has had many amateur scholars who were also men of affairs1 men like ,mr4 ,balfour and the ,haldanes1 whose influence has helped keep education from being over-professionalized4 ,some of the highest educational attainments in history have been reached without the setting up of any institution at all1 in our sense of the term4 ,protagoras1 ,socrates1 and ,abelard simply gathered groups of fellow students about them who lived for years in their company1 first as disciples then as assistants4 ,such education to be sure was for the selected few1 but after a man had spent some time with his teacher1 he acquired a philosophy which changed his way of life4 ,the modern attempt to educate everyone really educates hardly anyone4 ,the public school imparts a certain elementary instruction--in eight or ten years about as much as a normally intelligent youth could master in two years if he set his mind to it4 ,in matters of taste and standards of value1 public school education makes little difference2 or in developing thirst for knowledge1 tolerance1 independence of judgment4 ,the task of giving instruction to the youth of an entire community is so great that thoroughness is almost impossible4 ,the task falls to the state1 and the state is a vested interest and the protector of other vested interests1 interests which are not always consistent with the desire for knowledge4 ,there are factions in the community which the public authorities must conciliate4 ,we have seen what can happen to the teaching of biology and history when such factions become organized to control the public education of a state4 ,public servants are nowhere eager to have education so free to pursue its proper function that there is developed an alert and critically minded public to whom they must justify certain of their practices4 ,what the state desires of education is soldiers1 reliable voters1 law-abiding citizens1 contented working men1 prosperous traders4 ,hence a spirit of docility and credulity1 often of timidity1 prevails in the school4 ,where there are large numbers in attendance1 the individual student receives little personal attention4 ,the education of backward students is sometimes given more consideration than that of the normally intelligent4 ,the chief aim is to get the student through and pass him along to the next grade1 and the pace at which the instructor moves is set by the mediocre4 ,whether this state of affairs will be remedied by the use of intelligence tests remains to be seen4 ,at present mental measurement is a sort of fad4 ,the system requires that all shall learn the same lesson in the same manner at the same time4 ,standardization develops a kind of mass mind1 which in mature years renders men very susceptible to crowd appeal4 ,learning imposed upon the student by the system is put on the outside like a mental uniform4 ,habits become stereotyped in the elementary1 non-reflective aspects of behavior and knowledge4 ,there is little in this to guide the student to the spiritual values of a liberal education4 ,most of those who pass through the system never know that such values exist4 ,the public school system is a great bureaucracy with autocracy at the top and deference to authority all the way down through the hierarchy of superintendents1 principals1 and instructors1 to the students4 ,the administrator holds dominion over the teacher4 ,little is left to personal initiative4 ,any system which requires little responsibility of its employees but much deference to petty authority in time comes to be filled with persons to whom such servitude is not irksome4 ,serious scholarship is rare4 ,the teacher is not encouraged to independence of judgment concerning the subject which for years it is his work to teach4 ,teaching becomes a trade and is practised with as little intellectual interest as most trades4 ,other than idealizing the existing situation together with whatever persons or interests control the school system1 little attention is given to the social setting into which the school sends its students when they leave4 ,dr4 ,kallen says1 8,free public education and private instruction purchasable at a price are both but the community's device to meet present needs by transmitting the past unchanged4 ,they provide a grammar of assent1 not a logic of inquiry4 ,the mental posture they habituate the youth in is not the posture of reflection4 ,the mental posture they habituate the youth in is the posture of conformity4 ,they require belief1 not investigation4 ,they impose reverence for the past and idealization of the present4 ,they envision the future as a perpetuation of the past1 not as a new creation of it4 ,they are ,main ,street's most powerful instrument of self-reproduction without variation4444 ,they enable government both visible and invisible to continue by consent1 for they forestall and inhibit in the citizens of the land the technique of doubt and dissent which is the necessary condition of good government and the true inwardness of that eternal vigilance so notoriously the price of liberty40 ,here and there1 in spite of the system1 someone gets his feet on the path which leads to liberal education4 ,but in general it cannot be said that the public school has realized the dreams of those who in the early nineteenth century hoped that free universal education would place democratic institutions on the solid foundations of enlightened public opinion and general respect for truth4 ,it was believed that the curse of ignorance would be removed2 that humbug and insolence would be driven from the control of affairs2 that labor would be ennobled by understanding1 and freedom secured by the attainment of self-mastery4 ,all were now to have access to scholarship2 the precious wisdom of the great minds of all times1 no longer the possession of the favored few1 should be made to live in the daily experience of the nations4 ,we are not so utopian in our hopes for the future of society as were the ,humanitarian idealists of the nineteenth century4 ,perhaps people have expected too much of public education and have required too little4 ,we need not be astonished that the education of the public is committed to a system which becomes an end in itself2 that is human4 ,nor need we be astonished that public education is administered and carried on by persons most of whom do not know what education is2 that is the democratic way of dealing with public affairs4 ,if you are to get your education1 whoever you are you must not be content to let it be a public affair4 ,you must make it your private affair4 ,severe criticism of both the public school and the university is common4 ,there is much talk about capitalistic influence1 and the denial of academic freedom by prominent business men who contribute to endowments and constitute boards of trustees4 ,in so far as this criticism comes from professional radical propagandists it need not be taken very seriously4 ,such persons merely want their own propaganda included in the curriculum4 ,university presidents no doubt often play politics and do other things common to professional money-raisers4 ,faculties are often little more than pedantic trade unions1 and if we are to judge the colleges of the country by the number of first-rate scholars who graduate from them or by the extent of their influences as a whole on the cultural standards of the country1 we may well question whether higher education in ,america succeeds any better than the public school4 ,but ,i wonder why so much criticism is directed at trustees and faculties and so little at the students4 ,the habit of constantly denouncing someone because we are not better educated is rather ludicrous4 ,if our people really desire education they can have it4 ,if ,i am dissatisfied with my ignorance1 ,i may seek knowledge at any time1 and no one else1 in or out of college1 can ever gain wisdom for me4 ,anyone who has kept up his interest in his education after graduation knows that what is learned in school and college is at best a small part of it--merely the beginning of an education4 ,anyone who does not continue his studies through the years of a busy life and thinks that the brief introduction to the tools of scholarship which he received in his adolescence is education1 should apologize to his college1 not criticize it4 ,granted that there is much bad teaching1 there is more bad studying1--or ,i should say1 hardly any studying at all4 ,professor ,james ,harvey ,robinson used to say1 8,a college is a place where there is much teaching and no learning40 ,is it not possible that a large portion of the population cannot be educated8 ,such persons are not all necessarily dull1 they may be naturally uninterested in education1 and it is likely that many enter institutions of learning with the mistaken notion that it is education they desire1 when what they really want is success1 a good time1 and a little training in what they think are the manners and ways of speech of polite society4 ,the finishing school once supplied this need2 now the colleges have to do it4 ,the motives which lead people to seek college education divide the students into three types4 ,first there are the few who love learning4 ,the spirit which once caused groups of young men to follow ,abelard or ,erasmus still brings an occasional youth to college4 ,such students may need guidance1 advice and the fellowship of mature scholars4 ,it is not necessary to force them to study1 or offer them 8snap courses10 or cram them for examination4 ,much of the procedure and regulation--the regimentation common in institutions of learning--is unnecessary and sometimes harmful to them4 ,most of them would become educated persons even if they never saw a college class-room4 ,a second type of student attends college and university in large numbers4 ,the motive is preparation for a professional career4 ,many of the best students belong to this type4 ,whether in addition to their professional training they ever gain a liberal education--we have seen that the two are not necessarily the same--will depend largely upon what they do after they get their degrees4 ,if they then have an interest in educating themselves1 their technical training ought to be an advantage1 for most of them have learned how to study4 ,but so much purely technical knowledge must be drilled into a man's head that the student who is preparing for a degree in engineering1 law1 medicine or scientific research has very little time for anything else4 ,many of the most successful physicians1 engineers and scientists need adult education quite as much as do ordinary working men4 ,the third type1 the majority of undergraduate students1 are for the most part pleasant young men and women of the upper middle class4 ,their parents are 8putting them through college0 because it is the expected thing to do4 ,a man wishes to give his children every advantage4 ,while a bachelor's degree is not exactly a social necessity1 there are many who would have something like an inferiority complex without it4 ,i knew one family in ,new ,york ,city who almost went into mourning when the only son failed in his ,harvard entrance examinations4 ,students of this type enjoy four happy years1 largely at public expense1 with other young people of their own age in an environment designed to keep them out of mischief4 ,i have no doubt this grown-up kindergarten life is good for them2 most of them seem to appreciate it4 ,in later years they remain enthusiastically loyal to ,alma ,mater1 coming back to football games and class reunions and contributing to the support of the college4 ,as alumni their influence is not always on the side of progress in education1 but perhaps they make up for this failure in other ways4 ,i am prepared1 moreover1 to say that the existence of hundreds of centers filled with such care-free young people may be a good thing for the country4 ,they keep alive a tradition of good cheer and of man's right to happiness in a country that is otherwise sordidly commercial4 ,a leisure class is a social necessity for it serves as an example to other people showing them how to enjoy their idle hours4 ,the ,english aristocracy with its horse races and other out-door sports has done much to make life interesting to all classes in that otherwise factory-ridden country1 and its example has been followed by people in other lands4 ,now about the only leisure class we have in ,america is the undergraduate student body4 ,a privileged class is always popular with the rest of the population in a normally constituted state4 ,and so the whole country enjoys vicariously the amusements of its undergraduate boys and girls4 ,the college youth with his automobile1 his pipe1 and his big fur coat is a favorite hero in the motion pictures4 ,moreover1 the fact that the period of loafing is limited to four years is a blessing1 for by taking turns a greater number may enjoy the privilege than the industry of the country could possibly support in permanent idleness4 ,but while all this may be good for the country1 it is not very good for the colleges4 ,it is bad for the morale of any institution to sail under false colors1 and colleges are popularly supposed to be educational institutions4 ,the college faculties themselves must to some extent share this popular delusion1 or else they would not permit the public to go on believing it4 ,the attempt to live up to this erroneous idea puts everybody under a strain1 students and faculty alike1 and is the one unpleasant thing about college life4 ,instructors are forever annoying the students1 trying to get some work out of them4 ,attendance on classes is required1 and a series of examinations is arranged which nobody enjoys and which do no good anyway4 ,they only make it necessary to send an occasional student home1 and then there are tears1 other students are frightened and sometimes lose sleep cramming for the next examination1 and the instructor loses popularity1 especially if his course is an elective one4 ,it is among this type of undergraduates that 8campus opinion0 has its origin4 ,campus opinion is distinctly hostile to learning1 and it holds sway over students with the same tenacity as other crowd ideas among the uneducated elements of the population4 ,the student who takes his education seriously loses caste and is regarded as a joke4 ,few young people are sufficiently non-gregarious to stand out against the scornful laughter of their fellows4 ,what the average student gets from college1 then1 is an opportunity to complete his adolescence in an interesting and healthy environment1 the experience of being away from home and on his own1 and fraternity and club life--pleasant in itself--in which friendships are formed that last through life and are often useful business connections in after years4 ,there is also athletics1 through which the student may develop his muscles1 gain the desirable moral quality of good sportsmanship1 and satisfy any ambition he may have to become a college hero4 ,one always becomes famous in college outside the class-room1 never in it4 ,incidentally1 if a student is naturally clever at picking up bits of information with a minimum of reading1 he gains a bowing acquaintance with about as much knowledge as should be the possession of one with a fair secondary education4 ,finally1 he forms certain habits and acquires certain manners and tastes which mould him to the type of the average college graduate1 and goes out in the world to take his place in the social and business circles of his home town1 where1 if he should ever mention ,aristotle1 people would think he was crazy4 ,the college graduate can play a good game of tennis1 wear his clothes well1 talk about the latest novel1 walk across a room with grace and dignity1 and share the club opinions of his set1 and there is nothing offensive in his table manners4 ,i do not mean to underrate these accomplishments4 ,the person who does not have them1 however great his achievement in scholarship1 is a boor1 too lacking in sensitiveness to assimilate the knowledge he has stored in his head4 ,but these are accomplishments that should be learned at home1 as a matter of course2 colleges ought not to be necessary for training of this sort4 ,wherein the education of the average college graduate fails of its true ends is seen in what might be called the deeper things of the spirit4 ,no profound intellectual passion has been awakened1 no habit of independent judgment formed4 ,the college man shares the usual popular prejudices of his community4 ,he runs with the crowd after the hero of the hour1 and shows the same lack of discrimination as do the uneducated4 ,he votes the same party ticket1 is intolerant along with his neighbors1 and puts the same value on material success as do the illiterate4 ,his education has made very little difference in his religious beliefs1 his social philosophy1 his ethical values1 or his general outlook on the world4 ,like all opinionated and half-educated people1 he jumps to hasty conclusions1 believes what others believe1 does things because others do them1 worships the past1 idealizes the present4 ,in contrast with this1 let me quote a passage from ,john ,stuart ,mill4 ,the author meant it to be a description of the scientist4 ,it stands as a suggestion of what a liberally educated mind should be4 8,to question all things2--never to turn away from any difficulty2 to accept no doctrine either from ourselves or from other people without a rigid scrutiny by negative criticism2 letting no fallacy1 or incoherence1 or confusion of thought1 step by unperceived2 above all1 to insist upon having the meaning of a word clearly understood before using it1 and the meaning of a proposition before assenting to it2--these are the lessons we learn #8from workers in ,science4' ,with all this vigorous management of the negative element1 they inspire no scepticism about the reality of truth or indifference to its pursuit4 ,the noblest enthusiasm1 both for the search after truth and for applying it to its highest uses1 pervades those writers40 ,when all is said1 the ignorance and folly of men are things that institutions cannot cure4 ,each must discover the path of wisdom for himself4 ,one does not 8get0 an education anywhere4 ,one becomes an educated person by virtue of patient study1 quiet meditation1 intellectual courage1 and a life devoted to the discovery and service of truth4 ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,educational ,,value ,,of ,,doubt ,the seventh book of ,plato's ,republic begins with the ,parable of the ,cave4 ,to show 8how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened0 the philosopher draws a picture of human beings living in an underground den1 all of them from childhood chained with their backs to the light so that all they can see is moving shadows cast upon the opposite wall4 ,this world of shadows is the system of popular beliefs4 ,to these people 8the truth would be literally nothing but the shadow of images40 ,plato tells us to imagine what would happen if the prisoners were released and disabused of their error4 ,if any one of them is suddenly compelled to turn and face the light1 the glare blinds him and he suffers a sharp pain4 ,if he is reluctantly dragged up into the outside world of sunlight he is at first dazzled4 ,after he is accustomed to the new vision1 all reality will appear different4 ,he will see the difference between shadow and substance4 ,he will know that popular belief is error4 ,if now he should return1 what a difference there would be between his new wisdom and that which in the den passed for wisdom6 8,and if they were in the habit of conferring honors among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows1 and to remark which of them went before and which followed after1 and which were together1 and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future1 do you think he would care for such honors and glories8--,and if there were a contest and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den and while his eyes were yet weak10 we are told that he would fumble and be ridiculous1 and men would say1 8,up he went and down he came without his eyes10 and they would pass a law that no one should even think of ascending any more or try to release another and lead him up4 ,i will not discuss the metaphysical implications of this parable about which there is dispute4 ,plato says we shall not misapprehend him if we interpret this upward journey as education4 ,whoever would face the light must turn his back on the crowd and its shadows4 ,he must climb into another world of values4 ,the educated man thinks differently4 ,his beliefs are different from those of the herd4 ,he is being set free from its delusions1 even from what it holds to be important4 ,this is not because he wishes to be aloof or superior1 but because he is gaining a different conception of what believing itself is4 ,he has a new approach to things in general1 new habits of judging4 ,he is beginning to form his own judgments1 and to judge is to weigh1 to consider1 to question1 to seek evidence1 to doubt4 ,common men cherish their nave faiths and ask no questions4 ,they imagine that education is simply greater information of the same sort which they also possess in some measure1 and that it is the part of wisdom to establish the reality of their shadows4 ,they resent a wisdom which is different from their own and unsettles belief4 ,he who acquires information without the will to doubt is a common man and his kind understand him4 ,hence men tend to display their information and conceal their education4 ,however much a man may know1 so long as he does not become re-oriented1 the crowd does not suspect him1 but admires his learning4 ,he is like a former ,mayor of ,new ,york in his high hat at the head of the ,policeman's ,parade4 ,the multitude used to stand with their mouths open gazing at him4 ,each in imagination saw in the exalted figure himself risen to a place of honor and success4 ,so it is with the 8brainy man40 ,the 8lightening calculator0 or the man who can recite from memory the population statistics of the cities of the ,united ,states is a museum wonder4 ,but when it was announced in a ,new ,york theater that only twelve men could understand ,einstein's theory of relativity1 ,i am told that the crowd hissed4 ,information is a kind of skill4 ,everyone can possess this skill to the extent he chooses1 and people do not resent an exhibition of unusual skill of such a nature4 ,in ,america most men and boys have some measure of skill at the game of baseball1 so this game is the popular national form of sport4 ,the skillful professional ball-player is simply one of the common boyhood ideals realized4 ,he differs from the spectators of the game in degree1 but not in kind4 ,he plays the same game they all played1 and is the same sort of person they all were as boys--only more so4 ,so with most kinds of information1 the amount one may acquire makes only a quantitative difference1 not a difference in kind4 ,but as a man becomes educated he discovers that he is playing a new game2 he is becoming a different kind of person1 with different likes and dislikes1 different interests1 different ideals and faiths1 and such beliefs as he has he holds differently4 ,what the multitude most fears in education is the danger that the crowd faith will be lost in the process4 ,this fear is often justified4 ,old beliefs will be lost and they should be4 ,the fear appears in consciousness as solicitude for the spiritual welfare of the person being educated4 ,it is really anxiety over the menace of education to herd living and thinking4 ,it is the function of education to lure the individual out of the pack and give him opportunity to know his own mind1 a thing he can never do so long as he runs and barks and bites along with all the rest4 ,to return to ,plato's figure1 every person who climbs out of the cave not only loses his own faith in the reality of shadows but weakens the faith of those who remain behind4 ,cave men make strenuous efforts to resist education4 ,their common practice is to maintain their own systems of pseudo education in which no one is permitted to turn his eyes away from the wall4 ,again1 education has been likened to leaven4 ,when it is honest it is very much like yeast4 ,before the culture is introduced the solution of ideas is in equilibrium4 ,the mind has simply accepted what was poured into it by parents1 teachers1 priests1 and politicians4 ,in the solution there is reflected a compact1 8still10 neatly ordered little system of knowledge4 8,god's in his heaven1 all's right with the world40 ,duty is clear1 all is conventionally arranged1 truth is eternal and logic can prove it4 ,human rights are decreed by the founders of the republic4 ,the course of destiny is disclosed to reason and faith and the promise sealed in divine revelation4 ,at this stage1 most minds are carefully sealed up or a prophylactic is stirred in1 for if those sugary solutions are exposed to a live spiritual culture they begin to 8work40 ,then they are spoiled for certain purposes4 ,with the fermentation there is sometimes foam and gas2 but a chemical change is taking place1 brewing a mind with a 8kick0 in it4 ,it is interesting that bread and wine and education are all made by a similar process2 hence an educational ,volsteadism has often been enforced so that many of the best minds have had to be 8home brewed40 ,professor ,dewey somewhere speaks of education as freeing the mind of 8bunk40 ,it is a large task4 ,no one wholly succeeds4 ,i never saw a completely 8debunked0 individual4 ,strive as we may to eradicate it1 there is always in our thinking an amount of error1 of wish-fancy accepted as objective fact1 of exaggeration1 special pleading1 self-justification4 ,many of our beliefs are not founded in reason at all1 but are demanded by some unconscious and repressed impulse in our nature4 ,men make a virtue of their faith when in fact they are victims of it2 they can no more help believing certain things than a neurotic can stop a compulsive habit4 ,it is said that it is easy to doubt and that to believe is an accomplishment4 ,it is not so4 ,it is easier to believe than to doubt4 ,the things we must train ourselves to doubt are as a rule just the things we wish to believe4 ,it is children and savages and the illiterate who have the most implicit faith4 ,it is said that unbelief is sin4 ,this is not so2 it is nobler to doubt than to believe1 for to doubt is often to take sides with fact against oneself4 ,nietzsche said that this trait is characteristic of 8higher men40 ,it was ,huxley1 as ,i remember it1 who considered that man could in nothing fall so low as when he deliberately took refuge in the absurd4 ,even with a rationalist like ,huxley doubt is not merely a function of the intellect4 ,under certain circumstances it is a moral necessity4 ,the pursuit of knowledge is not the same1 however1 as scrupulous avoidance of error4 ,he who strives to do his own thinking must accept responsibility for himself4 ,he must expect that he will make mistakes4 ,he may end in total failure4 ,he must take his chances and be willing to pay the cost of his adventure4 ,i know professional scholars who are so afraid they may write or say something which their colleagues will show to be wrong that they never express an opinion of their own or commit themselves to any downright statement4 ,such equivocation and qualifying--playing safe--is not what ,i mean by doubt4 ,i do not mean merely that one should be always on guard against the possibility of error1 but that one should learn to hold all one's beliefs with a half-amused light-heartedness4 ,most minds are loaded down with the seriousness of their convictions4 ,solemnity in the presence of our eternal verities is awkwardness1 and makes us always a little ridiculous1 giving us the appearance of one about to shake hands with the ,president4 ,why not enjoy the humor of the situation8 ,our great truths may all the while be 8spoofing0 us4 ,it will do no harm to give them a sly wink now and then4 ,crowd men have no sense of humor4 ,it is very difficult to educate solemn and opinionated people4 ,like ,omar1 they always come out by that same door wherein they went4 ,i have known students to complete a course of study having learned nothing1 because of their disinclination to consider any fact which might cause them to surrender some belief about religion or economic theory with which they entered4 ,whoever leaves an institution of learning with the same general outlook on life that he had when he first came might better have employed his time otherwise4 ,he is not a student2 he is a church-member4 ,a well-known reformer says in his autobiography that his education1 to the present time1 has been a long process of 8un-learning40 ,the progressive disillusionment began in college when he was forced to abandon the religious dogmas of his childhood4 ,it continued through a series of hard experiences and misdirected efforts to improve the world from each of which he reaped a harvest of doubt1 leaving behind the exposure of one economic or sociological fallacy after another1 until in the end he had left only his faith in ,woodrow ,wilson and in the proletariat4 ,then he lost ,wilson4 ,perhaps one who still has the proletariat is not utterly disillusioned4 ,if the education continues that too may go the way of earlier beliefs4 ,it is one thing to despair of a society only one section of which can stand the test of our idealism4 ,it is quite another matter if one is led to re-examine one's idealism4 ,it is this latter kind of doubt which has the greater importance4 ,the significant thing is not the particular belief which a man gives up or retains but the manner in which he believes what he does believe4 ,change the latter and you change a basic habit pattern2 you change the man4 ,not all scepticism has educational value4 ,there is a kind of doubting which is merely the negative response of the unteachable1 the suspiciousness of the wilfully ignorant1 the refusal of the incurious to examine disturbing and challenging evidence4 ,there are1 as an eighteenth century philosopher said1 minds that are moulded to the form of one idea4 ,many people1 after they have accepted one idea1 tame it and keep it as a sort of watchdog to frighten all other ideas away4 ,this refusal to be convinced may appear to be scepticism2 it is only stubbornness4 ,the late ,mr4 ,bryan and his followers were very sceptical of evolution4 ,but this hostile attitude is very different from the scepticism of those scientists who hold that the theory is a mere working hypothesis which is yet to be confirmed4 ,the scepticism of ignorance is motivated by the desire to save an old faith4 ,savages have been known to exhibit this incredulity toward certain aspects of our more advanced knowledge4 ,if you were to tell the natives of ,borneo that there is no dragon in the sky which eats up the moon during an eclipse1 that there are no spirits and no magic1 ,i imagine they would laugh in your face and think you a fool4 ,many a discovery and invention has been greeted by a grinning and incredulous public even in civilized society4 ,the scepticism which has value is that which leads one on to further study and investigation4 ,and it is characterized by intellectual modesty4 ,philosophic doubt is not the pitiable condition of the soul that timid spirits imagine4 ,it is not pessimism or cynicism1 but a healthy and cheerful habit4 ,it gives peace of mind4 ,men who stop pretending can sleep o' nights4 ,there is a certain scepticism which is in no sense the spirit that denies4 ,it is a frank recognition of things as they come4 ,it is almost a test of a man's honesty1 among those who have stopped to think about the nature and limitations of our knowledge4 ,certainly cultivated people do not exhibit the same degree of cock-sureness as do the ignorant4 ,people think the old saying about 8doubting the intelligence that doubts0 is funny4 ,popular audiences will always laugh at it4 ,but why not8 ,it is a platitude that the more a man learns the more he realizes how little he knows4 ,existence is filled with inscrutable mystery4 ,to none of the profound questions that we ask of it is there any final answer4 ,we must be satisfied ultimately with surmise1 with symbol and poetic fancy4 ,speculations about the soul1 ,god1 the ultimate nature of reality and the course of destiny1 and as to whether existence has any meaning or purpose beyond our own1 or whether our life itself is worthwhile--all these speculations and many others of similar nature lead to no conclusions in fact1 and we return always to the point from which we started4 ,the very terms in which we put such questions are often meaningless when closely examined by the intellect1 and the answer to them is determined by our own moods4 ,there is a general belief that science can answer the riddle4 ,but science is only one possible view of things1 the one best adapted to the needs of creatures like ourselves4 ,it cannot deal with questions of value4 ,it can tell us how things operate1 their relative mass and positions in space and time1 but it cannot tell us what they are in themselves1 nor why they exist nor anything about their goodness or beauty4 ,the more exact scientific knowledge becomes1 the more closely it approaches mathematics4 ,pure mathematics deals only with abstractions and logical relations and can dismiss the whole world of objects4 ,science presupposes the data of experience and the validity of its own logical principles4 ,it substitutes its mechanized order of things for things as we experience them4 ,human reasoning is partial in all its processes4 ,we think successfully about things when we ignore all the aspects or qualities of them except those which are relevant to the purpose at hand4 ,the ,h,o-ness of water is no more the ultimate nature of water than is its wetness1 or its thirst quenching quality4 ,that it is ,h,o is only one of the things that may be said about water4 ,now if we add together bits of one-sided and partial scientific knowledge1 we do not thereby gain a sum total which is the equivalent of reality as a whole4 ,we have a useful instrument for dealing with our environment1 because in thought we have greatly simplified it by ignoring in each instance all that is irrelevant4 ,but what we now have is a universe of discourse1 a human construction which is what it is because we are always more interested in some aspects of things than in others4 ,all our ideas are views--they have been likened to snapshots4 ,the world of which we are part is in flux4 ,it comes to us as process1 and our intellect does not grasp the movement any more than we can restore the movement of a man running by adding together a series of photographs4 ,the movement always takes place between the pictures4 ,intellect is an instrument1 not a mirror4 ,our world is not reducible to a form of thought1 and when men speak of truth1 reality1 cause1 substance1 they are really only saying what they mean by certain words4 ,the world1 as ,james said1 has its meanings for us because we are interested spectators1 and so far as we can see none of these meanings are final4 ,whitehead and others have shown that some of the basic concepts of physical science which have held sway since the seventeenth century are now subject to revision4 ,santayana says that knowledge is faith--animal faith4 ,it would be strange if it were otherwise1 if hairy little creatures such we are1 whose ancestors lived in trees and made queer guttural noises1 should so organize human discourse as to be able to say the last word about reality as a whole4 ,it is well that we should marvel at our achievements of knowledge1 for they are man's noblest work2 but let us remember that human reason1 itself a phase and part of the process of nature1 can only view the whole process from its own partial standpoint1 and that is enough unless we aspire to infallibility4 ,man is a disputatious animal who loves to speak like ,sir ,oracle4 ,uneducated people1 ashamed of their ignorance1 commit themselves hastily and cling to their commitments1 for to change one's mind is an admission that one was mistaken4 ,we wish to be vindicated as having all along been in the right4 ,hence it is more natural to contend for a principle than to test a hypothesis4 ,the ego becomes identified with certain convictions4 ,we feel ourselves personally injured if our convictions are subjected to criticism4 ,we are not ordinarily grateful to the person who points out our errors and sets us right4 ,but if our education is to proceed1 we must get over our delusion of infallibility4 ,this fiction of infallibility is very common1 and those who have not learned to doubt this fiction1 who are sure that they have the truth and are on the side of the right are as a rule the more ignorant and provincial elements of the population4 ,it is no accident that ,fundamentalism1 prohibition1 and other forms of moral regulation exist in inverse ratio to urbanity and have their strongholds in rural communities4 ,people to whom it never occurs to ask how they know so clearly they are right when better informed people have doubts on the subject1 are the ones who naturally strive to coerce their neighbors4 ,to many minds there are no social or moral problems4 ,the answer is always known by the crusader4 ,it is very simple4 ,to him there can be no two opinions4 ,the standards which prevail in his own parish1 the self-expression of his own type1 are the will of ,god4 ,principles of right and wrong are known immediately without reflection or regard to the situations where they are to be applied2 they are revealed to conscience4 8,right is right and wrong is wrong everywhere and forever the same60 ,men who hold such a view learn little from experience1 and this is why crowds never change their minds4 ,they have first to be disintegrated and a new crowd formed about new standards1 because each crowd represents its will as a divine command1 a matter of eternal principle4 ,to learn anything from experience it is necessary to take into account the results of our behavior4 ,but when you do a thing merely because it is demanded by a universal principle which must be vindicated at all costs1 or because it is a divine command to be carried out with unquestioning obedience1 you need not consider the results4 ,hence you cannot be shown that you were mistaken4 ,in this sense men's gods and their a priori ideas have the function of preserving their fiction of infallibility4 ,there always appears what ,professor ,overstreet calls the proclamation of 8the ,one ,right ,way40 ,differences of opinion are held to be not mere differences of point of view1 but the difference between ,right and ,wrong1 ,good and ,evil4 ,those who think differently are the wicked1 the ungodly1 the enemy4 ,they must be convinced by being vanquished1 silenced4 ,every knee must bow and every tongue confess4 ,there is no longer a meeting of minds in the search for truth4 ,the triumph of the ,right is in the belief of the average man a knockout4 ,there must be no compromise2 any attitude other than intense partisanship is disloyalty4 ,one in a discussion must line up for or against a proposition1 take sides1 have a ready answer for anything that the other side says1 and be sure that nothing will cause one to modify one's views4 ,is any one ever convinced by public debate8 ,or does one emerge from a church quarrel1 a political campaign1 a session of the legislature1 a convention of a trade union with a broader outlook or better understanding8 ,the egotism of the ignorant keeps them in ignorance4 ,there is an amusing notion that the masses are kept in ignorance by clever conspirators against freedom and progress4 ,the average man's reasoning consists chiefly of the repetition of cant phrases in support of preconceived ideas4 ,he wishes to hear only what he can applaud1 and he applauds what saves his face and puts his enemies to shame4 ,theological disputation has always been carried on in this spirit1 and so have most popular discussions of morals1 politics and economic problems4 ,professor ,overstreet says that this 8,one ,right ,way0 attitude is essentially adolescent4 ,this does not mean that it is essentially youthful4 ,adolescence is the period when there is normally an exaggerated emotional interest in the ego4 ,a delayed adolescent type of mentality is common4 ,psychologists speak of it as narcissism1--a fixation of interest upon the idea of self4 ,among psychopathic individuals and also among crowds this narcissism is very dominant and leads to exaggerated notions of self-importance and to other fixed ideas4 ,inability to entertain any doubt of self becomes inability to question any idea which one would like to believe true4 ,hence the delusion of infallibility4 ,i think that vast numbers of otherwise normal people are made susceptible to crowd thinking because they simply do not know that there are ways of life and thought different from their own which good people may and do honestly hold4 ,crowd appeal at once entrenches prejudice and flatters the ego1 compensating it perhaps for any half-conscious feeling of inferiority it may have because for instance a man over-rates school education and 8did not get it40 ,it is interesting to note how this delusion of infallibility may often lead men to believe and assert the most incredible fabrications4 ,i quote from a recent ,new ,york newspaper an exaggerated example which will illustrate what ,i mean4 8,the ,league of ,nations has been asked to do a lot of strange things by people all over the world1 but it remained for a ,new ,york business man to request action on the most unusual topic of all4 ,announcement is made by the league secretariat that it has received a letter from the ,new ,yorker declaring his opinion that #8brain enslavement1' otherwise known as spirit writing or receiving messages from the dead1 is the cause of many evils4 ,he said he wanted the league to stop this system all over the world1 making the specific charge that the ,american courts of #8so-called justice' are controlled by the spirit movement40 ,note the last sentence2 the 8specific charge0 is very typical4 ,there is not the least notion that so sweeping an indictment should be supported by evidence4 ,it must be so1 for how can the alleged tolerant attitude of the courts be explained otherwise8 ,an explanatory idea is asserted as an established fact4 ,here we have a mind incapable of entertaining doubt4 ,as usual in unhealthy reasoning1 the thinking in this case is a syllogism4 ,spiritualism is a form of brain enslavement which is the cause of wide-spread evil4 ,all who do not sufficiently oppose it are controlled by it4 ,the courts do not sufficiently resist it4 ,therefore the courts are controlled by the spirit movement4 ,if the premises are true the conclusion of course follows logically4 ,the trouble with diseased thinking is not its logic1 but its inability to examine its premises in the light of fact4 ,a healthy mind would doubt these premises before reaching such a ridiculous conclusion4 ,doubt makes for sanity4 ,i do not wish the force of this example to be lost4 ,most people will see it so long as we are talking about spirits1 for there is much wholesome doubt about the doings of spirits4 ,but let us substitute for spirits something else concerning which surmise commonly passes as established fact1 and we have something very familiar4 8,the ,american courts are controlled by ,wall ,street10 or by the ,catholic ,church1 or by ,british propagandists1 or the attempt is being made by labor unions or by ,communists4 ,so it is with popular thinking on most subjects4 ,acquaintance with facts does not seem to be necessary for the formation of opinion4 ,i can easily assert alleged facts on my own authority2 it hurts my pride when ,i am asked for evidence4 ,i once heard a fundamentalist preacher say that everyone who doubted the infallibility of the ,bible merely sought an excuse for living a life of sin4 ,such statements must be true2 they are so logical1 moreover they justify a man in his fixed beliefs and put doubters always in the wrong4 ,many people even in their reading do little more than seek confirmation for notions founded on such thinking4 ,the censorship of books is hardly necessary to keep people's minds in the beaten path4 ,many people cannot read a book with which they do not agree4 ,we disguise our infallibility under the infallibility of our favorite author4 ,he becomes an authority4 ,we read our own meanings into his text when necessary4 ,we pick out the passages which support us and quote them on all occasions4 ,for instance1 a mind saturated with the teachings of ,karl ,marx will take in nothing else and will view every other author from the standpoint of his agreement with ,marx4 ,it is always so with the sectarian mind1 whether in religion or in politics4 ,the sort of logic which we have just been considering leads men to assume extreme positions of all sorts4 ,opinionated and undisciplined minds always tend to carry an idea to extremes1 to jump to a conclusion1 to let enthusiasm carry belief beyond the limits of good judgment4 ,this all or none attitude is supposed to be zeal in the service of principle4 ,it is merely intemperance4 ,education strives for the virtue of temperance1 and temperance--which among the uneducated becomes merely abstinence from the use of alcoholic beverages--is the avoidance of rash assertion1 and of ill-considered and hasty inference4 ,the temperate man stops to think4 ,careful thought seldom leads one wild4 ,an educated mind is not so likely to 8go off half-cocked40 ,it has fewer enthusiasms and so accumulates a reserve2 a sense of the ridiculous helps it keep its balance4 ,most men feel uncomfortable when they must hold their minds open and judgment in abeyance4 ,judgment suspended gives a feeling of unstable equilibrium1 of tension2 it is irksome like resistance to temptation4 ,in addition to this discomfort in being unsettled1 there is a disturbing feeling of insecurity in the thought that we live in a world in which certitude is rare and difficult4 ,in many situations it is necessary to act before all the evidence is at hand4 ,we must act on faith and take our chances4 ,all men cherish their faiths1 but few have the courage to act on faith4 ,we naturally wish to feel ourselves more secure than we really are in a world where much is left to chance4 ,a formula generally believed gives such a delusion of security4 ,the greater the number of those who believe1 the more convinced is the average man of the truth of the formula and the more safe he feels4 ,i think this wish to feel at home in the universe has inspired much of religion4 ,it is also one of the reasons why1 as older religions wane1 each man must have his 8cause10 his social gospel1 his movement4 ,these things afford a sense of comradeship in which there is safety4 ,they give one 8something to tie to10 something enduring to believe in4 ,and as each cause or movement claims the future and looks forward to sure vindication and triumph1 the future becomes predictable and congenial4 ,this search for an ideal security has had its influence on philosophy4 ,many philosophers1 from the time of the ancient ,greeks till now1 have sought to construct systems of ideas1 verbal forms in which in contemplation they could find refuge from the universal change in which all things come and pass away4 ,inasmuch as it is possible to think of an object or class and to mean the same even when the objects themselves are no longer present1 a system of abstract and unusual universal ideas is set up and thought of as existing in itself1 outside the process of time and change4 ,the system of thought so conceived is held to be more enduring than the world of changing objects4 ,the ideal world is then the real world4 ,in it alone is knowledge of the ,truth which abides forever4 ,such systems appear to me to be elaborate attempts to sustain a fictitious security by taking refuge from reality in a logical arrangement of man's own empty forms of thought4 ,from the point of view of education it should be said that such philosophies require much learning before one can understand them1 but they tend to dogmatism and the closed mind4 ,a modern method of supporting the fiction of security--less austere and sophisticated than some of those of official philosophy--prevails among those who speak the language of science4 ,it is known as mechanism4 ,as scientific method1 mechanism is indispensable4 ,it is found by exact measurement and careful scrutiny that given two identical material situations1 the same result will follow4 ,there is a certain orderliness about the processes of nature1 which if we ignore all else but the movement and masses and temporal and spatial relationships of particles of matter1 lends itself to statement in mathematical terms4 ,in this manner events are predictable with great accuracy4 ,and now because it becomes possible for human reason to interpret facts of nature when they are thought of only with respect to mass1 movement1 position1 it is held that nature itself is really nothing but mass1 motion1 position1 etc4 ,the laws and methods of interpretation are thought to constitute the nature of that which is interpreted4 ,a method deliberately adopted in order to give a mathematically rational account of certain selected aspects of nature is now taken for a correct picture of ultimate reality4 ,the reason which measures masses and distances believes it has discovered itself as the true nature of the thing measured4 ,the universe is held to be at once like a machine1 and at the same time essentially rational4 ,security is again grounded in forms of thought4 ,it is said that all futures are predictable by the new logic of science if we only knew enough about complex phenomena to be able to strip them down to that which can be expressed in mathematical terms4 ,of course no one professes to be able to calculate the curve of the whole1 or to have worked out a quantitative statement of many of the phenomena of life4 ,but it is a scientific faith that it might conceivably be done4 ,this seems to me to be merely saying that we could reduce the universe to reason if we only could do it1 which is tautology4 ,i am not sure that a universe so reduced would be anything more than a bare system of thought about only one aspect of the universe4 ,but scepticism here is as distasteful to many scientists as the scientists' own scepticism is distasteful to theologians4 ,i am not asserting dogmatically that we cannot know truth or the nature of reality4 ,i am not suggesting that we cannot be educated without ending in universal scepticism or agnostic negation4 ,it seems to me that we have1 or can have1 such knowledge as will make our intellects fairly adequate instruments in the performance of their proper functions4 ,but ,i do not see what such functioning has to do with ascribing finality to our beliefs or trying to legislate for all possible worlds4 ,i am not suggesting an attitude of despair in the pursuit of truth1 but am trying to state the very reason for any learning at all1 for what is the use of it if we know it all before we start8 ,education may not end in doubt1 but it ends when a man stops doubting4 ,but why speak of the end of a process that should continue through life8 ,as ,i see it1 the process is more often discontinued at the point of some fictitious certainty than in any moment of doubt4 ,doubt1 the willingness to admit that conjecture is subject to revision1 is a spur to learning4 ,the recognition that our truths are not copies of eternal realities but are human creations designed to meet human needs1 puts one in a teachable frame of mind4 ,and the discovery that thinking may be creative makes intellectual activity interesting4 ,much has been written by indoctrinators about the wretchedness of the dogmatic sceptic4 ,i wonder how these writers1 themselves so innocent of doubt1 know so much about him4 ,i have never found such a man4 ,i do not believe he ever existed4 ,there are writers who question things that most men do not even know exist1 compared with whom professional 8freethinkers0 are often nave4 ,but such writers are often gentle and cheerful spirits whose minds are not at all paralyzed by doubt1 but are active1 subtle1 stimulating4 ,humanity during the course of civilization has fixed certain habits1 made certain discoveries1 constructed certain systems of ordered knowledge by emphasizing the relevant and significant4 ,there is little likelihood that the whole structure will come tumbling about our heads because somebody examines into its nature4 ,in fact the highest achievement of civilization would appear to be a mind capable of understanding our human ways of thinking for what they are4 ,but if our learning should cause us to abandon all our consoling beliefs and ideals and pet theories2 if it should reveal human folly in our every great cause1 and futility in our every scheme of social reconstruction1 even then we cannot for such reasons shirk the task of educating ourselves4 ,there would remain for each of us the ideal of what an educated mind might become2 no knowledge could take from us the ideals of courage1 of preserving our integrity1 of standing undaunted before the challenge to our spirit4 ,again a question arises similar to that we discussed at the close of the chapter on propaganda4 ,does not education1 then1 cause doubt and indifference so that the educated remain aloof and fail to take their share of social responsibility or participate in the activities of their times8 ,is it not the mass of 8common people0 therefore1 and not the scholars1 which accomplishes the overthrow of tyrannies and achieves progress8 ,in a day when everybody is a professional or amateur reformer and people are led to believe that they can make their lives count only as they participate in some mass movement1 it is natural that this question should present itself as we consider what education means4 ,history should aid us to an answer here4 ,the author of 8,our ,times10 ,mark ,sullivan1 after giving an account of the partisan strife and popular movements of the last quarter of the nineteenth century1 suggests that perhaps all this expenditure of energy and intensity of enthusiasm was but part of the passing show and came to nothing1 while the so-called leaders who seemed to be creating history were but the puppets of deeper and silent forces4 ,he suggests that the enduring changes are those of science and the arts4 ,i believe we have here one of the important lessons of history4 ,progress in civilization has been the work almost wholly of scientists1 philosophers1 artists1 engineers1 and unique individuals4 ,the rest has been froth and foam1 a struggle to liberate mankind from the clutches of its most recent liberators1 crowd devouring crowd1 mass movements marching to ,utopia down blind alleys4 ,unfortunately there is some truth in the statement that the intelligence of the race has little influence upon mass movements4 ,this is not because scholarship is aloof1 however1 so much as because the multitude in its enthusiasms does not heed the counsels of wisdom4 ,when ,i become a zealot for a movement ,i lose my critical faculties4 ,in exalting my cause ,i would persuade myself that my existence is of more importance to the world than it really is4 ,no one so devoted and earnest could possibly be in the wrong1 and in the righteousness of my cause1 ,i have infallibility4 ,what need have ,i of the wisdom that comes by taking thought when ,i have the truth by intuition and intensity of feeling8 ,if it is true that men can only be made to act under the lash of blind faith and enthusiasm1 then the estate of man is a sorry one indeed4 ,for most of the things done will end in tragic failure4 ,it is only the conceit of ignorance to believe that the world can be straightened once for all by people who do not know what they are doing4 ,moreover1 to say that ignorance is necessary to the accomplishment of good is to say1 that ignorance is desirable and better for man than knowledge4 ,there have been those who held such a view4 ,obscurantists always hold it4 ,it is the philosophy of pessimism1 and it is interesting to note that it is the believer and the devotee1 the man of action and not the gentle doubter who finally ends in pessimism4 ,for want of intelligence the devotees of causes have been the mischief makers in all times4 ,we cannot always know who does the most good in the world1 but the evil that men do lives after them and it is sometimes possible to estimate the amount of harm done4 ,who has done the most harm in human history1 the sceptics or the believers1 the devotees of causes or the devotees of culture and urbanity8 ,st4 ,bernard with his crusade1 or ,abelard with his doubts8 ,the men who conducted the ,inquisition1 or the men who doubted the doctrine of the ,trinity8 ,calvin and the obscurantists on both sides of the ,reformation1 or ,erasmus and the ,humanists8 ,cromwell and his ,puritans or ,voltaire and the ,deists8 ,robespierre or ,goethe8 ,the devotees to causes have kept human life in turmoil4 ,if the immorality they would cure has slain its thousands1 their 8morality0 has slain its tens of thousands4 ,in most cases the strife has been useless and for causes that might have been won in other ways1 really won4 ,the devotee of a cause requires little provocation to practice persecution1 and only the opportunity to play the tyrant4 ,doubt not only has educational value3 it preserves social sanity4 ,i would suggest as part of everyone's education the reading of such authors as ,lucian1 ,epicurus1 ,abelard1 ,hobbes1 ,montaigne1 ,rabelais1 ,erasmus1 ,lessing1 ,voltaire1 ,hume and ,anatole ,france4 ,there is no blood on these men's hands4 ,they have quietly smiled in the face of bigotry and superstition4 ,in their words there is laughter and there is light4 ,perhaps no one of them ever intended to be a liberator of mankind4 ,they merely thought and spoke as free spirits1 and their very presence puts sham and cant and unction and coercion and mistaken zeal to shame4 ,they have done more for freedom and truth than all the armies of crusading devotees4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,a ,,man ,,is ,,known ,,by ,,the ,,dilemmas ,,he ,,keeps ,william ,james said that wherever there is selection among alternatives there is mental life4 ,man is a choosing animal1 and his choices determine both the ends sought and the means to be employed4 ,we will not discuss the question whether our choices are spontaneous or are determined wholly or in part by environmental and hereditary factors4 ,whatever determines them1 our habits of choosing1--the general character of the things we prefer1--reveal the kind of people we are4 ,and as learning is not merely the acquiring of more and more information but is accompanied by a gradual transformation of habit systems1 its progress is manifest not merely by what a man knows at any stage in his education1 but also by the kind of issue that is real to him1 the questions which he permits life to put to him1 the sort of temptations he has to struggle to avoid1 the kind of goods that are vital to him4 ,when ,i was a boy my parents used to tell me1 8,a man is known by the company he keeps40 ,the saying1 while designed to protect youth from the dangerous influence of evil companionship1 is not wholly true4 ,many persons1 from ambition or other motives1 seek the society of persons unlike themselves4 ,those who are more gregarious than selective may exercise little choice among their associates4 ,but ordinarily people like to be with their own kind4 ,criminals keep company with other criminals1 golfers with other golfers1 stamp collectors with others who have the same interest4 ,we wish our friends to be interested in the things that interest us4 ,groups long associated tend to become homogeneous4 ,when marked differences of taste and opinion develop1 companions drift apart4 ,hence it is obvious that the company one keeps is determined in part by the dilemmas he keeps4 ,we do not normally keep the same set of dilemmas through life4 ,each stage of development presents new challenges1 problems1 alternatives2 as we mature our habits of judgment change4 ,we see things in a different light4 ,what was once a matter of vital concern becomes a dead issue4 ,our interest is caught and our choice determined by aspects of situations to which we did not react at all at an earlier stage4 ,we do not solve all the problems of any stage1 but we outgrow them1--get over them4 ,psychopathology today has much to say about the nature and sequence of the dilemmas which at any period haunt the mind of an individual4 ,the matter is so important that ,i wonder more has not been made of it by those interested in education4 ,the public1 it seems1 would have the educator fill the student's head with useful information but expects the student to keep the same beliefs and general outlook on life that he had before4 ,we speak of rising to a higher mental plane2 this is little else than learning to wrestle with more and more significant problems4 ,a little girl in her third summer says1 8,i'm a nice girl2 ,i don't bite sister now40 ,to bite or not to bite1 to keep one's self clean1 to refrain from crying1 are normally the dilemmas of early childhood4 ,if they are not dead issues to a person twenty years old1 they may be regarded as psychopathic symptoms4 ,when a mature individual is found wrestling with impulses which should have been reduced to habit and dismissed from consciousness in earlier years1 we have a phenomenon which psychologists call 8regression10 or 8fixation0 of emotional interest in mental habits that are normally outgrown4 ,toward the tasks and situations of adult life1 the individual strives to maintain an infantile attitude and hence fails to adjust himself4 ,sometimes the regression shows a preoccupation with infantile wishes1 and sometimes with those of early adolescence2 in any case there is struggle to maintain the inhibitions or the defenses which veil the inadequately repressed impulses4 ,the manner in which lessons learned from experience normally transform an impulse from its expression in very simple and crude dilemmas to its later and more subtle manifestations may be seen in the forms with which people exhibit and disguise their egoism during successive stages of development4 ,when a very young child is beginning to discover himself and his little world1 he finds his own body and its functions tremendously interesting4 ,soon he discovers that certain of his performances command attention4 ,he learns to make use of such performances in order to get what he wants4 ,he will exercise his power over parent or nurse by throwing his toys on the floor again and again and howling until some one picks them up4 ,long before he condescends to talk1 he notices when people admire him and say complimentary things about him4 ,a very young child will do little stunts by way of showing off1 and will exhibit irritation if ignored or left alone4 ,he cries out at any restraint upon his movements or resistance to his wishes4 ,the egoism of everyone retains something of the infantile quality4 ,but family discipline1 social experience1 and the awakening of powers of observation and thought result in new forms of expression4 ,this ego interest becomes associated with an ideal of self and its importance which the individual guards as his honor1 his reputation4 ,every man is intent upon keeping up his feeling of self-importance2 each feels that one so important deserves special consideration4 ,egoism in normal people becomes to some extent liberated from its infantile interests and is sublimated1 that is1 attached to ends that are socially permissible4 ,the original impulse remains1 but it wrestles with new problems4 ,the wish to be admired is a factor in all ambition1 also in romantic love4 ,a love affair is even more a mutual admiration society than a phenomenon of sex interest4 ,the impulse to command which in the nursery led the child to throw toys on the floor for others to pick up1 later becomes a desire for leadership1 a struggle for political power1 a passion for manipulating or reforming others4 ,we also find the infantile egoism transferred to religion1 where it plays an important part in adult life4 ,many of the very images and emotional attitudes of infancy may thus be kept alive4 ,the believer may still feel that he is loved as the infant is loved by the parent1--loved now by the ,heavenly ,father4 ,he may again feel that he can have what he desires by asking the father in prayer4 ,self-importance survives as belief in the immortality of the soul and as assurance of salvation4 ,thus with development and experience1 the same ego interest becomes transformed in the tasks it progressively sets itself1 and in widening the range of the ends for which it strives4 ,each stage of development presents its peculiar problems1 its peculiar goods and evils1 its possible alternative attitudes toward the values of experience4 ,therefore it ought to be quite as possible to determine a person's mental age by noting the kind of things which satisfy his ego interest1 as by any other device of mental measurement4 ,in common practice this is the way in which we judge people4 ,a man stands revealed both by the things he strives to gain and by those he seeks to avoid4 ,the thing that most easily shocks him is usually that which he himself is struggling to overcome4 ,it represents something to which in his secret heart he can say neither yes nor no4 ,his dilemma troubles him4 ,he seeks to avoid the inner gnawing by carrying the fight into the open4 ,he turns his personal conflict into the appearance of a public issue1 and you then have the moral reformer4 ,people who repeat scandal1 demand laws for the censorship of books and plays1 and search through literature intent upon deleting passages they think are obscene1 are too much preoccupied with vice and obscenity4 ,they are like those compulsion neurotics who spend their time writing alibis to prove their innocence of the crime they are constantly tempted to commit4 ,the thing a man must make an effort to conceal always betrays him4 ,we all know the type of person who strives in all things to appear refined1 who makes painful efforts for correct speech and proper manners4 ,there are those who are seriously concerned about being in what they call society1 and those who read books of etiquette and are disturbed by such important questions as whether when escorting a lady you should take her arm or let her take yours4 ,and there is the man who signs his name with ornate flourish and tries to impress waiters and hotel servants with his importance1 and there are the people who are much exercised over the forgiveness of their sins4 ,all in one way or another place themselves on their own level4 ,the correlation between people's material desires and their general intellectual interests is so universal that it is used as a guide in placing advertisements4 ,there are 8class0 papers1 each designed to appeal to readers who occupy a certain cultural stratum4 ,the advertising appeals which such papers carry vary with the reading matter4 ,the older1 more literary magazines present a sharp contrast both in reading matter and in advertising to the newer fiction magazines4 ,in the first group the essay predominates1 with poetry and literary criticism1 and only an occasional work of fiction4 ,in the second group there is hardly anything but fiction1 with possibly a brief hortatory editorial4 ,both types are evidently published to interest readers of average wealth4 ,the number of advertisements of automobiles1 real estate1 and securities and other investments is in about the same proportion in both4 ,but the former group1 which is obviously designed to appeal to more thoughtful and intelligent readers1 contains a larger number of pages given over to advertisements of books1 schools1 colleges1 places of travel1 works of art4 ,we need not discuss the cheaper fiction magazines4 ,they are obviously prepared for a still different reading public4 ,the public to which the better ones appeal is indicated by the dominant character of the advertising1 which consists largely of aids to beauty and correspondence courses in self-improvement4 ,the stories in such periodicals are as typical as the advertisements4 ,thus it is that in their daily preferences1 as truly as in the greater issues of their lives1 people select themselves and are segregated into classes1 or spiritual types--types which may live in daily contact with one another1 yet worlds apart4 ,democracy strives to ignore the cultural differences among people4 ,education intensifies them4 ,the attempt to place everyone on the same mediocre plane1 even though it be a level considerably above the lowest1 is not education2 it is a kind of social work4 ,education means finding one's own level4 ,like all progress it is qualitative and differentiating4 ,just as organic evolution is a process which can be measured only in the extent of the differences it has made between higher and more complex organisms and lower ones1 so with education4 ,it brings out distinctions of human worth1 places people on the rounds of a ladder1 the gradations of which are discernible in the kind of interests they have1 in the quality of their choices1 the perplexities they wrestle with and overcome1 the tasks and issues they set themselves4 ,the general advance of civilization is in some respects like that of the individual4 ,we may learn much about the general cultural attainment of any age by noting the issues that divided people at that time and the problems that troubled them4 ,there are all sorts of 8cultural lags0 in the course of progress1 but it helps us to estimate the general intellectual level ,europe had attained at the close of the middle ages to learn that whole communities could be terribly disturbed over the question1 8,what is the evil omen of a comet which suddenly appears in the zenith80--so disturbed indeed that on one occasion it is said popular pressure forced the ,pope to go out and pronounce an official curse upon a comet and command it to leave the sky1 which it did much to everybody's peace of mind4 ,again1 we can form something of an opinion of the mentality of an age in which there is general interest in such a question as 8,shall a person accused of witchcraft be put to torture to compel him to testify against himself80 or1 8,how far may one walk on the ,sabbath day without committing sin80 or 8,does the doctrine of the rights of man apply to negro slaves80 or 8,who amongst us has committed the unpardonable sin10 or 8,will a child that dies without baptism go to ,hell10 or1 by way of illustrating something of the spirit of contemporary ,america1 8,who's your bootlegger80 ,i have said that many of our dilemmas are not resolved1 but are outgrown4 ,this leads us to a further observation of their educational significance4 ,many of the issues which stir a community are insoluble because they rest upon presuppositions which are unsound and so long as the assumption remains unchallenged the issue will haunt men's minds4 ,when one goes back of the issue and sees the premises to be false1 the whole wrangle becomes meaningless4 ,the question about torturing people accused of witchcraft presupposes the superstition that it is possible for an individual to enter into a contract with the devil4 ,get rid of belief in devils and witch trials themselves cease4 ,so the nightmare about the 8damnation of babes0 ceases to be a live issue for a mind that has become sufficiently civilized to have passed beyond the primitive man's terror of ,hell4 ,and so ,i think it is with most popular beliefs and public issues and partisan conflicts1 as well as with many of our private dilemmas4 ,as stated they presuppose a disguised error1 or are the fruit of factors that remain unconscious4 ,so long as we accept the fatal assumption the issue is real to us4 ,we are caught and held in the dilemma and our educational progress stops4 ,progress in thinking1 without which learning is mere repeating1 comes by examining foundations4 ,the educated mind differs from the uneducated in the insight which enables it to file a demurrer1 dismiss the case1 or restate it in terms that lead somewhere4 ,it is in getting us over our dilemmas that education frees our minds4 ,it is often said that the aim of education is to equip the student with a set of principles and beliefs which will serve him through life4 ,yes1 but principles are leading ideas4 ,their function is to lead us to correct conclusion and right action4 ,they are instruments1 not ends in themselves1 and they must occasionally be re-tested4 ,they are not final statements of the issues of living4 ,much misunderstanding and mental suffering--most of our false dilemmas--grow out of popular confusion about principles4 ,men feel that if they change their beliefs or arrive at unexpected conclusions or resolve their dilemmas away they are losing or compromising their principles4 ,there is no sacrifice of principle in re-stating an issue as a result of better knowledge and insight4 ,there is no defense of principle in a controversial spirit which cares more for partisan victory than for truthfulness4 ,the level on which a controversy is waged is often a matter of greater importance than the victory of either side4 ,if the victory of either means the triumph of the same irrational type of man1 it makes little difference who wins4 ,in most partisan and sectarian struggles the principle at stake--if any--is lost sight of in a mass of confusion4 ,it frequently happens that both sides contend for the same 8ideal0 and base their contentions upon the same mistaken premises4 ,in most cases men's principles are little more than phrases which justify in their own minds their contentiousness and will to power4 ,an examination of its presuppositions may transform an issue into a very different sort of problem4 ,there is1 for instance1 the controversy now raging in parts of ,america between religion and science4 ,many educated persons say there is no conflict between religion and science4 ,in their own thought there may be none1 because they do not mean by either of these terms what the man on the street means by them4 ,to him religion is a system of dogma based upon divine revelation4 ,he cannot conceive of religion without belief in the stories related in the ,bible or belief in the teachings of his church4 ,by belief he means the firm conviction that alleged historical events and miracles happened just as related4 ,he conceives of science also as a body of doctrine according to which the specific teachings of religion are held to be untrue4 ,stated in these terms conflict is inevitable1 a person who has scientific knowledge cannot be religious1 and the issue must be fought to the end4 ,for the thinking mind the problem becomes a quite different one4 ,science is a method1 not primarily a system of doctrine4 ,it is a way of discovering truth which must be followed wherever it leads1 and it presents us with the problem of how we are to value and interpret its discoveries4 ,the problem presents itself differently from an ascending series of points of view4 ,a student who has grown up under traditional religious influences and has probably given the matter little thought1 begins the study of natural science1 biology or geology1 let us say1 and learns something of the evidence for the theory of evolution4 ,he begins to speculate upon its implications4 ,he may1 as many do1 strive in some manner to reconcile evolution with the account of creation set forth in the ,bible4 ,after further thought and study this simple device for reconciling science and religion may not satisfy him4 ,he sees that something more than the reinterpretation of a text is necessary4 ,he finds himself striving to reconcile two entirely different world-views4 ,as a rational explanation of the world and its origin1 religion is wholly incompatible with science4 ,the student1 considering that this is the function of religion1 and finding that as a method of giving an account of natural processes religion fails1 may discard it1 and become an apostle of science1 and an opponent of religion1 save as a system of ethics4 ,persons who hold this rationalistic view of religion commonly try in turn to make a gospel of science4 ,religion is darkness2 science is light4 ,religion enslaves2 science liberates4 ,religion holds progress in check2 science is the ,religion of ,humanity1 and the triumph of ,reason is the promise of the salvation of the world4 ,this view was widely prevalent in the nineteenth century4 ,it is the stage at which the average person with some knowledge of science breaks off and considers the problem settled4 ,it is an honestly taken position1 which often requires no small courage4 ,i hope no one will think me an apologist for religion if ,i suggest that this is a rather innocent and unsophisticated attempt to solve the problem4 ,it assumes that it is the proper function of religion to explain nature and improve the life of humanity4 ,what a simple and straightforward affair the human spirit appears to be from this point of view4 ,no subtle twistings and turnings1 no hidden pitfalls1 no twilight regions1 no dark secrets4 ,suppose now one were to cease expecting religion to do the explanatory task of science1 and were also to cease trying to make a new religion of science1 is it not likely that the conflict1 or contrast1 between the two might appear in altered perspective8 ,it is possible to regard both scientific and religious concepts as symbols--figures of speech1 each expressive of its exclusive values4 ,in another study1 ,i likened the difference between science and religion to that which exists between the two recognized symbols of the ,united ,states of ,america--the map and the flag4 ,the former is the scientific symbol2 it has to do with position1 movement1 measurement of distance4 ,maps exist for the intellectual and practical interest4 ,the flag stands for the emotional interest2 it has to do with certain historical associations1 but is itself no guarantee of the accuracy of any historical tradition4 ,it is poetry4 ,once we grant that religion is poetry1 a new set of problems emerges4 ,is the poetry good or bad8 ,what valuations of the possibilities--or impossibilities--of experience are here expressed in these symbols8 ,which of my ideas about the world are maps and which are flags8 ,much of the popular conflict of religion and science arises out of general confusion on this point4 ,a super-patriot might conceivably be such a worshipper of the flag that he would resent the disclosure of certain geographical or historical facts which would lead to revaluation of some of his emotional attitudes4 ,doubtless many ,americans have an exaggerated and emotionally determined idea of the history if not of the geography of their country1 yet it is unthinkable that they should confuse the flag with the map4 ,but existence as a whole is not so easily surveyed1 and such maps as we have of it often extend beyond the comprehension of the average man4 ,in all lower approaches to the problem of religion1 the flags which symbolize certain emotional appreciations of the universe are confused with maps of it4 ,in his religion the average man is still an idolator1 psychologically similiar to the poor heathen who cannot distinguish between his god and his wooden image4 ,on the popular level1 the conflict of religion and science is an elaborately rationalized struggle for supremacy by a type of mind which has not yet grasped the true inwardness of its emotional attitudes4 ,while the consideration of the problem remains on this level1 nothing is gained for education4 ,there is mental grasp of the situation when the problem is re-stated in terms of the inwardness of religion and the objectivity of science4 ,and it then becomes possible to form hypotheses which inspire further pursuit of knowledge4 ,new knowledge leads to the better organization of knowledge previously acquired4 ,we have another familiar example of the educational value of displacing lower dilemmas by higher ones by examination of the presuppositions4 ,for a generation and more many minds have been preoccupied with some aspect or other of the controversy between conservatism and radicalism4 ,there have been so many varieties of opinion on both sides that it is impossible to make a clear-cut statement of the issue or to find any particular group or theory which is representative of either side4 ,from the standpoint of the majority of the ,united ,states ,senate1 the followers of ,mr4 ,la ,follette were dangerous radicals4 ,from the standpoint of the communists these same ,la ,follette men were conservatives1 counter-revolutionaries4 ,in general the conflict has been between those who are interested in preserving the present order of things intact together with its traditions1 established institutions1 privileges and inequalities1 and those who favor some basic changes which they believe will remedy the situation4 ,we will not discuss the merits of either side to this conflict4 ,in some form or other it comes up repeatedly4 ,it is a real issue1 but the discussion of it may proceed on various levels of thought1 and this fact has something to do with education4 ,intellectuals believe that their radicalism is the result of enlightenment1 while their opponents believe that on the whole education makes for conservatism and that radicals are ignorant foreigners who have been misled by professional trouble makers4 ,the present controversy is not conducive to education in any of its forms1 or on either side4 ,it tends to divert education from its true aims into partisan service1 and to produce in both parties a fixed and unteachable type of mind4 ,as the case is ordinarily presented1 a stupid and panicky conservatism is faced by a superficial and equally intemperate radicalism4 ,the problem cannot be discussed intelligently1 nor can the consideration of it lead to increase of knowledge1 until its presuppositions are critically examined1 and the whole matter is re-stated in more intelligible terms4 ,it is these presuppositions to which ,i wish to call attention1 for without them the controversy could not have arisen in its present forms4 ,although there is a great variety of these forms1 the same presuppositions are common to all and are usually accepted without question by both sides4 ,the disposition to go back and question the presuppositions is evidence that education is going on4 ,we have some such evidence in recent years for many have modified their positions in regard to various aspects of the social problem4 ,more attention has been given to the changes of view among radicals than to those which have taken place among conservatives4 ,since events of recent years have greatly encouraged self-expression on the part of misinformed noisy extremists who appoint themselves spokesmen of the latter group1 we sometimes get the impression that conservatives learn nothing4 ,but ,i incline to the opinion that there has been perhaps an equal proportion of learning by the more thoughtful minority on both sides of the controversy4 ,among radicals modification of views has occurred sufficiently to arouse general interest in the questions 8,what has become of the pre-war liberals80 8,what has happened to radicalism80 ,a former member of the radical group some years ago wrote a book entitled 8,tired ,radicals10 in which he adopted the usual view that the change of outlook among radicals was the result of the loss of energy and enthusiasm which comes with middle age4 ,but if radicalism were merely a form of youthful enthusiasm1 ,i believe the movement would be more wide-spread than it has ever been in ,america4 ,the suggestion is worth considering that in some cases the change of views might indicate that the individual has learned something4 ,by learning ,i mean the better grasp of the subject which comes when one examines the presuppositions of both sides4 ,conversely1 those who have not examined their presuppositions during the last twenty years have learned nothing4 ,they continue talking1 but they are addressing a generation that is past and gone4 ,anachronisms of this sort are common occurrences among conservatives4 ,they occur with equal frequency among radicals4 ,and when a man whose education has stopped leaves the radical movement and joins the opposition1 he frequently shows himself to be not an aging prophet who has lost his enthusiasms1 but the same intensely opinionated and militant person he was before4 ,when1 therefore1 ,i suggest that a change of attitude toward the social question may be indicative of learning1 ,i do not mean to imply that it is the function of education to turn radicals into conservatives4 ,rather its function is to give the men on each side a different mental outlook4 ,back of the controversy as it has existed in our times there is a certain presupposed philosophy which is passing away as education increases1 and its passing modifies the thinking of persons on both sides4 ,humanism in education is supplanting the older ,humanitarianism4 ,interest in cultural values is supplanting the earlier naturalism4 ,rousseau and ,bentham and ,comte and ,d4 ,f4 ,strauss and ,william ,morris are making way for the coming social psychologists4 ,social philosophy becomes analytical4 ,the sweeping generalizations of ,marx and the day dreams of ,bellamy begin to have interest chiefly for the historical student4 ,democratic dogma1 little questioned in the nineteenth century1 is now subjected to criticism4 ,a different intellectual spirit is abroad which necessarily modifies the general outlook of those who share in it4 ,let us note more specifically some of the presuppositions behind the ,radical-,conservative dilemma4 ,there is the ,humanitarian doctrine that man is naturally good and daily growing better4 ,all that is needed for his perfection is freedom or opportunity4 ,this assumption is common to both parties1 one holding that such opportunity is under the present system granted to all who wish to take advantage of it1 the other that under the present system opportunity is granted only to the privileged few and denied to the toiling masses1 who are kept down in wage slavery4 ,all the evils of human life are attributed to the present system4 ,remove the evil system and everybody will be good and happy4 ,there is much talk about 8the emancipation of labor40 ,both sides assume that social justice is possible1 each maintaining that its own triumph is the triumph of justice4 ,and both sides are disposed to estimate the values of civilization and the meaning of personal success in terms of material possession4 ,the good life is the life of the man with plenty of money4 ,we hear much of the materialism and the dominance of business interests today4 ,everyone is urged to get ahead4 ,a man measures his worth by the amount of his income4 ,conservatives can see no ground for dissatisfaction with a system which makes for unusual prosperity4 ,radicals deny that prosperity is universal1 say that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer1 interpret all history in terms of the struggle for wealth1 and spread before the masses the promise of abundance with a minimum of toil4 ,on both sides we find that easy optimism which is said to be characteristic of half-educated minds4 ,it is assumed that the evils of the world are only superficial1 that they are contingent upon purely environmental factors1 and can be removed by legislation or by mass action4 ,progress is assured4 ,no one doubts that a prosperous and happy life is possible to all if only wealth were properly distributed4 ,as the control of affairs passes more and more completely into plebeian hands and as the tastes and dilemmas of mediocrity come to set standards of value1 the world is supposed to be getting better4 ,this questionable assumption leads to distortion of fact by both parties1 and must continue to do so as long as the controversy is kept on this level4 ,i wonder what would happen if instead of merely drawing hasty inferences from these nave assumptions1 it should become the practice to examine them4 ,perhaps the issue might be re-stated in more significant terms4 ,but what concerns us at present is not the social problem as such1 but the fact that the attempt to clear up the intellectual muddle about it means that education is going on4 ,a glance at the nature of the presuppositions we have been discussing will help us to understand why it is that they are so seldom examined4 ,they flatter4 ,apart from their radical or conservative implications1 such ideas are congenial to the average man4 ,they pat him on the back4 ,it is no small satisfaction to believe that the environment is responsible for all human ills1 that evil may easily be removed by mass action2 that given material abundance1 the good life follows automatically2 that distinctions among men are reducible to economic factors2 that the supremacy of our own type is the goal of progress4 ,i believe that the level at which one's education stops1 the particular set of dilemmas in which one's mind becomes fixed is usually determined by some self-satisfying assumption4 ,if my ego can remain elated over the possession of an automobile1 or the right to vote1 or the belief that ,i and my kind are or ought to be socially superior1 or because ,i can play the saxophone1 or am able to resist the temptation to pick pockets1 the problems which have live interest for me will be the problems which lie on these levels4 ,i recently talked with a man who was quite pleased with himself because for some years he had not been in jail4 ,he frequently compared the advantages and disadvantages of life 8on the inside0 and 8on the outside40 ,to his mind all days and all people were thought of as 8inside0 or 8outside10 a point of view which ,i imagine few people linger over or find personally gratifying4 ,but the virtues men pride themselves on are as a rule those which compensate them for the particular vices to which they are tempted4 ,the house ,i live in had for a number of years been rented to an elderly ,scotch woman who kept it as a 8rooming house40 ,when she moved out she said to me1 8,i hear you are going to do this house over and make it your own home4 ,some day you may be sitting here and thinking1 #8,what use to go on in this house of mine8' ,it'll be a satisfaction to you to know that you are in a respectable place4 ,never once in all the years that ,i rented out furnished rooms did the patrol wagon have to back up to this door at midnight40 ,the things which people find consoling both reveal and determine the plane on which their thinking takes place4 ,i have heard a young man say with a note of defiance1 8,yes1 sir1 ,i'm a single-taxer and ,i'm proud of it40 ,so involved is the ego in our dilemmas that we often require the assistance of a specialist in getting over them4 ,psychoanalysts whose task is chiefly that of helping people face certain facts about themselves1 speak of their work as re-education4 ,in a sense all education is re-education1 the untying of the knots in which our self esteem in its defense has entangled itself4 ,perhaps nothing is so effective a bar to education as intellectual immodesty4 ,a man's education stops at the point where he becomes incapable of self-criticism4 ,and because egotism is always a bit ridiculous1 the conceited mind protects itself from criticism by making its interests sublime4 ,in the presence of the sublime1 laughter is taboo4 ,the subject concerning which man has lost his sense of humor is just the subject concerning which criticism leads to self-criticism4 ,there are persons who cannot take a joke about 8,the ,grand ,old ,party10 or the ,government at ,washington1 or the teachings of ,karl ,marx4 ,recently a group of church men publicly denounced the ,new ,york newspapers because of their humorous remarks about prohibition4 ,once when ,i was asked for a definition of a radical ,i seriously offended a prominent socialist with the innocent remark that a radical is a man who loves ,labor and hates work4 ,lack of humor is always evidence of unteachableness4 ,ignorance is pompous4 ,the holy tone with which people proclaim their convictions is uncivilized4 ,when the ,american people are better educated1 there will be less solemn pantomime in the land4 ,we could not with straight faces indulge ourselves in the hysterical reforms1 the bitter partisanships1 religious fanaticism and race prejudice which at present show how seriously we take ourselves4 ,education should help people make an art of living1 and the art of living1 like all arts1 is play4 ,learn to play with your ideals1 even with your sublimities1 and you will break the hold upon you of many a crude and hampering dilemma4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,the ,,free ,,spirit ,freedom is not as precious to the members of this postwar generation as it was to some of their ancestors4 ,the nation which once followed the leadership of ,mazzini and ,garibaldi now suffers a dictatorship with apparently little protest4 ,in ,england1 the stronghold of liberalism1 a conservative government places a censorship upon the words of the man who is probably that country's best-known writer4 ,socialism has its beginnings in that passion for freedom and humanity which inspired the youth of the early nineteenth century and ends at ,moscow with a constitution from which even a ,bill of ,rights is omitted4 ,in ,america we now see that democracy does not guarantee liberty4 ,the government shows decreasing respect for the immunities of the individual4 ,crowd movements spread intolerance and are ever demanding more strict regulation in matters of personal conduct and private judgment4 ,one frequently hears the remark1 8,the talk about personal liberty is disgusting nonsense40 ,there are various reasons for this change of spirit4 ,the individual rather willingly permits himself to be transformed from a private person to a numerical unit in his group or mass because as part of a public he gains power through the force of numbers4 ,individualism in a society in which every one is chiefly interested in industrial competition tends to become little more than the stock argument of those who wish to defend economic privilege4 ,other privileges are lost sight of in a standardized world4 ,moreover1 as people begin to see that freedom is not something with which all men are equally endowed by their creator1 but is achieved in varying degree1 there is a tendency to minimize its importance4 ,we are naturally somewhat suspicious of the freedom of others4 ,those who themselves have little capacity for it would impose their own limitations upon all others4 ,from childhood onward we wish to be able to do what we see others doing4 ,when this is impossible1 there is a tendency to restrain them from doing what we cannot do4 ,masterful spirits grant themselves privileges which may appear wicked to the crowd4 ,the free mind allows too much4 ,when on the other hand a person who has not attained some degree of mastery declares his independence1 we do not speak of him as free1 we say that he 8takes liberties40 ,thus where the ideals of the educated mind prevail there is a general gain in freedom through increase in mastery4 ,where the ideals of the ignorant and wrongly educated predominate1 there is a decline in freedom and an increase in the disposition to take liberties4 ,it is the custom today to rule out of the consideration of values any reference to the things of the mind1 and to try to ground all values1 freedom included1 on a strictly economic and legal foundation1 as if they were produced by and existed only for a brainless and impersonal equilibrium of social forces4 ,we are beginning to see that for a people which loses sight of the inwardness of the sources of freedom1 constitutional guarantees do not long guarantee1 and each power-seeking group begins to take liberties with the organized life of the community4 ,the so-called liberalism of those modern writers who make apology for this sort of thing has in it little of the spirit of liberal education4 ,it is rather the plebeianization of scholarship4 ,i as a liberal am not obliged to throw my hat in the air over each degradation of value that marks the triumphant progress of democracy4 ,it is the ideal of the educated man1 not the demands of the crowd which is the best guarantee of freedom4 ,i believe we are chiefly indebted to this ideal for such freedom as we enjoy4 ,education when it is genuine must for its own sake move in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom4 ,it must wander where truth leads the way4 ,it must attain independence of judgment and a certain decent privacy for contemplation4 ,it is in itself freedom from servitude and from routine4 ,it broadens one's interests and hence one's sympathetic understanding of others4 ,nothing human is alien to it4 ,the educated mind1 having business of its own1 minds its own business4 ,hence it grows in tolerance4 ,freedom is always freedom for something1--freedom of speech1 freedom of thought1 freedom from meddlesome interference1 freedom from the crushing weight of authority and tradition1 freedom in matters of religious belief4 ,every such freedom is largely the result of the influence of education1 and each exists in any community in inverse ratio to its ignorance and provincialism4 ,the classical tradition has its origin1 as we saw1 in the efforts of ,greek philosophers to teach free men the essentials of the good life4 ,it has by no means remained true to its ideal1 but each rediscovery of its meaning has had a liberalizing effect4 ,the modern sense of the worth of the individual--which is only recently on the decline--and the humanist philosophy of education alike show the influence of the ,renaissance4 ,the eighteenth century1 stilted and formal as it was1 could with some justification call itself the age of the ,enlightenment4 ,it was the age of ,voltaire1 the age of great educational advance4 ,it was also the age from which we derive most of our pronouncements about liberty and the rights of man4 ,i would almost go so far as to say that when education is not liberalizing1 it is not really education but is a highly systematized species of propaganda4 ,this liberalizing quality is so essential to education1 and is so clearly a way of the spiritual life1 that its presence determines the genuineness of any movement or philosophy that may bear the name ,liberalism4 ,the term 8free spirit0 has been so frequently abused1 that ,i hesitate to use it4 ,it suggests ,rousseau's ,emile1 educated to obey only the benign laws of nature and his own impulses4 8,he follows no formula1 yields neither to authority nor to example1 and neither acts nor speaks save as it seems best to him40 ,one thinks of such phrases as ,max ,stirner's 8,ego and ,his ,own10 or ,whitman's 8,spontaneous ,me10 or 8,the ,beautiful ,soul0 of nineteenth century ,romanticism4 ,one is reminded of the young woman from ,nebraska who came to live in ,greenwich ,village1 ,new ,york ,city1 and said her soul felt as if it had taken off its shoes and stockings4 ,the cult of spiritual freedom had quite a vogue in ,new ,york a few years ago4 ,i believe it originated in the ,latin ,quarter of ,paris4 ,the devotee of it displayed his free spirit by wearing a flowing tie and corduroy trousers1 by his obvious disdain of barbershops and laundries1 by his talk which was mostly about sex1 socialism and the new art1 and by his general air of lassitude and disillusionment4 ,i believe that this pose1 together with much of the sentimental liberalism which passes for 8emancipation0 among intellectuals1 may be traced back to ,jean ,jacques ,rousseau4 ,nearly all the basic ideas of contemporary liberalism as well as those of the 8newer education0 frequently associated with the liberal movement1 may be found in the writings of ,rousseau4 ,it is amusing to hear liberals proclaim these old ideas as if they were the most advanced theories of life and education4 ,and you have but to compare ,rousseau with ,erasmus or ,voltaire or ,huxley to see how far away he is from the spirit of liberal education4 ,the latter is tender-hearted and hard-headed4 ,rousseau is soft-headed and hard-hearted4 ,an emotional egoism feeds on dreams of social revolt and of an idyllic return to nature4 ,rousseau hates civilization1 with its duties and responsibilities4 ,he becomes romantic and sentimental about ,nature4 ,his ideal of the free man is ,robinson ,crusoe4 8,we are born sensible40 8,the natural man is complete in himself2 he is the numerical unit1 the absolute whole1 who is related only to himself or to his fellow-man4 ,civilized man is but a fractional unit40 8,civilized man is born1 lives and dies in a state of slavery4 ,at his birth he is stitched in swaddling clothes2 at his death he is nailed in a coffin1 and as long as he preserves the human form he is fettered by our institutions40 ,hence if you would educate1 8,observe nature and follow the route which she traces for you40 8,all wickedness comes from weakness4 ,a child is bad only because he is weak2 make him strong and he will be good40 8,keep the child dependent on things alone1 and you will have followed the order of nature in his education40 8,do not let him know what obedience is when he acts1 nor what control is when others act for him4 ,equally in his actions and in yours let him feel his liberty40 8,o men1 be humane2 it is your foremost duty4444 ,why would you take from those little innocents the enjoyment of a time so short and of a good so precious which they cannot abuse8 ,why would you fill with bitterness and sorrow those early years so rapidly passing1 which will no more return to them than to you8 ,fathers1 do you know the moment when death awaits your children8 ,do not prepare for yourselves regrets by taking from them the few moments which nature has given them40 8,the only habit which a child should be allowed to form is to contract no habit whatsoever40 8,it is absolutely certain that the learned societies of ,europe are but so many public schools of falsehood2 and very surely there are more errors in the ,academy of ,sciences than in the whole tribe of ,hurons40 8,happy the people among whom one can be good without effort and just without virtue40 ,i trust that these passages selected almost at random from ,rousseau's treatise on education1 8,emile10 do not give a wholly unfair impression of this author's philosophy of life4 ,man in the state of nature is wise and good4 ,civilization has corrupted him by enslaving him4 ,if he does evil it is not because he is bad1 but because he is weak4 ,we should not hang the criminal but blame the society which made him what he is4 ,the proper function of education is to enable the individual--the little innocent--to grow up naturally without discipline1 without forming any habits1 never sacrificing present enjoyment to future knowledge1 inspired always by the ideal of that happy state in which one may be good without effort4 ,the ideal education therefore is the life of the ,north ,american aborigine or what ,rousseau imagined such a life to be4 ,freedom here is the return to nature4 ,from the times of ,hobbes and of ,montaigne onward there seems to have been a growing interest in 8,man in the state of nature40 ,but whereas with most writers this interest was largely a matter of theory and speculation1 with ,rousseau man in the state of nature becomes an ideal1 a norm4 ,it would appear that in this dream of the return to nature1 there is symbolized an infantile wish to escape from the tasks and responsibilities and restraints of adult life4 ,psychologists speak of such an 8infantile return0 as regression4 ,this regressive ideal of freedom is a very different thing from the liberalizing influence of education as ,i understand it4 ,i have characterized education as a victory won over one's wish-fancies and childish egoism1 as the lifting of the problems of life to higher and more significant dilemmas1 as the attainment of mastery4 ,a humanistic liberalism seeks freedom as broadmindedness2 it strives for a highly civilized1 urbane and sophisticated state of mind in which insight is deepened and interest is widened4 ,rousseauian liberalism seeks freedom in relaxation of effort1 in denial of the claims of civilization1 in the idealization of nature and of primitive man4 ,many persons who today style themselves liberals are of the ,rousseauian type4 ,there are those who proudly call themselves rebels4 ,a certain naturalism is carried to the point of hostility to form as such and to orderliness of any sort4 ,there is frequently a disdain of 8respectability10 and a tendency to play the intellectual vagabond4 ,i think this is one reason why certain liberals are much taken with modern imitations of the primitive in art4 ,the element of regression which characterizes the paintings and sculpture of certain 8rebels0 is patent to the psychologist4 ,many of these works of art closely resemble the typical drawings of dementia praecox patients4 ,in dementia1 regression1 or infantile return1 is complete and final4 ,the patient is free from a disturbing world1 having returned to precisely the 8sensibility10 as ,rousseau terms it1 with which he was born4 ,utopian schemes of social reconstruction1 and the notion that merely changing the present system would put an end once for all to human misery1 are in many cases disguised forms of the wish to return to childhood and thus escape the vicissitudes of adult life in civilized society4 ,the burden of our industrial civilization is so great that it is no wonder many should take this path of escape4 ,however1 the utopian fantasy is by no means confined to those who have the hardest struggle4 ,and there can be no objection to it when it inspires well-considered efforts for social improvement4 ,there is a type of 8liberal0 however1 who regards the attempt to solve any concrete problem of civilization as a compromise of his idealism4 ,another aspect of the philosophy of ,rousseau has influenced contemporary liberalism with somewhat paradoxical results4 ,the basis of that happy state in which one may be just without virtue is elaborated in 8,the ,social ,contract40 ,rousseau was not the first to hold the contract theory of organized society4 ,both ,hobbes and ,locke made use of this idea4 ,but with ,rousseau it becomes a doctrine with distinctly illiberal implications4 ,the argument is somewhat as follows3 ,man finds it impossible to continue in the blissful state of nature4 ,in order to preserve their freedom1 men voluntarily enter into a mutual agreement1 according to which each gives over his individual sovereignty and receives back an equal portion of the common will1 leaving him as free as he was before4 ,thus there comes into being a collective sovereign power4 ,all others are of course usurpations and are destructive of freedom4 ,this new sovereign can do no wrong1 there is no need to protect the individual against it because it is made up precisely of the wills of all individuals1 and the people will not do injury to themselves since each seeks happiness4 ,such sovereignty1 which is really the absolute dominion of the mass over its members1 can neither be delegated nor divided1 and its exercise is liberty4 ,but is it8 ,this tree is known by the fruit it bears4 ,notice that for purposes of this theory1 all aspects of the individual will are now denied except those which may be pooled into a sort of group will and drawn out again in equal and identical portions for all men4 ,that is1 society is transformed from a plurality of individuals to the unity of a mass4 ,man acting as a mass unit takes precedence in all things over man acting as a private person4 ,privacy is gone4 ,liberty is not personal independence1 but the freedom of the group to do what it wills unchecked4 ,mass action can do no wrong4 ,according to the logic of this view no proper bounds may be set to the rule of 8the people10 except such as the sovereign will itself chooses to set4 ,accordingly1 liberty becomes the rule of all over each in any matter whatsoever concerning which neighbors choose to restrain or meddle with one another4 ,this means that myself as person must in all things take orders from that attenuated public-meeting self of me and of other men which we have each received in equal portion from the mass will4 ,everything unique in me is whittled away from this mass-self and ,i count only by virtue of my membership as a numerical unit of the group4 ,and now since any check or hindrance to the sovereignty of the mass is seen as an unjustifiable restriction upon its liberty1 there is a tendency to extend the tyranny of the mass to every possible human concern4 ,the demand for liberty is no longer the assertion of the right of private judgment for those capable of exercising it2 it is 8,let the people rule40 ,no wonder men come to distinguish between personal liberty and the rights of ,the ,people4 ,the idolatry of the mass turns freedom inside out4 ,so much for theory4 ,in common practice each majority tends to regard itself as the sovereign will and play the tyrant1 all in the name of liberty4 ,each militant minority and struggle group in society seeks by hook or crook to capture the machinery of law and force its will upon the public1 and in the effort to make its own group will the sovereign will1 the members of each group persuade themselves that in thus resisting restraint upon their particular mass movement they are fighting for liberty4 ,a spirit of factiousness spreads through the community1 restriction and regulation increase and multiply1 all in the exercise of crowd-liberty4 ,if your crowd is now in possession of social power1 you are called a conservative4 ,if it is still struggling to make its will supreme1 you may call yourself a liberal4 ,it is an ironical turn of history that brings it about that many restrictions upon the freedom of the individual are advocated in the name of liberalism4 ,liberalism shades off into a form of radicalism which would set up a dictatorship to accomplish its ends4 ,many people use the terms interchangeably4 ,radicals in recent years1 as the illiberal aims of the movement unmask themselves1 tend to repudiate the name liberal1 and to denounce the liberal as one who having started out along a certain road1 hesitates or turns back at the last minute4 ,such liberalism finds itself in the difficult position of having proposed measures which it hesitated to carry out4 ,it is embarrassed by its own radical offspring4 ,such liberalism has little in common with that which is the aim of liberal education4 ,as it appears in contemporary ,america1 it is a sort of abortive mass movement caused by the mingling of two social philosophies which for want of better terms ,i will call the ,lockean and the ,rousseauian traditions4 ,john ,locke wrote his essay on ,government at the close of the seventeenth century4 ,this book together with his 8,essay on the ,human ,understanding10 did much to shape the thinking of the eighteenth century1 and made a strong impression upon ,samuel ,adams1 ,thomas ,paine1 ,jefferson and other leaders of the ,american ,revolution4 ,the 8self-evident truths0 set forth in our ,declaration of ,independence clearly reveal this influence4 ,i do not wish to imply that ,locke was the author of ,american liberalism4 ,he merely has his place in a tradition which goes back to ,magna ,charta and is essentially ,british4 ,the quarrel between the colonies and the ministers of ,king ,george was a phase of the greater struggle between ,parliament and the crown4 ,for centuries the ,englishman has stood up for his individual rights1 has stubbornly resisted any attempt of the sovereign to invade his privacy or to seize his property without his consent4 ,the ,englishman is naturally jealous of his government4 ,he looks upon it with suspicion and seeks to limit its exercise of power4 ,he gives it no peace until it guarantees him security from interference with his personal freedom4 ,jefferson's remark that that government is best which governs least is typical of the spirit of ,british liberalism4 ,it was this spirit which inspired the revolt of the ,puritans against both the ,king and the ,church4 ,the same sentiment is expressed in the petition of ,rights which was presented to the throne about the time that ,locke wrote the essay on government4 ,and it was in this same spirit that the founders of the ,republic framed the ,constitution of the ,united ,states4 ,they rather grudgingly granted the government certain specific powers1 and sought by means of various checks and balances to limit the exercise of them4 ,even then the public was so alive to the dangers of the new sovereignty that it refused to adopt the constitution until it was amended by the addition of the ,bill of ,rights4 ,there were added to this assertion of the inalienable rights of the individual in opposition to the sovereign power the deeper sense of the importance of the individual gained in the ,reformation1 and the insistence upon the right and duty of exercising private judgment which came with the rationalism of the eighteenth century4 ,the eighteenth century1 with its 8appeal to reason0 in opposition to the authority of priest and ,bible1 was in fact an intellectual declaration of independence which became for educated minds an essential part of the liberal tradition4 ,liberalism owes much to the ,deists and men like ,hume4 ,it is not a mere coincidence that a large number of the leaders of the ,american ,revolution were 8freethinkers40 ,thus liberalism became something more than a political movement4 ,it became a philosophy of personal liberty1 of independence of authority1 of tolerance4 ,the rights which the liberal claimed for himself he was--at least in theory--willing to grant to others4 ,he took the side of the 8under dog40 ,the tradition is best represented in ,england by such men as ,priestley1 ,martineau1 ,kingsley1 ,cobden1 ,bright1 ,morley1 ,j4 ,s4 ,mill1 ,huxley1 and in ,america by ,paine1 ,jefferson1 ,channing1 ,emerson1 ,theodore ,parker1 ,lincoln1 and ,ingersoll4 ,the decline of liberalism to the level of ,bryanism1 the betrayal by 8,one ,hundred ,percent ,americanism0 of the spirit in which the ,republic was founded1 the spread of bigotry among the masses1 the prevailing partisan spirit and the illiberalism of professed 8liberals10 the changing of our constitution from a guarantee of personal liberty to the authorization of ,federal interference with the daily habits and customs of the individual--these are not matters for which we may hold recent immigrants responsible4 ,they are1 ,i regret to say1 symptomatic of tendencies which are most commonly manifest among ,americans of ,british descent4 ,they show how far the spirit of a nation may drift in one hundred and fifty years when it renounces its intellectual leadership4 ,liberalism as a political movement was early divorced from liberalism as an intellectual movement4 ,the former became ,andrew ,jacksonism1 8shirt-sleeve democracy10 free-soil-ism1 abolitionism1 populism1 the ,single ,tax movement1 opposition to big business1 ,progressiveism4 ,ever since the time of the settlement of ,new ,england the pioneer and frontiersman1 the 8debtor class10 the town laborer and the farmer1 have had to carry on a struggle against the 8money powers0 of the large industrial centers4 ,the conflict of 8the poor against the rich0--generally characterized by a demand for governmental regulation of industry and cheap money--reached its culmination in the 8,free ,silver0 issue of #ahif4 ,of this 8battle for humanity10 the author of 8,our ,times0 quotes ,william ,allen ,white4 8,it was a fanaticism like the ,crusades4 ,indeed1 the delusion that was working on the people took the form of religious frenzy4 ,sacred hymns were torn from their pious tunes to give place to words which deified the cause and made gold--and all its symbols1 capital1 wealth1 plutocracy--diabolical4 ,at night1 from ten thousand little white schoolhouse windows1 lights twinkled back vain hope to the stars4 ,for the thousands who assembled under the schoolhouse lamps believed that when their legislature met and their governor was elected1 the millennium would come by proclamation4 ,they sang their barbaric songs in unrhythmic jargon1 with something of the same mad faith that inspired the martyrs going to the stake4 ,far into the night the voices rose--women's voices1 children's voices1 the voices of old men1 of youths and of maidens1 rose on the ebbing prairie breezes1 as the crusaders of the revolution rode home1 praising the people's will as though it were ,god's will1 and cursing wealth for its iniquity4 ,it was a season of shibboleths and fetiches and slogans4 ,reason slept2 and the passions--jealousy1 covetousness1 hatred--ran amuck2 and whoever would check them was crucified in public contumely40 ,the demand for governmental regulation has been on the increase since #ahif and has almost worked a revolution in our form of government4 ,i will not discuss the degree to which such an extension of the powers of the central government is desirable4 ,i am aware of the fact that the motive is largely that of protecting the economic independence of the average individual4 ,the point ,i wish to make is that the methods advocated reveal the change that has come over liberalism4 ,notwithstanding ,jefferson's statement about the government which governed least1 the extensions of the powers of government have not ever been limited to matters industrial1 and we find men calling themselves liberals accepting all sorts of restrictions upon their liberty without complaint4 ,liberalism has taken on a partisan spirit with all the intolerance1 hysteria1 and coerciveness that usually characterizes crowd movements4 ,the same elements that voted 8liberal0 with ,mr4 ,bryan thirty years ago1 later supported ,bryan the fundamentalist1 and today are staunch prohibitionists4 ,i cannot help feeling that something of the fundamentalist was lurking under the skin of the ,american liberal all along4 ,the tradition of personal independence derived from our ,british ancestors had about reached this stage of decline1 when efforts were made to supplant it with a very different type of liberalism from continental ,europe4 ,the 8old liberalism0 was in theory individualistic2 the 8new liberalism0 was socialistic4 ,it brought with it such ideas as 8the class struggle10 8mass action10 the 8cooperative commonwealth40 ,freedom was to be gained for all in the form of the 8emancipation0 of the working class4 ,youthful intellectuals idealized the proletariat1 organized socialist locals1 talked about the 8materialist interpretation of history10 denounced 8the capitalists10 addressed one another as 8comrade10 closed their letters to one another with the words1 8,yours for the ,revolution10 and a few took the trouble to study the writings of ,karl ,marx4 ,the old liberalism was seen as mere 8bourgeois idealogy10 mental slavery1 a system of ideas fabricated by the master class in order to keep the working class in perpetual wage slavery4 ,the new liberal felt himself intellectually emancipated4 ,if he was very1 very liberal1 he styled himself a radical4 ,the movement reached its maximum strength about the year #aiaj1 and then began to decline4 ,it appealed to some who had been liberals of the older ,american type1 but the response of labor was negligible4 ,radicalism professed to be a spontaneous revolt of oppressed working people4 ,in fact it was a cult1 with its dogmas about labor1 which existed chiefly among middle-class intellectuals4 ,its leaders--and it consisted mostly of leaders with very little rank and file--were seldom working men4 ,although its economic creed is the product of the nineteenth century1 a study of the history of this movement would show it to be in direct line of descent from ,rousseau4 ,many of the basic ideas are distinctly ,rousseauian4 ,civilization1 which ,rousseau hated1 is now the wicked capitalist system4 ,there is the same emphasis on the collective will1 on mass action1 on the idea of revolution1 the same belief that ,the ,people is the only rightful sovereign1 that society exists by virtue of a sort of covenant among men which can be altered at will1 and that universal happiness may be attained by changing the system which is responsible for all misery and misbehavior4 ,radicalism1 carried to its logical conclusion1 is ,communism1 in which there is no pretense of liberalism1 no place for freedom4 ,it has greatest appeal for a type of mind which is by nature doctrinaire and inelastic1 and its propaganda tends to fixed opinion and to illiberalism4 ,a generation ago ,nietzsche said of it1 8,in every country of ,europe1 and the same in ,america1 there is at present something which makes an abuse of this name3 a very narrow1 prepossessed1 enchained class of spirits1 who desire almost the opposite of what our intentions and instincts prompt4444 ,briefly and regrettably1 they belong to the levellers1 these wrongly named free spirits--as glib-tongued and scribe-fingered slaves of the democratic taste and its modern ideas3 all of them men without solitude1 without personal solitude1 blunt honest fellows to whom neither courage nor honorable conduct ought to be denied2 only1 they are not free1 and are ludicrously superficial1 especially in their innate partiality for seeing the cause of almost all human misery and failure in the old forms in which society has hitherto existed--a notion which happily inverts the truth entirely6 ,what they would fain attain with all their strength1 is the universal1 green-meadow happiness of the herd1 together with security1 safety1 comfort1 and alleviation of life for everyone40 ,the word liberal is commonly associated with that extension of democracy which the crowd thinks is progress4 ,if you favor this progress1 you are said to be a liberal4 ,if you doubt that it is progress you are thought to oppose progress as such and so are a conservative4 ,if the progress of democracy were accompanied by a corresponding advance of culture and gain in wisdom and broadmindedness1 this use of the term liberal would be appropriate4 ,men become free only as they achieve self-government4 ,i take it that a man governs himself to the degree that he acts upon his own judgment4 ,freedom thus presupposes first that people are capable of judging things for themselves1 and second1 that they are permitted to do so4 ,if the progress of democracy resulted in fewer laws and wiser laws1 we should in time have self-government4 ,but the reverse is the case3 the extension of democracy brings about an extension of the powers of government and the multiplication of foolish laws4 ,it does not follow that people's judgment is improved because they can vote about more and more things4 ,nor is there any assurance that they will not begin voting about things that are none of their business and thus destroy the right of private judgment1 which is the exercise of freedom4 ,you do not decide things for yourself when everything is submitted to a referendum or regulated by the legislature4 ,if the people or their representatives should vote to establish a censorship of books1 or to prohibit smoking tobacco1 or to compel church attendance on ,sunday1 that would be democracy2 but it would not be a gain for freedom4 ,self-government is impossible when every private matter is turned into a public question4 ,men with third-rate minds--and there are enough of them once they get together to constitute a solid majority--shrink from the responsibility of exercising private judgment1 but are prepared and eager to decide any matter whatsoever once it becomes a public issue4 ,they are1 moreover1 disinclined to allow a large measure of personal freedom to one another or to any one4 ,self-government in a democracy therefore means not private judgment but national independence1 universal franchise1 and no constitutional restraints upon the will of the majority4 ,in common practice1 8liberty0 is the legally recognized right of the crowd to tell the individual what he may not do in matters which concern only himself4 ,any man has liberty when he has a voice in the government of the land4 ,he has freedom when he governs himself4 ,his freedom may be prevented either by lack of judgment or by outside interference4 ,the effect of education in the community is to improve judgment and lessen outside interference with the exercise of it4 ,properly defined1 a liberal is a person who strives for precisely these results4 ,liberalism1 in this sense1 and education are the same4 ,i said that a man is free when he acts according to his own judgment4 ,this does not mean that the free man is able to choose anything he wishes4 ,necessity constrains him just as it does the unfree4 ,it means1 however1 that his assent or dissent in any matter follows from his personal insight into the implications of the situation4 ,he does the required thing even when he does not like it1 because he has the intelligence to see that it is required under the circumstances4 ,he is not compelled to take some other person's word as to what is required4 ,he is free not only because he is independent of the will of another in reaching his decision1 but primarily because he knows what he is doing and why he does it4 ,there is a very old1 extra-canonical legend according to which the ,lord ,jesus1 passing by1 saw a man digging in the field on the ,sabbath day1 and he said to the man1 8,if thou knowest what thou doest1 blessd art thou2 if thou knowest not1 cursd art thou40 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,the ,,appreciation ,,of ,,human ,,worth ,i have a number of neighbors whose sons and daughters are at present suffering the agony of preparation for college4 ,what a nightmare it is possible to make of education6 ,three or four years of attendance at expensive private schools where the sole aim seems to be to get the student through his college entrance examinations with a passing grade4 ,students terrified1 parents anxiously awaiting reports of work done or not done1 teachers tired out1 one student fails in his ,latin1 another in algebra1 a third is sent home because of loss of interest in study1 and there are tears1 family conferences1 special tutors1 reviews and memory drills in vacation time1 until finally the student 8gets through0 and drops the subject1 his interest in it dead4 ,i am not one of those who believe that education may be achieved without effort4 ,but study is not work only1 it is also a form a enjoyment4 ,there are many things which it is a delight to know1 not because such knowledge is useful or is required for a passing grade1 but because it is an aid to the appreciation of value4 ,it is fun4 ,there are people who attend concerts from a sense of duty1 striving thereby to improve their souls1 but it is possible to listen to music with no other motive than the wish to enjoy it4 ,it is the person who enjoys music who in the end becomes the discriminating listener4 ,the same is true of the reading of books4 ,william ,james once said the classics are necessary to education because knowledge of them makes us 8connoisseurs of human excellence40 ,literature has a charm which is often lost when it is made 8required reading40 ,an intelligent boy of seventeen who was having difficulty with his school work recently said to me1 8,i think it is because ,i really am not interested1 and the things ,i wish to know they do not teach in our school because the colleges will not give credit for them40 ,when ,i asked him what study would interest him1 he replied that he thought he would like to try philosophy and requested me to suggest a good book for a beginner1 declaring that he intended to take up this study in addition to his school work4 ,i have no doubt that had he made this request of one of his instructors he would have been told that he had better spend his time preparing his lessons4 ,but ,i took a chance that his interest might be genuine1 and told him that ,i thought he would find ,plato's 8,republic0 a good introduction to ,philosophy1 and suggested that he read the first four books4 ,during the previous semester he had been permitted to drop one of his courses because reading was 8too great a strain upon his eyes40 ,when ,i next saw the boy ,i inquired how he had got on with the 8,republic40 ,he said1 8,why1 ,i found it so exciting that ,i did not stop at the end of the first four books1 but read all ten40 ,when ,i asked him what he found interesting in the dialogues1 he said1 8,i do not understand many of the conclusions they reached1 but ,i enjoyed listening in on those conversations4 ,they are so logical1 and ,i liked the way ,socrates leads the others along1 springs surprises on them1 and makes them see what they mean by what they say4 ,i begin to see what the difference is between thinking and just talking--and many passages were beautiful also40 ,for the first time in his life1 he had realized that the pursuit of knowledge could be an interesting adventure4 ,moreover1 his parents told me that he had shown improvement in his regular studies4 ,when the ancients said that knowledge is knowledge of the good1 they meant in part that with the increase of knowledge comes better discrimination4 ,if education is for anything it is that we learn to choose the good4 ,by the 8good0 ,i do not mean good in general1 or good as an abstraction of philosophical discourse1 nor the conventionally good4 ,i mean any excellence whatsoever4 ,in order to see and appreciate excellence1 you must yourself have struggled for it4 ,he who has never striven to surpass himself1 surrounds himself with the shoddy1 the second-rate1 the cheap4 ,in matters of taste1 of sentiment1 of good workmanship1 he cannot distinguish between that which is genuine and that which is imitation4 ,in matters of taste there is much that is purely arbitrary and conventional1 so that what is good taste in one age may be bad taste in another4 ,nevertheless1 there is a psychological soundness in our use of the word taste to designate certain judgments of worth4 ,it implies some degree of self-restraint1 a sensitiveness to subtle stimuli which comes with the habit of giving attention to minute differences of quality4 ,in contrast1 animals which gulp down their food hastily and in great quantities do not pause to taste it4 ,similarly1 the mind which has not disciplined itself 8swallows things whole10 as we say4 ,it is not disturbed by the incongruous or the hideous4 ,it is sensitive only to coarser stimuli3 it prefers the hackneyed1 the raucous1 the loud and flashy4 ,i once knew a church in a small town which worshipped in a plain rectangular old building with colonial windows4 ,when a rival denomination erected a monstrous building with a huge circular stained-glass window facing the street1 the group which worshipped in the old structure became dissatisfied4 ,after much difficulty in securing the money1 a committee was sent to a near-by city and purchased a quantity of gaudily-colored translucent paper similar to that one used occasionally to see on the front door of a saloon4 ,this paper the congregation proudly pasted on its colonial window panes4 ,the architecture of the average church in this country and the hymns the people sing are much better indications of the level of their spiritual life than are the creeds they profess4 ,the general cultural level of the population is revealed by the style of houses men build1 the kind of furniture with which they surround themselves1 the type of motion picture which becomes popular1 the magazines on the news stands1 the character of the journals which have the largest circulation1 the 8song hits0 of the day1 the programs which are broadcast for the radio4 ,these things all have spiritual significance1 they indicate a prevailing type of reaction toward all the values of experience4 ,the public is curiously indifferent to the lack of genuineness of sentiment2 8hocum0 and bathos2 deliberate and obvious counterfeits of emotional reactions characterize practically every appeal to the general public4 ,think of the popularity of a play like 8,abie's ,irish ,rose10 or of that1 a generation ago1 of a song like 8,after the ,ball10 or of a book like 8,the ,man ,nobody ,knows40 ,think of the typical ,chautauqua lecture or political address4 ,think of the notorious insincerity of the motion pictures4 ,people ask1 8,what is the matter with the movies80 ,the answer is1 the audience4 ,half-educated people do not seem to be sensitive to the difference either between good and bad workmanship or between artistic sincerity and insincerity4 ,standards of value1 in all the older forms of art1 have been set by the knowing ones4 ,the artist was obliged to submit his creation to the criticism of persons who had some background of tradition and general knowledge4 ,with the quantity production methods of the motion pictures1 it becomes possible for the first time to make the man on the street the critic1 on whose judgment depends survival1 and as the ,new ,testament says1 8,by what judgment ye judge1 ye shall be judged40 ,in selecting our preferences we pass judgment on ourselves4 ,the multitude dupes itself with its desire to get something for nothing2 hence its love of the miraculous4 ,all appeals to it are thus over-capitalized1 and made to appear grand and glorious4 ,shirking the effort necessary for real achievement leads to the preference of quackery4 ,there is a story that a physician who had yielded to the temptation to make easy money by advertising himself as the discoverer of a magic remedy for disease1 received a call from a former friend and colleague who disapproved of the practice4 ,when the visitor sought to persuade him that such methods would not pay1 the other stepped to the window and said1 8,come now1 look with me at the faces of the people passing along the street2 how many of them do you think would become your patients and how many mine80 ,i am told by a professor of biology who gives a pre-medical course in a ,western university that less than a third of the cases of sickness in the country are treated by reputable members of the medical profession4 ,i have been somewhat interested in the popularization of psychology4 ,on the occasion of a visit to a great public library1 ,i was assured by the librarian that there was a tremendous popular demand for books which deal with the subject of psychology4 ,i was shown a section in which these books were kept so that they would be easily accessible4 ,the greater number were written by persons who had no knowledge of the subject4 ,they were utterly misleading4 ,psychology was commonly presented as a wonderful1 easily practiced device for performing miracles1 a system of secret formulae for curing disease1 for getting into harmony with the divine source of all being1 for manipulating the 8subconscious0 in ways that assured peace1 prosperity1 self-mastery1 and power over others4 ,i think it is a conservative statement to say that nine-tenths of the stuff that bears the name 8,psychology0 in popular magazines devoted to the subject1 in widely advertised books1 in lectures and correspondence courses in self-improvement1 is pure charlatanism and sleight-of-hand arranged for those who wish to indulge themselves in systematic self-deception4 ,it is not mere lack of information which causes people to prefer the cheap4 ,with respect to the things of the mind1 people have various standards of living4 ,a teacher of economics says that by a person's standard of living we mean to designate those things which he insists upon having even if it is necessary to give up marriage and parenthood to possess them4 ,however much people may desire and strive for comfort and abundance1 from the standpoint of economics1 those who marry and beget children in poverty have a low standard of living4 ,hence the standard is not directly a function of the amount of per capita wealth1 but is psychologically determined4 ,and the standard often applies to other things besides material possession4 ,persons who have a high standard are often poor4 ,they might easily turn their efforts to the acquiring of wealth1 but they will deprive themselves and postpone marriage for the sake of some cultural interest1 education1 a scholarly or literary career4 ,they will go without a motor car in order to have money to buy books4 ,it would be interesting to make a comparative study of the families of college professors and certain groups of artisans1 who have about the same income as that of the average professor1 in order to see which type had the greater number of children1 and which sent the greater number of their young people to college1 also which possessed the greater number of automobiles or radios4 ,thus the standard of living applies not to what one wishes to possess1 but to what one is willing to pay for a certain kind of living4 ,it has to do with quality1 not mere quantity4 ,this principle applies to intellectual standards of value4 ,people are content with the second-rate because it is easier4 ,with learning there comes a new reverence4 ,perhaps ,i might speak of it as the educated man's faith4 ,respect for the excellent is possible only to a mind which has learned to recognize distinctions of worth4 ,an undiscriminating multitude clings to its idols or substitutes new idolatries for old precisely because it is blind to those differences of value which constitute the meaning of existence for mankind4 ,people seek something 8given0 to believe in1 some universal formula of salvation1 because they are unable to distinguish the relative worth of concrete experiences actual or possible4 ,those who shrink from the responsibility of their own yes or no take refuge in an imaginary cosmic yes and no4 ,but ground your faith in the difference between the better and the worse1 and you have a faith which grows stronger with the increase of knowledge4 ,all other 8faiths0 grow weaker because they are substitutes and evasions1 futile attempts to possess value without the exercise of discrimination4 ,if existence as a whole has a purpose or a universal meaning1 ,i do not see how our minds could know it1 or what use it could ever be to the mind that grasped it4 ,i have tried to show that our thoughts and beliefs are human ways1 that our thinking is partial4 ,as ,james said1 all meanings depend upon the fact that we are 8interested spectators0 and prefer some things to others4 ,aside from our human interests and preferences1 everything being so far as we can see equally inevitable1 has the same degree of existence1 or right to be1 and all is equally important4 ,nothing then has any special importance4 ,and if nothing is important1 nothing has any meaning4 ,it might be said that each thing has meaning for the whole4 ,but since the whole lies beyond our ken1 such a statement does not help us much4 ,the world of meanings and of truths therefore does not have an independent existence but is related to our preferences and is a human creation4 ,i am not1 however1 at present concerned with the problem of the meaning of truth4 ,truth is itself a value4 ,i am trying to state a simple creed by which a man may best order his life and discover that which an intelligent mind may reverence4 ,it is1 8,i believe in the distinction of worth40 ,the loss of belief in distinction turns both society and the world of values upside down4 ,it is symptomatic of the dominance of mediocrity4 ,with the degradation of power there is a corresponding degradation of value4 ,the power which rules the modern world is the power of numbers4 ,many will say it is the power of money4 ,this too is a numerical force1 having nothing to do with quality or the discrimination of value3 the possession of money does not as such lift the possessor out of the mass4 ,there is much talk about the conflict of the masses with the capitalists1 but since on both sides the struggle is one for economic advantage rather than for spiritual value1 it may be regarded merely as the conflict between successful and unsuccessful mass units over a common interest4 ,money power and the power of numbers are not really a confrontation of contrasting valuations of the possibilities of experience4 ,on both sides the conflict is waged on about the same level and for identical ends4 ,capitalism is not really the foe of democracy1 it is democracy's first-born child4 ,the self-made successful business man is the 8success0 in democratic society1 its ideal4 ,he is what the mass as a whole strives to become4 ,some people think this is individualism4 ,infrequently it is1 usually it is not4 ,dollars still are numbered1 and money power is the power of numbers4 ,its power is the same as concentrated mass power1 since it is of this same order4 ,we speak of 8amassing0 money4 ,the mass idea and the ideals of the mass prevail all round4 ,capitalism holds sway by virtue of its mass appeal1 and by virtue of the fact that the capitalist is the realization of the average man's ambition4 ,the mass because it is powerful and can grant or withold favors1 lords it over the realm of values4 ,emphasis is laid upon that which produces an identical type of reaction in a maximum number of people4 ,the commonplace is rated high because it is the average4 ,the rare1 the unique1 the excellent1 cannot be syndicated and drops out of consideration4 ,the standards which prevail are those of undifferentiated men4 ,mass appeal asserts the equal importance of all individuals1 as if a man's worth consisted in his mere 8number-oneness40 ,this is the democratic dogma of equality4 ,critics of the dogma frequently say that it represents the foolish attempt to declare all men equal in all respects4 ,i doubt this4 ,it seems to me that this dogma is perfectly correct so far as it goes4 ,it declares all men to be equal before the law4 ,and law is no respecter of persons1 hence all men are equal before that which does not respect their personalities4 ,which is to say that all men are equal in one respect--that each is a numerical unit when he is considered as a member of the mass4 ,it is not denied that men may be unequal in other respects4 ,the point is that these 8other respects0 do not get a hearing4 ,but the only recognition of the individual that amounts to anything is that which recognizes the differences of one from another4 ,when we emphasize excellence1 good workmanship1 sincerity1 ability1 virtue1 wisdom1 we have in mind matters concerning which the differences among men are the differences between superiority and inferiority4 ,hence discrimination of value is recognition of distinctions of worth among men4 ,lose sight of distinctions of worth--of the very desirability of distinction as a social good--and all values decline to the level of mediocrity4 ,in the supremacy of man as mass the mediocre man1 he who in all things corresponds to type1 and is most reducible to average1 is ,king4 ,for him books and journals are published2 clergymen and editors speak for him and say what they think he believes2 laws are made in his interest4 ,programs for the radio and motion pictures are made to please him4 ,his dilemmas are held up as the dilemmas of every one4 ,his goods become the standards to which all are expected to conform4 ,he has purchasing power and he has votes4 ,he can make and unmake heroes4 ,he determines the direction of the course of events in his day and generation4 ,society moves in the direction of the type of man about whom there is most general concern1 the man whose preferences set the pace4 ,the goal set by 8modern ideas0 would seem to be not the attainment of a higher level of values1 not greater personal worth among men1 but the more complete supremacy of man as mass4 ,recognition of personal worth is discouraged1 for it necessitates the admission that some persons are by nature1 or as a result of effort1 superior to others4 ,such an admission is contrary to the idealization of the mass1 which is the worship of the power of numbers4 ,personal distinction is frowned upon and discounted4 ,differences of superiority or inferiority are1 if grudgingly admitted1 said to be the result not of difference in native endowment or of individual achievement1 but mere products of environment4 ,hence human excellence is an accident4 ,there is a wide-spread tendency to minimize and deny the significance of personality4 ,an advanced school of psychology holds that belief in the existence of personality is a superstition4 ,personality is simply the way the nervous organization works and is similar to the running of a gas engine4 ,any hereditary differences of capacity or of teachableness are negligible4 ,all individual traits are reducible to conditioned reflexes which are what they are because of the coincidence of certain stimuli4 ,i am what ,i am because somebody co-operating with the environment conditioned me in this way4 ,i have absolutely nothing to do with the matter4 ,consciousness1 interest1 attention1 will1 have no place in this psychology4 ,the same may be said of all attempts to explain the phenomena of life in mechanistic terms4 ,historic movements are explained as if individuals had nothing to do with them4 ,social change is said to be the product of impersonal economic forces1 and progress the result of mass action4 ,thus the ,great ,man at best only represents the mass tendencies of his times4 ,even for discoveries in science and creative achievement in the arts1 the mass is given credit although it may have resisted these things when they were new4 ,i believe that such attempts to depersonalize humanity are consciously or unconsciously motivated by the wish to avoid the recognition of the possibility of superiority in an age when the values of civilization are largely committed to the tender custody of man acting as mass in the struggle for power4 ,whether distinctions of worth are recognized or not1 deny that they may exist1 deny that men may have greater or less worth in themselves1 and human achievement becomes merely the attainment of bodily comfort1 or social power1 or satisfaction of egoistic desires4 ,there are many who would hold that such is the case4 ,but our existence is not measured by what we can get or what we can do1 but by what with our getting and doing we may become4 ,mankind differs from other animals not merely in getting and doing1 man is himself different1 and is more than they4 ,it is in this that his evolution is seen4 ,the same is true of the individuals in the mass2 some are more in themselves than others4 ,so obvious a truth would never require statement except in a standardized1 crowd-manipulating age in which there is much that encourages the inferior to abound4 ,i am not suggesting that we devise some plan for picking out all the superior individuals for preferment and honor1 or that we weed out the inferior ones by some process of elimination1 or that the educated man should or could pose as a superior person4 ,he who must make an effort to exhibit any excellence has attained little of it4 ,if the world is spiritually right side up1 people will be selected by the standards of value that prevail4 ,when you buy a newspaper1 vote a party ticket1 go to a theatre1 listen to a lecture1 read a book1 express a moral sentiment or show any preference whatever1 you are doing more than just that thing4 ,our daily choices determine what we ourselves become1 and they do something else also2 the total of them has survival value for some particular type of man4 ,we are thus daily deciding whose dilemmas shall determine the quality of living1 and what kind of human life is to be lived on this planet1 and who shall thrive and who shall perish4 ,human progress is not something we achieve directly by joining a movement and forcing our convictions upon others4 ,it is something we help determine every day in the choices we make4 ,the elements of it come like the variations which appear in the structure of plants and animals4 ,and as ,darwin said it is the function of the environment1 in causing modifications of species1 to select certain variants for survival and to eliminate others2 so also in the progress of civilization do our daily preferences operate4 ,natural selection and primitive custom operate blindly and automatically and without reason4 ,it is because education improves judgment and the appreciation of value that ,thomas ,davidson spoke of it as 8conscious evolution40 ,the education of a people at any time is its answer to the riddle of life4 ,this answer is more than giving an account of the processes of nature2 it is the opening and closing of doors upon the possibilities of experience--and upon various human types4 ,thus education is selective4 ,it is the sifting out of the relative worth of men4 ,it finds the significance of living to be the struggle for excellence4 ,its goal is a higher type of living man and woman4 ,its great task therefore1 in the modern world1 is the reassertion of the inequalities which mass appeal ignores1 the rediscovery for the modern spirit of the distinction between superiority and inferiority4 ,it is impossible to lift any mind from a lower to a higher plane when that which distinguishes one plane from another is obliterated by placing all on a level4 ,appreciation of distinctions of worth is an essential of a liberal education1 as it is of the whole spiritual life of man4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,education ,,and ,,work ,in the closing sentence of the preceding chapter1 ,i used the words 8spiritual life40 ,perhaps it is unnecessary to say that ,i did not have in mind anything vaguely metaphysical1 supernatural or mystical4 ,i meant the phrase to designate a hierarchy of values which is possible to an organism capable of exercising choice among its experiences4 ,it is in the sense that it deals with qualities and their relative importance that education may be said to be spiritual1 spiritual in a purely naturalistic sense4 ,it is the ordering of interests and habit patterns so that behavior is characterized by a tone and a significance that it would not otherwise possess4 ,there are those who write and speak of education as if the mind and its ideas existed in a world apart from the world of things4 ,it is possible for a man to pursue his studies in complete isolation from the world about him4 ,but as mental life is possible only in response to some environment1 such pursuit of learning merely substitutes an artificial and sequestered environment for the actual one4 ,if the meanings and values disclosed in this artificial environment remain permanently different from those which might be realized in the world of our daily tasks and relationships1 such education is merely an elaborate escape from reality4 ,the educated mind responds to our common world4 ,it differs from the uneducated mind not in that it responds to a different set of situations1 but in that it responds with a different system of values4 ,education is not so much a special interest separated from other interests as it is a method of transforming all our interests4 ,it ought to have something of importance to do with work1 since most people are engaged in some form of work most of their time4 ,and when in an industrial age like the present1 the whole life of society revolves about the system of production of wealth1 it is impossible to precede with education and ignore the challenge to it of our industrialism4 ,it may not be the task of education to provide a solution of the labor problem4 ,but education certainly fails of its function when men are unable to retain its values while struggling with such problems4 ,people rarely behave like educated human beings when they are confronted by an economic issue4 ,liberality of outlook1 tolerance1 temperance of judgment1 self-control1 ability to see when one is making oneself ridiculous1 respect for the truth1 are not often found on either side of an industrial conflict4 ,fantastic notions of the relation of education to work abound because there is much confusion about the meaning and value of work for human personality4 ,labor is at the same time idealized and despised4 ,ruskin1 ,carlyle1 and many humanitarians have held labor to be most praiseworthy4 ,work is a blessing1 in it are peace of mind and self-respect4 ,work is noble1 and it ennobles him who does it4 ,a contemporary writer on the subject of education warns us that the hand may not be 8dishonored with impunity40 ,by dishonored he means that hand work may be considered inferior to brain work to the extent that there is great disparity between the rewards4 ,distinction has been made between work of hand and work of brain4 ,the former is real work4 ,once in a parade of working men in ,pittsburgh1 ,i saw on a banner carried at the head of a column of metal workers1 these words in very large capitals1 ,we ,work4 ,the implication was that some others1 slightly to their discredit1 did not really work4 ,from the idealization of work to the idealization of the worker is a logical step4 ,the working class1 a class which in earlier centuries was looked upon as the despised 8proletariat10 attained a new status in nineteenth century thought4 ,men began to look to labor as the one class capable of righting the age-long wrongs of humanity1 and to believe the control of society by organized labor to be the only means to the establishment of peace and justice4 ,most of the writers who praised labor were themselves members of the so-called leisure class4 ,a few like ,tolstoi vainly tried to support themselves by manual toil4 ,many who wrote convincingly of the blessings of labor did not personally avail themselves of its ennobling advantages4 ,in the earlier humanitarian sentiment of the nobility of labor1 the worker was envisaged as a free and independent person in whose wholesome activity there was healthfulness4 ,good workmanship commanded general respect and revealed the dignity of labor4 ,there were simplicity and grandeur in the primitive act of a man eating his bread in the sweat of his brow4 ,he who lived close to earth gained something of the silent1 calm majesty of nature4 ,able to cope with natural forces and giving mankind as good as he received1 he need ask favor of no man4 ,rousseau says1 8,outside of society1 an isolated man1 owing nothing to any one1 has a right to live as he pleases2 but in society1 where he necessarily lives at the expense of others1 he owes them in labor the price of his support2 to this there is no exception4 ,to work1 then1 is a duty indispensable to social man4 ,rich or poor1 powerful or weak1 every idle citizen is a knave4 8,now of all the occupations which can furnish subsistence to man1 that which approaches nearest to the state of ,nature is manual labor2 of all the conditions the most independent of fortune and of men1 is that of the artisan4 ,the artisan depends only on his labor4 ,he is free--as free as the husbandman is a slave2 for the latter is dependent on his field1 whose harvest is at the discretion of others4 ,the enemy1 the prince1 a powerful neighbor1 may take away from him this field2 on account of it he may be harassed in a thousand ways2 but wherever there is a purpose to harass the artisan1 his baggage is soon ready2 he folds his arms and walks off4 ,still1 agriculture is the first employment of man2 it is the most honorable1 the most useful1 and consequently the most noble that he can practice4 ,i do not tell ,emile to learn agriculture1 for he knows it4 ,all rustic employments are familiar to him2 it is with them that he began1 and to them he will ever be returning4 ,i say to him1 then1 ,cultivate the heritage of your fathers4 ,but if you lose this heritage1 or if you have none1 what are you to do8 ,learn a trade4444 ,i wish to give him a rank which he cannot lose1 a rank which will honor him as long as he lives4 ,i wish to raise him to the state of manhood2 and whatever you may say of it1 he will have fewer equals by this title than by all those which he will derive from you4444 ,it is important to learn a trade1 less for the sake of knowing the trade than for overcoming the prejudices which despise it4 ,you say you will never be compelled to work for a living4 ,ah1 so much the worse--so much the worse for you6 ,but never mind2 do not work from necessity1 but work for glory4444 8,you enter the first shop whose trade you have learned3 #8,foreman1 ,i am in need of employment4' #8,fellow-workman1 stand there and go to work4' ,before noon comes you have earned your dinner1 and if you are diligent and frugal1 before the week has passed you will have the wherewithal to live for another week2 you will have lived a free1 healthy1 true1 industrious and just man4 ,it is not to lose one's time to gain it in this way40 ,here as always ,rousseau is romantic4 ,this is all very beautiful--until you try it4 ,i am inclined to think that most men who entertain this view have never worked for a living4 ,the happy few amongst the toilers of earth may here and there have enjoyed this independence4 ,it is certainly not the experience of the rank and file in our present industrial system4 ,with the development of the system1 and the consequent organization of labor1 the idealization of work is supplanted by the idealization of the labor movement and its aims4 ,in the writings of ,marx1 labor as work is represented merely as so much homogeneous effort-filled time which is measured and reckoned in strictly numerical terms1 as if its qualitative or personal elements could be ignored or were non-existent4 ,skill and artistic genius are represented as the mere telescoping or contraction of a number of labor-time units into a given period--a speeding up1 as it were1 not something inherently superior in kind4 ,this point of view might satisfy one who was concerned only with the number of hours of employment and indifferent to what he did or how he did it4 ,but it takes little account of that pride in achievement without which those who assert the dignity of labor are making a virtue of necessity4 ,marxians assert with much truth that pride in achievement is crushed by the methods of machine production and by the exploitation of labor under a system of 8wage slavery40 ,but this is to abandon the older idealization of work and of workmanship4 ,labor is now viewed realistically as an irksome servitude4 ,marxians argue that labor creates all wealth and is therefore justly entitled to it all4 ,it is beside our point to enter into a discussion of this proposition4 ,i am merely seeking to show that in this philosophy1 emphasis is shifted from the idealization of work to the idealization of the labor movement itself4 ,a ,marxian could agree with ,aristotle that mechanical toil is debasing1 only he would add 8under the present system40 ,emancipate labor1 give it its rights1 reward it justly and force all to do their share of it1 and then work will be ennobling4 ,which is to say1 work will be ennobling only in an ideal society4 ,this position is an attempt to restore with one hand what is taken away with the other4 ,work is robbed of its dignity when excellence in it is not thought worthy of consideration1 when superiority of workmanship is represented merely as a greater quantity of abstract labor-time4 ,advocates of the cause of labor do not say much about the distinction between superior and inferior workmanship4 ,and here we have an example of the mass-psychology of which ,i spoke earlier4 ,in the degree that you consider men as mass1 you ignore individual worth4 ,there has been a slight tendency to regard labor as an instinct4 ,the impulse to work is of course a universal human trait4 ,work is normal1 natural1 right1 and those who have no desire for it are going contrary to the demands of human nature4 ,some such position as this is taken by ,mr4 ,veblin in his delightful satire1 8,the ,instinct of ,workmanship40 ,the author of this book holds with ,mc,dougall that man has an instinct to work1 but that unfortunately the instinct has been corrupted4 ,this corruption began in primitive times with elders1 medicine men and warriors4 ,and throughout historic time1 with each succeeding privileged class1 human nature has become steadily more perverted and abject1 until this instinct reaches its final stage of corruption in the present capitalist system4 ,thus a last count is added to the indictment of capitalism4 ,it has corrupted labor's instinct of workmanship4 ,i have never known whether ,mr4 ,veblin meant his humor to be taken seriously1 or intended his book to be a subtle thrust at the theologians4 ,his argument may be regarded as a clever parody of the doctrine of the fall of man in ,adam's sin1 with the consequent curse upon all the descendants of our first parent4 ,in any case1 his contention adds somewhat to the confusion as to the true significance of labor4 ,i have not found evidence to prove that man has an instinct of workmanship4 ,hence the relation of education to work is not that of the rational control of instinct1 for if the knowledge of simple labor processes were innate1 men would not even need 8practical0 education in them4 ,not all men have held a high opinion of labor4 ,nietzsche says work is a disgrace4 ,there are doubtless many people who secretly agree with him4 ,i have known working men who suffered from an 8inferiority complex40 ,it is possible that the protest of labor is not wholly against injustice1 but is in part a protest against the feeling of inferiority4 ,it is not uncommon to find young people who are ashamed to work4 ,it is not only among the rich and privileged that we find those who look down on labor4 ,the same attitude exists in all classes1 for much the same reason that the majority of people despise the poor and emulate the rich4 ,work has in the past been the lot of the slave4 ,most men are at present driven to labor by necessity1 and many entertain the hope of escaping from the necessity as soon as possible4 ,we have even ,biblical authority for this attitude4 ,the punishment of ,adam for his act of disobedience is a life of labor4 ,henceforth he must earn his living1 tilling the ground and eating his bread in the sweat of his brow--in other words1 labor is a curse4 ,and so it is regarded by the law of the land4 ,when a man is convicted of a crime the court sentences him to prison and to 8hard labor0--until such time as he is pardoned and may return to his career of crime and life of leisure4 ,it is interesting to note the place assigned to work by the ,hebrew and ,christian religions which1 having their origin in the folkways and the daydreams of the masses1 are very sympathetic to the poor toilers of earth4 ,yet we are told that to keep the ,sabbath holy1 the day must not be defiled with labor4 ,there is no mention of the blessedness of labor in the ,beatitudes2 the command to consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field which toil not neither do they spin and yet are clothed and fed1 reveals a spirit very remote from that of industry4 ,heaven is thought of as a place of eternal rest4 ,a similar popular valuation of labor is revealed in the myths of antiquity4 ,the gods do not work4 ,vulcan1 the exception to this rule1 is always made to appear ridiculous among the gods2 they are said to laugh at his awkwardness4 ,the 8labors0 of ,hercules are not really toil but exhibitions of miraculous strength4 ,for the most part in the legends which have expressed the wish-fancies of mankind1 the hero does everything but work2 he fights1 makes love1 kills dragons1 goes on strange voyages1 wins a kingdom1 in fact1 his adventures may be interpreted as symbolic expressions of the wish of mankind to escape the common burden of toil4 ,i think1 moreover1 men belittle their work when they accept the broad distinction between the 8brain0 worker and the 8hand0 worker4 ,psychologists say that thinking is as truly bodily activity as is any other form of labor1 and there is very little so-called work that does not require thought4 ,there is every conceivable gradation from that labor which is almost wholly routine1 to that which consists of nothing but solving problems4 ,no one knows the point where labor ceases to be brain work and becomes manual4 ,the world's work requires of men many kinds of activity1 some of great importance1 some of little4 ,there is no use either of idealizing it or in despising it4 ,men do their work because they have to and are neither noble nor ignoble because of it4 ,the problem is how can ,i in my situation make my position a place where a man has really lived and toiled and thought and realized values through his effort1 and has not permitted himself to become an automaton or a fool4 ,the labor problem however tends to become one primarily not of the significance of work at all1 but of improving the material conditions of those who toil4 ,this latter problem is wholly justifiable4 ,but because of the prevailing mental confusion about labor itself1 it is generally assumed that if a man works he should receive a different sort of 8education0 from that of other educated people1 and that his training should be the means to ends that have little to do with interest in education as such4 ,there are those who always view the education of workers strictly from the standpoint of its value for social security4 ,just as a well-known statistician not long ago advised the ,american investor to support the ,church1 whether or not he agreed with its doctrines1 because the influence of the ,church upon the masses1 he said1 was on the side of invested capital1 so there are those who believe that giving educational opportunity to working men is a sort of premium paid upon a general policy of social insurance4 ,the fear of the menace of labor often inspires efforts for the education of workers in the hope that with better knowledge labor will become safe and sane4 ,there is a wide-spread belief that education like religion is a conservative influence4 ,if working men were only better informed they would have a more sympathetic understanding of the intentions of their employers2 they would show some appreciation of their economic opportunities under our free institutions2 they would know better than to go on strike1 or listen to their union leaders1 or dally with socialistic ideas4 ,perhaps so1 but ,i have yet to see an educational effort which was consciously directed to these ends that was either sincere or intellectually respectable4 ,from a wholly different point of view1 the relation of education to work would seem to present no problem at all4 ,work itself is said to be the only genuine method of education4 ,a popular writer who holds advanced ideas on this subject1 says that the four years at college are wasted1 that 8as early as fifteen or sixteen a youth should be brought into contact with realities and kept in contact with realities from that age on4 ,that does not mean that he will make an end of learning then1 but only that he will henceforth go on learning--and continue learning for the rest of his life--in relation not to the #8subjects' of a curriculum1 but to the realities he is attacking40 ,in this passage one detects the odor of ,rousseau4 ,we discussed this theory when we were considering liberal education as animal training4 ,at best it is but half true4 ,if learning necessarily came from contact with realities1 every one would be educated4 ,but there is no assurance that people will see the significance of the realities they 8attack40 ,the importance of experimental study is not a new discovery4 ,science has long employed the laboratory method4 ,and even laboratory work1 work done in an environment which is carefully arranged to stimulate discovery1 does not always develop habits of independent judgment4 ,the notion that experience is necessarily the best teacher is popular4 ,the newspapers encourage it4 ,if a man makes a success in business1 interviewers seek his opinion on every conceivable subject4 ,in worker's classes there is occasionally a student who has no doubt that his experience in the shop is a better education than that which people get from books4 ,such students do not as a rule gain much from study1 for no matter what subject is under discussion1 they always know more about it than the instructor4 ,experience as such teaches just what is experienced and nothing more4 ,few minds are able to reflect judiciously upon experience or to draw correct conclusions from it4 ,labor is something that can be known only by one who has experienced it1 and this experience is important for anyone who desires a broad knowledge of human life4 ,but it is with work as it is with travel3 each is an aid to education only as it quickens insight4 ,the man on the ,bowery who boasts that he has traveled over ,america from coast to coast may really never have left the ,bowery2 in each place he has visited1 he finds himself in the same sort of lodging house1 in the same environment1 among the same sort of companions1 all with the same interests4 ,so with many kinds of work4 ,much of it is mere routine4 ,he who from day to day does the same thing1 until he is able to perform the movements with a minimum of effort and attention1 is certainly acquiring a habit1 but we have seen that not all habit formation is education4 ,those who work with certain kinds of machinery frequently complain of the monotony of their work4 ,i think that one of the serious objections to such work is that it has so little educational value4 ,perhaps this objection may be offset by the fact that machine production makes possible a shortening of the working day and hence gives the worker more leisure time4 ,some think that adult education is important because it gives people something to do in their unemployed hours4 ,but people do not always improve their minds during the time when they are free from labor1 and many whose work is routine1 possess by nature or develop routine habits of mind which interfere with their education4 ,they become victims of fixed ideas1 of slogans and catchwords4 ,perhaps the nearest approach to a real integration of education and work is vocational training4 ,this is the 8education0 which most people seek4 ,universities offer an increasing number of courses in practical subjects such as engineering1 mining1 business methods4 ,various trades are taught in public schools4 ,by far the greater number of courses offered to adult students are sold with the promise that they will increase the purchaser's efficiency and 8put more pay in his envelope40 ,i have already discussed this useful knowledge4 ,both the individual and society profit by it4 ,and in addition to its practical advantages1 there is a sincerity and lack of pretense about such education which distinguish it from much of the traditional education4 ,it must be thorough or it cannot meet the test of practical experience4 ,if men learned mechanics with no more thoroughness than that which characterizes the study of the classics1 the country would go into bankruptcy4 ,but as ,i have tried to show1 this training for practical efficiency is too narrow4 ,it does not necessarily widen the student's interests or deepen his insight or improve his judgment concerning matters that lie outside the range of his technical information4 ,advocates of this type of education often become partisan and declare that it alone is education4 ,it is doubtless too soon to speculate upon the effects of our new policy of reducing immigration to the point where it is almost negligible4 ,whether the effect is to intensify competition among working people1 or to lessen it because of a labor shortage1 in either case the result is obvious4 ,somebody must do the actual work of the country4 ,we shall soon have a working class in ,america that is more than one generation old4 ,that is1 we are now for the first time in our history tending toward a relatively fixed and permanent working class4 ,the various national strains in it will be held together long enough to become acquainted with one another1 long enough to find more in common than a common opposition to capital1 long enough to develop a working class tradition which is ,american4 ,workers will not only strive individually to become middle class2 they will be obliged to improve their condition as a class4 ,to the economic struggle there will be added efforts for culture4 ,many workers are already beginning to seek education as an aid to a more satisfactory and less sordid existence while working at their tasks4 ,sooner or later education must cease to be the distinguishing mark of a privileged class1 or a device which aids a man to the goal of his ambition2 it must become a universal practice of learning how to live like a civilized being in any occupation4 ,i have said that people's ideas of the relation of education to work are for the most part confused and fantastic1 and that among the causes of this confusion was a misconception of the meaning of labor4 ,we saw that the older romantic idealization of labor gives way to the idealization of ,labor not as work but as an organized movement4 ,there are 8friends of ,labor0 who think of workers' education as class education4 ,and by class education they do not mean the extension of the opportunity for liberal education to people who toil for their daily bread4 ,they are not interested in liberal education1 any more than they are interested in work4 ,they wish working men to be given such instruction as will be useful in the 8class struggle40 ,labor is to have its own kind of education4 ,it is said that educators are but the retainers1 the 8high-brow0 policemen of the vested interests and must always teach what the masters require4 ,the educators' task is to train the masses to be more productive and willing servants of the masters1 to train the sons of the owners in the idealogy so that they may work it to advantage1 to mould them to the type of the most successful and provide them with the insignia and passwords of culture which will show that they belong to the fraternity of the privileged4 ,traditional education1 being nothing but a weapon of the ruling class1 is not for the workers4 ,the workers are now passing through a period of discipline which is preparing them to be the future masters of the world4 ,as the old education was for the old master class1 the new must likewise be the ideology of the future master class1 the organized proletariat4 ,the workers must educate themselves1 for any education that capitalists provide for them will be the capitalist education which enslaves the worker4 ,the new education in proletarian ideals must be wholly different from the past4 ,its aim is not to provide useless and ornamental knowledge1 or escapes and consolations1 but to equip labor to emancipate itself from the rule of capital and to conquer and control industrial society4 ,thus labor education is sometimes little more than old fashioned radical propaganda4 ,where this is not the case1 workers may still be urged to the pursuit of knowledge by militant appeal4 ,the following is quoted from a bulletin issued by a state director of labor education in the ,west3 8,he 7the worker7 lives in a society committed to the practice of buying his labor cheap and selling its product dear1 to the theory that property is sacred and life of little value4 ,in support of this position toward labor1 the press1 the pulpit1 and too often the school lend their aid4444 8,all this passion for justice will accomplish nothing1 believe me1 unless you get knowledge4 ,you may be strong and clamorous1 you may win a victory1 you may effect a revolution1 but you will be trodden down again under the feet of knowledge unless you get it for yourselves4 ,even if you should win that victory1 you will be trodden down again under the feet of knowledge if you leave knowledge in the hands of privilege1 because knowledge will always win over ignorance40 ,if as an individual a man is interested in his education only in so far as it may be to his economic advantage1 we regard him as a rather stupid materialist4 ,it is no less stupidly materialistic to urge a class to seek knowledge merely for the sake of a common economic advantage4 ,as a rule1 ignorant men place a strictly material valuation upon education4 ,if education is nothing but the training of certain groups of animals in the best methods for taking material advantage of one another1 it makes little difference which group wins in the class struggle4 ,this theory means that the belief that education can make a difference in the kind of living is a delusion1 and that the only significant differences in human life are the results of economic forces4 ,have we1 in the notion of a special type of education for the working class1 a correct view of the relation between education and work8 ,let us admit for the sake of argument1 that traditional education is class education1 elaborated in the interest of the dominant elements in society4 ,even then it might have a function other than that of an aid to systematic exploitation4 ,it might serve as a guide to the use of leisure time4 ,it might aid men in discriminating between ends which were worthy of effort and those which were not4 ,it might be necessary for the development of personality1 and to enable people to discover that which would give some intelligible meaning to their existence4 ,hitherto the privilege of the fortunate few1 it might conceivably be a good which may now be the possession of the many4 ,i cannot see that the interests ,i have just mentioned are necessarily those of any particular class4 ,and it would seem that insofar as traditional education has failed1 the failure has been the result of subordinating these very universal human interests to the special economic advantages of a particular class4 ,along with the class spirit1 irrelevant factors enter into education4 ,education becomes illiberal and propagandist1 a drill in herd opinion4 ,prejudice is not removed2 it is intensified4 ,a spirit of intolerance is bred concerning anything which might effect class interest4 ,and now it is argued that since liberal education has been spoiled by one class in making it the servant of its class interests1 the working class is justified in again spoiling it for its own special interests4 ,if men prefer a substitute to the real thing1 it is their own affair4 ,but a person is either being educated or he is not1 and whether he is or not is a matter quite independent of his particular occupation4 ,of course a man's education will make a difference in the spirit in which he works and in the quality of his workmanship1 for it changes the man4 ,if traditional education is unfit for the working man1 it is not fit for anyone4 ,i can see no reason why economic differences should be made the basis of cultural differences4 ,the knowledge that has value should be accessible to all regardless of their economic interests1 or the profession they practice4 ,if a bad education should not be given to a worker1 it is not because he is a working man but because he is a man4 ,anything that it is good for one class to know is good for another4 ,a banker may appreciate ,shakespeare's sonnets1 so may a tailor2 but there is not one ,shakespeare for the first and another ,shakespeare for the second4 ,if biology is worth knowing1 its value is not changed because a machinist studies it4 ,if a philosophy is true1 it is true for the man who can understand it1 whether he be a railroad president or a coal miner4 ,there is no proletarian arithmetic or capitalist algebra or ,marxian astronomy4 ,to be sure1 a worker's education should take account of the economic situations in his environment4 ,so should the education of all men4 ,it is sometimes said that within the ranks of labor there is a new civilization in the making4 ,working men are said to have ideals and standards1 an ethic and culture of their own which are now manifest as working class 8idealogy40 ,i have not noticed it4 ,from the time ,i was a small boy1 ,i have had somewhat unusual opportunities to know the labor movement1 and during the last twenty years have sought to make a psychological study of it4 ,the 8labor point of view0 is commonly that which propagandists wish the worker to have4 ,in ,america the 8revolutionary class-conscious proletariat0 exists only on paper4 ,if we consider the ideals1 habits and ambitions of working people1 it is difficult to conclude that they form a culture group apart4 ,the working man votes for ,al ,smith and ,calvin ,coolidge1 dresses like the grocer and the bank clerk1 drives a motor car if he can afford it1 reads the popular journals1 has about the same ideas of patriotism1 morals1 government1 and success in life as his employer1 and tends in every way to become more and more 8middle class40 ,suppose the change contemplated by many radicals should occur and that there should be a 8social revolution40 ,what of the education of workers then8 ,the worker would still spend his days at the machine or bench4 ,is it not conceivable that men might then in their pursuit of knowledge have some interests other than the economic8 ,under no system should people permit their entire personalities to be drawn into and used up by industry4 ,industry is a means1 not an end4 ,it is in its proper place when it makes possible the achievement of culture4 ,as a man becomes educated1 he should learn so far as circumstances permit1 to put his work in its proper place4 ,the relation of education to work is no different from its relation to all the interests and activities and demands which life makes of us4 ,a community may be said to have a culture only when all men--each in his own way1--cooperate in the realization of certain values1 which give to all their actions and strivings a perspective1 an order1 a meaning4 ,it is in this sense that ,europe in the thirteenth century may be said to have had a culture4 ,in discussing the cultural values of any period of history1 there is danger of over-simplification4 ,the picture which ,i have of that century may not be historically correct1 but it will serve to illustrate my point4 ,catholic ,christianity at the close of the ,middle ,ages possessed a set of values which entered into everything that people did or thought and gave it meaning4 ,the secular did not really exist for the men of that age4 ,all work was religious work4 ,everywhere there was ceremony1 the shrine1 sacredness4 ,the fields were blessed before plowing2 harvest was a gay religious festival4 ,every labor process and every station in society was brought to the service of the common ideal1 and from it gained added significance4 ,for it the peasant tilled the ground1 its themes were the inspiration of the sculptor1 the painter1 the musician1 the builder4 ,in the service of this valuation of the experiences of life the ,king ruled1 the soldier fought1 the monk said his prayers1 the philosopher meditated4 ,the cultural ideal of an age is revealed in the type of man for whom the people have greatest reverence4 ,such a man is the meaning of living for the men of that age4 ,inquire of the thirteenth century in whom is its ideal realized1 and the answer is clear4 ,it is realized in the saints4 ,i do not mean to suggest that everybody in those days was saintly4 ,but there was common agreement that human life existed for the achievement of sainthood4 ,people achieved it in varying degrees and by methods which appear strange to us of the twentieth century4 ,but all men hoped to achieve it in the next world if not in this4 ,the existence of the saints in ,heaven was a storehouse of merit upon which all could draw4 ,and one living saint was held to be enough to justify the existence of an entire age4 ,i trust it is not necessary for me to add that the saint is not my ideal of the meaning of life4 ,ideals of asceticism and other-worldliness have no interest for me4 ,but ,i wonder what would happen if people should 8go in0 for education with the unanimity of agreement as to its value that they once showed with regard to religion4 ,i hesitate to make the suggestion lest ,i appear to suggest something solemn1 sanctimonious1 pious and official4 ,we have enough of that sort of thing now among professional educators4 ,if instead of the attainment of sainthood the attainment of wisdom could be made the commonly accepted goal and meaning of the activities of modern men1 we should again have a culture in which industry would take its proper place4 ,we have for it now no other goal than the making of money1 and hence industry runs amuck while the spirit of commercialism crushes out all our values4 ,we keep the wheels going round1 but the quality of living and the meaning of our work decline4 ,cooperation in the service of the ideal gives way to a competitive struggle for material possession and power and our lives are used up in making a living4 ,only the peoples that have achieved a culture have a goal for which to labor4 ,,chapter ,x ,,education ,,and ,,morals ,the source of much of our interest in public education is concern for our neighbors' morals4 ,this is doubtless why in ,america we commonly think of adult education as something which should exist for other people rather than for ourselves4 ,we are a nation of moral reformers4 ,education is often proposed as an alternative to moral legislation4 ,there is an increasing demand for more effective moral education in the public schools4 ,when the educator becomes an 8uplifter0 the moral interest is always a little forced and education suffers4 ,moral enthusiasm1 when it is enthusiasm for the good of others1 tends to make of education a species of organized charity4 ,seek education for yourself and it is the search for the good life4 ,from ancient times men have sought knowledge that they might become better judges of good and evil4 ,to one who is seeking to know what is good1 all popular moral conventions1 taboos1 and alleged divine commandments become proper subjects of study1 criticism and possible revaluation4 ,moral education is not mere drill in the ways of the herd4 ,the good man's first duty1 as ,professor ,erskine says1 is to be intelligent4 ,good intentions alone do not enable a man to judge wisely or behave well4 ,the prevailing idea that one can be at the same time good and stupid has strongly influenced our education4 ,moral education becomes moralizing4 ,the phrase 8ethical culture0 is either tautological or it is a contradiction in terms4 ,if we were each more genuinely interested in our education there would be much less talk about morality and less occasion for such talk4 ,the moralist is as a rule the person with a lower middle-class mind1 who insists upon calling general attention to his own dilemmas4 ,mediocrity makes parade of virtue a claim to superiority1 presenting a picture of itself as the likeness of the good man4 ,goodness is defined in negative terms4 ,the good man is he who observes the 8thou shalt not10 not he who can do the rare and difficult thing4 ,it is in the localities where there is least artistic appreciation or intellectual curiosity or cosmopolitan spirit1 the places where people have nothing with which to occupy their minds1 that we find the strongholds of 8morality40 ,where education prevails1 people learn to behave themselves as a matter of wisdom and good taste4 ,those who are sufficiently practiced in the art of living to be able to observe the common decencies without always 8watching their step10 may sometimes look up from the ground and take a broader view4 ,much of the ethical instruction which is given in school is both bad education and bad morals4 ,those colleges in which there is most talk about 8education for character0 are as a rule those which most patently fail as educational institutions4 ,the instructor tends to 8protest too much40 ,the attitude of authority discourages the spirit of search and criticism4 ,popular prejudice is intrenched4 ,non-essentials are over-emphasized4 ,crowd-mindedness1 rather than independence of judgment1 prevails4 ,every crowd persuades itself that it is vindicating the right and justifies its behavior with fine moral sentiments4 ,the student in school is made susceptible to catchwords and is prepared to become the typical crowd man of the future4 ,to this end he is given 8ideals10 that is1 he is taught to worship certain words such as 8justice10 8purity10 8brotherly love40 ,instead of learning to enquire what such words mean when applied to concrete situations1 he is led to believe that he possesses the realities for which they stand when he has an attitude of adoration for the words4 ,henceforth1 he can1 without using his brains1 be always right even in matters where he knows nothing1 by the trick of seeing in each practical problem a moral issue4 ,it is in this manner that the majority is always right in a democracy4 ,if you question its wisdom1 you are put in the position of one who attacks its moral ideals4 ,from the first day in school on1 the child is drilled in cant and in deference to prevailing public opinion4 ,he is brought up in an atmosphere of sex morality by a stupid and shame-faced policy of expurgation and censorship1 the assumption being that apparent ignorance is 8purity40 ,a student in a woman's college preparing to become a teacher of ,english literature1 elected a course in the eighteenth century novel1 and after listening to the lectures1 she felt it her duty to look over some of the books4 ,unable to find the works of ,fielding in the library1 she inquired of the instructor where she could secure a copy of 8,tom ,jones40 ,the instructor replied1 8,heavens1 child1 you are not going to read it60 ,this is perhaps an extreme case1 but it illustrates much of the influence of morals upon the education of the young4 ,is the student to acquire the virtue of patriotism8 ,then he is not to be shown the full force of the example of those who have resisted tyranny1 but must have his head filled with a glorified version of his country's history4 ,is he to learn respect for law8 ,he is not equipped with principles which enable him to discriminate between wise and foolish legislation4 ,his teachers and preachers tell him that law is divine and must be obeyed because it is the law4 ,after three generations and more of such education1 we have a population in which moral independence is decidedly on the wane4 ,the statute book1 not private judgment1 becomes the guide to conduct1 and the ,federal courts the safeguard to morals4 ,open protest against official invasion of individual rights gives way to furtiveness and evasion4 ,moral training which does not encourage critical examination of popular ideas of what is right and good1 does not tend to make men better1 but only of one mind4 ,popular suspicion of intelligence and the belief that one may be good and do right without it1 is carried over into the field of education4 ,moral education becomes a special kind of education4 ,it is thought that there is a 8moral knowledge0 which is different from other knowledge4 ,the attempt is made to train character as if character did not include intelligence4 ,education1 then1 intent upon character1 distrusts intelligence4 ,the moral interest results in routine drill in current precepts and values1 not in the awakening of moral responsibility4 ,professor ,dewey says1 8,morals are often thought to be an affair with which ordinary knowledge has nothing to do4 ,moral knowledge is thought to be a thing apart1 and conscience is thought of as something radically different from consciousness4 ,this separation1 if valid1 is of special significance for education4 ,moral education in school is practically hopeless when we set up the development of character as a supreme end1 and at the same time treat the acquiring of knowledge and the development of understanding1 which of necessity occupy the chief part of school time1 as having nothing to do with character4 ,on such a basis1 moral education is inevitably reduced to some kind of catechetical instruction1 or lessons about morals4 ,lessons #8about morals' signify as a matter of course lessons in what other people think about virtues and duties4 ,it amounts to something only in the degree in which pupils happen to be already animated by a sympathetic and dignified regard for the sentiments of others4 ,without such a regard1 it has no more influence on character than information about the mountains of ,asia3 with a servile regard1 it increases dependence upon others1 and throws upon those in authority the responsibility for conduct4 ,as a matter of fact1 direct instruction in morals has been effective only in social groups where it was a part of the authoritative control of the many by the few4 ,not the teaching as such but the renforcement of it by the whole rgime of which it was an incident made it effective4 ,to attempt to get similar results from lessons about morals in a democratic society is to rely upon sentimental magic40 ,i do not see how it is possible to isolate moral education as a special discipline and have either a liberal education or a sound sense of moral values4 ,in institutions of higher learning1 8,moral ,philosophy0 or the 8,science of ,ethics0 is sometimes thought to be training in morals4 ,it is so only to the extent that such study is itself good education4 ,i find that many students have the same experience that ,i had with my college course in ,ethics4 ,i took up the study believing that at last ,i should learn what is right and how to do it4 ,i soon discovered that ,i had entered upon the driest and least practical course of study offered in the college4 ,insofar as ,i could see there was nothing in ,ethics that ,i could turn to for advice about any of the problems of my own conduct4 ,i understand that in some institutions the students' demand for advice has resulted in courses of ethics which consist of case studies4 ,no doubt the opinions of the students and the instructor concerning certain hypothetical dilemmas of conduct are very interesting4 ,but as ,plato would say1 such study is made up of 8opinion10 not 8knowledge40 ,it is doubtful if such discourse ever results in modifying behavior4 8,pure0 ethics consists of a priori arguments about the teachings of philosophy concerning such abstract concepts as the moral judgment1 the nature of the ,good1 the idea of ,duty in general1 not of my particular duties4 ,such study may be good training in logic1 but it has no more to do with conduct than has formal logic1 and not as much as mathematics1 for one may apply the principles of mathematics to concrete problems4 ,perhaps the greatest gain for the student from such study is the discovery that philosophers do not agree upon any one system of morals1 and that in strict logic we do not know what we mean by our moral generalizations4 ,the more universal an ethical concept is1 the more it exists wholly within and for reason1 the less is it a deduction from experience and the less use is it as a guide to behavior4 ,ethics1 as moral philosophy1 is not a descriptive study of the customs and practices of people1 or of what things men in diverse times and places have held to be good or evil1 right or wrong2 this is anthropology4 ,it is not the study of the mental processes of judging or of forming habits or of that quality of actual experience which men call good2 this is psychology4 ,ethics1 moreover1 is not a scientific study of the means of accomplishing any good whatsoever2 for this at once leads out of pure ethics into economics1 mechanics1 medicine1 etc4 ,pure ethics is pure logic applied to ultimate concepts about morality in general4 ,it is the 8formulation of the ,good as it would hold for all possible worlds10 a kind of speculation or contemplation4 ,its good does not exist in experience anywhere2 it is metaphysical and exists only for philosophizing4 ,hence ethic1 strictly speaking1 is concerned with ends not with means1 and the ends are not experienced1 they are only thought about4 ,as an example of such an approach to morals1 there is ,kant's ,categorical ,imperative1 from the consideration of which everything concrete1 empirical1 personal is removed4 ,i quote some typical passages from the discussion of the teaching of ethics in a contemporary ,journal of ,philosophy1 8,the task of moral philosophy is1 by analysis of the moral judgments men actually make1 to arrive at clear notions about obligation1 rights1 good1 punishment and the like4 ,and the point of honor1 the chastity of the philosopher's mind1 should be never to suffer his genuine moral judgments to be warped in deference to his theory4 ,for that is to poison the wells of truth4 ,all that is valuable in ethics is formal4444 8,finally1 it may be asked1 has then moral philosophy no practical value8 ,i think its prime value is purely speculative1--the supreme interest of the topic for thoughtful minds and its importance for metaphysics4 ,but1 like everything else1 it has its effects4 ,i think it is1 when studied in its purity1 an unrivalled mental training4 ,i believe that the more 7apart from casuistry7 we reflect on the nature of the moral law the more we are likely to reverence it4 ,and lastly ,i think that nearly every human being does and must to some extent philosophize4 ,we are all apt to form crude principles1 as that morality consists in keeping the law1 or obeying the ten commandments1 or realizing our selves1 or seeking the common good4 ,and then we are apt pendantically and priggishly to distort our genuine moral judgments in accordance with these inadequate generalizations4 ,moral philosophy criticizes such formulas and shows that they are either untrue or circular4 ,either self-realization means realizing the right part of the self or it is not always right4 ,promoting the 8common good0 either means bringing about those satisfactions which moral reason judges ought to be brought about 7e4 g41 those which are just or of a higher value7 or it is not always right4 ,and so a truer moral philosophy releases us from the false dogmatisms which may1 though usually they do not1 corrupt our practise4444 8,on the other hand1 members of my class actually approached me1 as if ,i were a father-confessor1 for the solution of special problems in conduct60 ,in the following quotation from the same ,journal1 a different view is expressed4 ,the author believes that ethics is sometimes concerned with the practical problems of conduct1 but admits that this inclusion of practical interests results in some ambiguity and confusion4 8,conceding that there is a science of ethics that does not teach us either to be good or that we ought to be good any more than logic teaches us how to think or that we ought to think1 or esthetics teaches us how to appreciate beauty and that we ought to love it1 there yet remains the question1 is there a legitimate place in philosophical education for a science of ethics which frankly does not disclaim a 8practical0 interest8 ,is there a science of ethics that is 8practical0 in something more than the ,protagorean sense of supplying instruction in 8how to manage our homes in the best way1 and to be able to speak and act the best in public life80 7,such instruction might well encourage sophistry and the casuistry of which ,professor ,carritt speaks47 ,is there1 in other words1 a science of ethics which is 8practical10 not in the sense of telling the pupil what moral decisions to make1 but in cultivating the which would render possible well-considered choices8 ,if there is not a place for such a science1 it seems hardly forthright or consistent to perpetuate the ambiguity4 ,if there is a legitimate place for it1 it is the duty of moral philosophers to terminate the present ambiguity by explaining it4 ,we can scarcely afford to laugh at or deny it40 ,the relation of morals to education is to be found neither in special discipline and habit formation in the effort for character apart from intelligence1 nor in drill in the logic of an a priori science4 ,when moral training is made a special interest set off from other aims of education1 it defeats itself4 ,there is no such thing as a moral good separate from other goods4 ,a moral good is simply the best choice among the conflicting goods of experience1 actual or possible4 ,as ,james said1 the good is that which satisfies a desire4 ,a priori1 every desire should be satisfied1 since considered in itself it is a demand for a satisfaction4 ,but since desires are in conflict1 choice is necessary4 ,the good deed is the right thing to do1 or the right way of doing it4 ,all education if it is really education is moral education4 ,it is because people do not grasp this fact that futile efforts at special moral training are made in which the connections with education are artificial and extraneous4 ,thus the pursuit of knowledge is shorn of its significance for conduct1 and morals is divorced from intelligence4 ,as ,professor ,dewey says1 8,a narrow and moralistic view of morals is responsible for the failure to recognize that all the aims and values which are desirable in education are themselves moral4 ,discipline1 natural development1 culture1 social efficiency1 are moral traits--marks of a person who is a worthy member of that society which it is the business of education to further4 ,there is an old saying to the effect that it is not enough for a man to be good2 he must be good for something4 ,the something for which a man must be good is capacity to live as a social member so that what he gets from living with others balances with what he contributes4 ,what he gets and gives as a human being1 a being with desires1 emotions1 and ideas1 is not external possessions1 but a widening and deepening of conscious life--a more intense1 disciplined1 and expanding realization of meanings4 ,what he materially receives and gives is at most opportunities and means for the evolution of conscious life4 ,otherwise1 it is neither giving nor taking1 but a shifting about of the position of things in space1 like the stirring of water and sand with a stick4 ,discipline1 culture1 social efficiency1 personal refinement1 improvement of character are but phases of the growth of capacity nobly to share in such a balanced experience4 ,and education is not a mere means to such a life4 ,education is such a life4 ,to maintain capacity for such education is the essence of morals40 ,moral behavior is not only social4 ,it is also intelligent behavior4 ,an act has moral significance when the performance shows insight into the situation4 ,an action done under compulsion or without understanding has no moral value4 ,a machine may behave very correctly but it is not a moral being4 ,an act has moral meaning to just the extent that its author grasps the implications of the situation in which he must act and is guided by consideration of the results4 ,an act is judged1 not as moralists would have it1 merely by the intention1 but by its results4 ,it is the aim of education to develop the insight and foresight and breadth of vision which make it possible for an individual to take responsibility for the results of his behavior4 ,the greater the intelligence1 the more nearly does the consideration of an act approach the estimate of the total result4 ,thus the aims of education and morals are the same2--the good life in so far as it may be attained by intelligent choice and behavior4 ,men have long sought to reconcile the true and the good4 ,but what they have sought to reconcile were as a rule mere ideas about the true and the good4 ,it is not as logical abstractions that the true and the good are one1 but in the recognition that the really wise act is the good deed4 ,it is in this sense that wisdom is virtue--in the sense that virtue is wisdom4 ,but the objection will be made that educated men are sometimes clever rascals who are only the more evil for all their knowledge4 ,i do not think ,i beg the question when ,i say that such men are not wise but merely clever4 ,nor do ,i mean that good conduct is merely a matter of reasoning and calculating4 ,no one denies that desire and instinct and purpose are involved4 ,but if ,i am not mistaken it is generally recognized that education and morals alike have something to do with training and controlling these aspects of human nature4 ,intelligence is not mere intellect4 ,it is the whole man wisely directing himself with respect to his environment and its alternatives4 ,from one age or locality to another fashions in behavior patterns change4 ,these fashions seem to be important at the time they hold sway4 ,people confuse them with morals4 ,efforts are sometimes made by reformers to introduce innovations similar to those which designers of clothing each season create in haberdashery4 ,a liberal journal in ,new ,york recently published a series of articles dealing with 8,the ,new ,morality40 ,but morality is neither new nor old4 ,rules of conduct which can be made mere matters of style are applicable chiefly to actions the results of which are unimportant4 ,such rules have really very little moral value4 ,they constitute1 however1 the customs or folkways which prevail at a given time4 ,conformity in such matters is required by the herd4 ,often this requirement is the only reason for observing certain rules2 the opposite course would be just as good4 ,it is with respect to such matters that education has the effect of liberating the individual and improving morals4 ,it breaks the hold of the taboo1 makes it possible to discriminate between the important and the unimportant and leads to the formation of principles based upon consideration of the results of behavior4 ,the differences in conduct that count are those between stupid deeds and well-considered deeds4 ,intelligence takes into account the fact that no action of man can be isolated and judged apart from its place in the social environment1 and its effects both for the author and for his human relationships4 ,long ago ,aristotle showed that each of our virtues unless intelligently exercised tends to extreme and to become a vice4 ,a virtue is what it does1 not what it feels like to its possessor4 ,much is said today about the necessity of loyalty4 ,there can be no social stability without it2 but there is probably no more serious social menace than unintelligent loyalty4 ,men persist in ascribing to their moral principles a sanctity1 a sublimity1 which makes them appear to have an independent and eternal existence and to be ends in themselves4 ,i believe this to be a superstition4 ,in what respect is a moral principle more to be reverenced than a principle of mechanics8 ,to worship ,duty in general is simply to make a god out of a human generalization4 ,the 8rightness0 about which men grow eloquent exists simply as the implications of the concrete situation in which an act is performed4 ,as the ability to grasp such implications improves1 principles of conduct are employed which are relevant to the situation4 ,i spoke of insight into the situation toward which action is taken as being alike essential to education and to the moral judgment4 ,he whose conduct is regulated by his own insight and by principles which are relevant to the situation at hand is a morally responsible being1 and to the degree that a man assumes responsibility for his conduct1 he reveals the quality of his education4 ,those who seek to avoid responsibility substitute for their own insight rules of behavior which have as their basis something that lies outside the demands of the situation where the behavior takes place4 ,judge your conduct by this other1 outside something and ignore the lessons written in the results of your deed1 and you cease to learn anything from your behavior2 your education in this direction has come to a stop4 ,education frequently comes to such a halt when moral teaching is carried on as part of religious instruction4 ,there is a common belief that religion is the real basis of morals4 ,i think this belief has its source in the fact that religious institutions in the past1 being by nature conservative1 have sought to perpetuate the folkways4 ,the church is a form of social organization and has its own interest in maintaining among its members certain standards of behavior4 ,often it has been the only existing agency for the instruction of the young4 ,most religious systems carry with them certain commandments and precepts the keeping of which they secure by means of promises of future reward or threats of punishment4 ,since both the precepts and the religious beliefs and ceremonies have evolved together out of primitive man's ideas of divine authorship and authority1 men do not see that the basis of morals lies in social necessity--the need for mutual adjustment among men4 ,the church's premption of the field of morals is allowed to stand long after its squatter rights in other fields--art industry1 science1 etc4--have been challenged4 ,we forget that religion was once thought to be the basis of all the interests of civilization1 so that naturally the moral interest came under its sway4 ,it is obvious that every society1 whatever be its religion1 must develop its moral codes as men learn to live together4 ,in the community everyone is part of the environment of everyone else1 and each must adjust himself to such a human environment4 ,adjustment is impossible if there is no order in the environment4 ,hence from the beginning certain habits and customs have existed which make it possible for men to predict to some extent what their neighbors will do4 ,these habits and customs are the primitive morals which it is the task of wisdom to inquire into and revalue and gradually improve or discard1 and substitute intelligently considered means and ends4 ,when moral precepts are presented in the form of divine commandments1 morality is merely obedience2 it consists in keeping the commandments1 not in acting according to the demands of the situation4 ,the problems of the control of behavior are solved in advance1 and the solutions learned by repetition and memory drill4 ,if ,i act in strict obedience to a divine command1 the results of my deed are not my affair4 ,the responsibility for the result is upon the deity4 ,i can ignore1 in fact1 should ignore1 the lessons of experience and of conduct4 ,the commandment does not require of me any insight into the situations in which ,i act4 ,i have no moral responsibility4 ,people whose conduct is guided by such morality have committed many outrageous deeds and have with good conscience closed their eyes to the terrible consequences of their behavior4 ,from the standpoint of their education1 they are children2 they have never yet attained the age of moral responsibility4 ,it is in matters of moral education that the infantile attitude of mind which religion preserves in the adult life of the race becomes a serious obstacle to a liberal education4 ,again there is a tendency to disregard the consequences of my acts if ,i seek1 as many moderns do1 to make a religion of morality itself4 ,it is often said1 religion is a life1 the religious man is the good man4 8,my religion is the ,golden ,rule10 or some other rule4 ,it all depends on what you mean4 ,if you mean that in a vague sort of way you try to be good and that a certain moral earnestness is religion enough for you1 very well1 but you have not said much4 ,thomas ,paine said1 8,to do good is my religion40 ,but ,i am not sure he added much to his good will by styling it a religion4 ,he might as well have said1 8,i desire very much to do good40 ,so do all right-minded people1 the difficulty comes when we try to find out what specifically we mean by doing good4 ,again it is said there is 8salvation by character10 but one does not possess a character4 ,one either is or is not a character4 ,one does not become a character as a result of routine moralizing or of mere conformity to conventional standards4 ,president ,wilson is quoted as saying1 8,there is no more priggish business in the world than the development of one's character40 ,run away from the man who would be good to you in order to develop his character4 ,do the thing that in your best judgment is the thing to do under the existing circumstances1 do it as well as you can1 watch what happens and learn your lesson from it1 and if you are a character you will not go far wrong4 ,in all behavior1 he who takes responsibility takes chances4 ,there are those who demand moral certainty4 ,they imagine an absolute good1 a universal principle of right and duty1 to be the elemental law of the universe4 ,duty is sublime1 the ,moral ,law is ,god4 ,people persuade themselves that their adoration of this impersonal god develops in them the 8moral will10 when in fact its function is to provide them with a fictitious sense of security4 ,i think the ethical philosophy of ,kant is motivated by this wish for security1 rather than by an interest in morals as such4 ,he seeks a good which is to be possessed merely by thinking it1 a maxim which is universally valid4 ,but if ,i have such a maxim1 assuming that it can be made applicable to any concrete problem of conduct1 then all ,i need consider is whether ,i have acted according to the rule4 ,here again ,i need not be concerned about the results of my behavior4 ,it is not the consequences of my act that show it to be right or wrong4 ,my deed is right if it is the act of the moral will4 ,another method of escaping moral responsibility is to run with the crowd4 ,the crowd never considers consequences2 it is bent upon vindicating its principles at any cost4 ,it is anonymous2 in it the individual may not be held to account4 ,the crowd is not the same as the multitude2 it is a distinct phenomena of social psychology4 ,we all have in our natures certain anti-social impulses4 ,the crowd is a sort of pseudo-social environment in which these impulses are not inhibited but are indulged with mutual moral approval4 ,all crowds profess to be devoted to some moral ideal4 ,their moral idealism is mere self-justification and pretext for letting oneself go4 ,it is a weapon useful in partisan strife2 it puts the opposition in the wrong and justifies hostility4 ,hence public questions tend to become moral issues1 and the attempt to understand the situation gives way to righteous indignation toward anyone who witholds approval of the crowd's aims and methods4 ,and the crowd strives to hold its members in line4 ,conformity to its ways and standards is required of all1 and becomes an end in itself4 ,one does things because others do them4 ,the crowd man is shocked by the unconventional because it is unusual4 ,his ideas of right and wrong1 which he thinks he has by a priori intuition or moral sense1 are merely those which prevail in his set or parish4 ,the average man's conscience1 which seems to him to be an infallible moral guide and which he holds to be sacred and personal1 is little more than a reflection of herd opinion4 ,and as men become marshalled in the mass movements of present-day society1 they tend more and more to submit the control of conduct to the 8public conscience0 and to leave less and less to private judgment4 ,there is no judgment but private judgment4 ,the public conscience is a creature of emotional instability4 ,it is characterized by periodic obsessions similar to those of mania4 ,it will remain utterly indifferent to glaring evil and every appeal to it is unheeded2 then all of a sudden perhaps over a trifle1 or an unconfirmed rumor1 it is stirred to the highest pitch of excitement4 ,it has a 8cause0 and for a time is occupied with nothing else4 ,all realities are thrown out of perspective4 ,the cause is vindicated regardless of consequences2 it is carried triumphant at the head of a procession of human wreckage1 bitterness and folly4 ,as soon as the mischief is complete1 the cause is abandoned4 ,men begin to 8come to10 and public conscience sleeps until the next episodic attack4 ,it is precisely in regard to matters which most deeply stir the public conscience that the educated man will be on his guard4 ,he will not be easily bullied into surrendering his private judgment to public opinion4 ,he will not permit the big words of herd morality to scare him away from the consideration of cold facts4 ,before a man can think for himself1 he must have learned to think at all4 ,there is only one sound method of moral education4 ,it is in teaching people to think4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,the ,,classical ,,tradition--,,plato ,,and ,,aristotle ,the classical tradition in education is one of the ironies of history4 ,that pedants should have succeeded in making this tradition into a mere convention is almost incredible4 ,in the poetry1 drama and philosophy which we have inherited from ancient ,athens there is a spirit of youth1 of freedom1 of inquiry1 of adventure4 ,in the estimation of ,egypt or of ,india1 the culture of ,greece was parvenu4 ,the striking thing about the ,greek spirit is its humanism1 its lack of priestly tradition1 its independence of religious authority4 ,the men of the fifth century before ,christianity were creators1 not imitators4 ,they were following many lines of inquiry for the first time1 unhampered by the prestige of orthodoxy4 ,a noisy populace could condemn the philosopher but could not secure his deference to its beliefs4 ,no idea1 no institution was so venerable or sacred as to escape critical examination4 ,the practice of examining all things was the method of education2 its aim was the life of ,reason4 ,there was no official instruction1 no established truth1 no traditionally recognized knowledge4 ,student and teacher together pursued wisdom not as scribes and custodians of ancient and hallowed doctrine1 but rather in the spirit of those who enter upon a voyage of new discovery4 ,such is the spirit of the classical tradition and no education is liberal which loses that spirit4 ,if we wish to know the meaning of a liberal education1 we should turn to those in whose lives and thoughts it was a living reality4 ,i do not believe that the student who grasps the significance of ,plato's ,apology1 or the ,phdo1 or the ,republic1 can ever after be quite the same4 ,i once overheard a group of sophomores discussing the relative greatness of various historical characters4 ,each had his favorite hero1 a conqueror1 a statesman1 an orator4 ,one of the boys1 who ,i afterwards learned had discovered ,plato's dialogues for himself1 said1 8,you fellows are just repeating what you have heard people say or have read in your history books4 ,you'll never know what a great man is till you know ,socrates4 ,i think he was the greatest man who ever lived40 ,i saw in his face a look of quiet earnestness which ,i have never forgotten4 ,something was happening in that boy's thinking4 ,he was living through an educational experience4 ,to the question what is an educated person like1 one answer is1 he is like ,socrates1 or like ,plato4 ,whitman said1 8,i and my kind do not convince by argument2 we convince by our presence40 ,in the ,dialogues there is a presence4 ,here the personality of a great genius stands revealed4 ,you really come to know ,socrates4 ,in his company you cannot fail to delight in his humor1 his brilliant flashes of insight1 the subtlety and tenacity and wide sweep of his thought1 his daring1 his unfailing reasonableness1 his candor and freedom of spirit4 ,whether this personality is the ,socrates of history or a creation of ,plato's genius or a mixture of both is a matter that need not concern us at present4 ,our aim is to 8find0 the educated man4 ,here by common agreement is the supreme type4 ,outside the ,dialogues and a few such sources of information as the writing of ,xenophon1 we know little that is authentic about ,socrates4 ,before ,socrates there had been much speculation about natural phenomena and the laws which govern the universe4 ,philosophers had begun to seek naturalistic rather than mythological explanations of the world of objects4 ,this scientific interest was genuine1 but the ,greeks lacked a logic of scientific method4 ,before man may think correctly1 understand his world or live wisely he must develop habits of exact thinking2 he must know what he means by what he says4 ,he must examine his own sentiments and beliefs1 and presuppositions4 ,as an educator ,socrates was positively revolutionary1 subversive1 disconcerting4 ,he stands out in sharp contrast to the other great teachers of antiquity1 and to most of those who have lived after him4 ,he gives mankind an entirely different idea of what education is4 ,he pursues knowledge2 the others proclaim it4 ,unlike the philosophers of ,india and ,egypt or the prophets of ,judea1 ,socrates has no gospel1 no creed1 no made-in-advance message1 no 8thus saith the ,lord10 no system of 8truth40 ,others indoctrinate2 ,socrates proclaims his ignorance4 ,he is not a sceptic1 for he believes that knowledge is not only possible1 but that men possess it1 though they seldom make use of that which they possess4 ,although not a sceptic1 ,socrates is decidedly an agnostic4 ,he shows popular ideas to be ignorance1 mere opinion4 ,living at a time when even the intelligent few had hardly begun to question traditional illusions1 he did not seek to lure his students back to acquiescence to authority1 but to develop a technique for testing all things4 ,to use a modern colloquialism1 ,socrates simply strove to 8debunk0 the minds of his students4 ,he tried to aid ,athenian youths to understand themselves1 to think their way to some degree of freedom and mastery1 to ground their ideas of virtue1 justice1 government1 in well-considered reason1 to gain temperance of judgment1 to re-examine what they thought they knew and see if it were knowledge or only opinion4 ,and his was no mere idle curiosity1 but a serious and courageous facing of the elemental problems of human living4 ,he set the precedent for all subsequent liberal education4 ,the herd loves nothing so little as the ,socratic dealing with its opinions4 ,such questioning is a challenge to popular faiths2 it demands that men reorient their minds to the values of experience4 ,it arouses in the opinionated the unwelcome suspicion that possibly they may be deceiving themselves4 ,it carries with it the suggestion that those who uncritically accept dogma and custom are possibly intellectually less alert than the critically minded few4 ,it gives the hint that conformity and moral earnestness are not enough for the good life and that those who lay claim to ideas they have not thought out are a little ridiculous4 ,every man who rises out of crowd-mindedness into independent thinking weakens to that extent the faith of the crowd in itself1 and puts it on the defensive4 ,aristophanes gained popularity in ,athenian democracy by holding up the figure of ,socrates to ridicule4 ,and when ,socrates' challenge could no longer be met with laughter1 the ,fundamentalists of his day condemned the old philosopher to death on the charge that he was corrupting the youth4 ,as ,woodrow ,wilson once said1 8,the human race has inexhaustible resources for resisting the introduction of knowledge40 ,how the influence of ,socrates survives in the work of his pupil ,plato every school boy knows4 ,it is also a matter of common knowledge that in the beautiful dialogues which ,plato wrote many years after his master's death1 the figure of ,socrates becomes little more at times than a vehicle of the author's own thought4 ,but not every one thinks of the dialogues as primarily a record of a great work of adult education4 ,the ,socratic method of education is retained by ,plato1 but he modifies the objectives4 ,plato has something to 8teach40 ,knowledge is still found by the method of clarifying men's thinking4 ,but if men are to live the life of reason1 their knowledge must give them a definite outlook on life4 ,plato seeks something to tie to4 ,he is occupied with the search for reality1 8pure being40 ,his interest in mathematics leads him to attempt to construe the world according to principles of abstract thought4 ,the world of ideas is seen to be the ultimate reality1 the world of objects is but a manifestation1--as ,james put it1 but a 8stereotyped copy of the deluxe edition0 which exists in the eternal4 ,hence knowledge is not only clear thinking2 to know is to possess reality4 ,the real world consists of form1 of idea1 of universal and abstract principle4 ,education becomes philosophic contemplation of the ideas of the good1 the true1 the beautiful4 ,a ,francis ,bacon or an ,isaac ,newton in ,plato's situation would doubtless have developed a logic of science4 ,plato elaborates a metaphysic4 ,but it would be an error to suppose that ,plato is occupied merely with meditation upon the transcendental4 ,all knowledge is one4 ,the truth1 of which the mind bears witness to itself1 must ultimately prevail in the affairs of men4 ,the idea of the good must take the place of the old mythology4 ,wisdom is virtue4 ,the people are enemies of the truth and hate philosophy largely because they have never known 8a human being who in word and work is perfectly moulded as far as he can be into the likeness of virtue--such a man ruling a city which bears the same image40 ,of existing states1 8not one of them is worthy of the philosophic nature40 8,but no one is satisfied with the appearance of good1--the reality is what they seek2 in the case of good1 appearance is despised by everyone40 8,of this then1 which every soul of man pursues and makes the end of all his actions1 having a presentiment that there is such an end and yet hesitating because neither knowing the nature nor having the same assurance of this as of other things1 and therefore losing whatever good there is in other things--of a principle such and so great as this ought the best men in our ,state1 to whom everything is entrusted1 to be in the darkness of ignorance80 ,thus ,plato's greatest dialogue1 8,the ,republic10 interweaves the speculative with the practical2 it is at once a treatise on reality and appearance1 an inquiry into the nature of the good1 an elaboration of the abstract principle of justice into the constitution of an ideal aristocratic republic1 and a philosophy of education4 ,jowett1 in his introduction to the third edition to the ,english translation of this dialogue1 says1 8,the ,republic of ,plato is also the first treatise upon education1 of which the writings of ,milton and ,locke1 ,rousseau1 ,jean ,paul1 and ,goethe are the legitimate descendants4 ,like ,dante or ,bunyan1 he has a revelation of another life2 like ,bacon1 he is profoundly impressed with the unity of knowledge2 in the early ,church he exercised a real influence on theology1 and at the ,revival of ,literature on politics4 ,even the fragments of his words when #8repeated at secondhand' 7,symp4 #bae ,d7 have in all ages ravished the hearts of men1 who have seen reflected in them their own higher nature4 ,he is the father of idealism in philosophy1 in politics1 in literature4 ,and many of the latest conceptions of modern thinkers and statesmen1 such as the unity of knowledge1 the reign of law1 and the equality of the sexes1 have been anticipated in a dream by him40 8,the ,republic0 begins with a discussion of justice4 ,it is agreed that justice is virtue and wisdom1 and injustice is vice and ignorance4 ,justice is the virtue both of an individual and of a state4 ,in order to discover the nature of this virtue1 the author proceeds to 8create in idea a ,state40 ,the state must be protected from evil1 it must have guardians4 ,the guardians need to have both natural gifts and the qualities of a philosopher4 ,the good watchdog must be able to distinguish between the face of the friend and that of the foe4 8,and must not an animal be a lover of learning who distinguishes what he likes and dislikes by the test of knowledge and ignorance80 8,when we have found the desired natures1 and now that we have found them1 how are they to be educated8 ,is not this an inquiry which may be expected to throw light on the greater inquiry which is our final end--,how do justice and injustice grow up in ,states80 ,justice1 he says1 is each man doing his own business and not being a busybody4 ,one should practice the thing to which his nature is best adapted4 ,justice is harmony1 and harmony in the ,state is like harmony in the nature of the individual4 ,intelligence must direct and control the emotions1 and the movements of the body4 ,hence in the just ,state1 men are to be divided into classes according to their degree of native superiority4 ,this is not an easy task1 for men will not easily be persuaded to accept such distinctions of worth among themselves4 8,how then may we devise one of those needful falsehoods 444 just one royal lie which may deceive the rulers if that be possible1 and at any rate the rest of the city80 8,well then1 ,i will speak1 although ,i really know not how to look you in the face1 or in what words to utter the audacious fiction1 which ,i propose to communicate gradually1 first to the rulers1 then to the soldiers1 and lastly to the people4 ,they are to be told that their youth was a dream1 and the education and training which they received from us1 an appearance only2 in reality during all that time they were being formed and fed in the womb of the earth1 where they themselves and their arms and appurtenances were manufactured2 when they were completed1 the earth1 their mother1 sent them up2 and so1 their country being their mother and also their nurse1 they are bound to advise for her good1 and to defend her against attacks1 and her citizens they are to regard as children of the earth and their own brothers4444 8#8,citizens1' we shall say to them in our tale1 #8you are brothers1 yet ,god has framed you differently4 ,some of you have the power of command1 and in the composition of these he has mingled gold1 wherefore also they have the greatest honour2 others he has made of silver1 to be auxiliaries2 others again who are to be husbandmen and craftsmen he has composed of brass and iron2 and the species will generally be preserved in the children4 ,but as all are of the same original stock1 a golden parent will sometimes have a silver son1 or a silver parent a golden son4 ,and ,god proclaims as a first principle to the rulers1 and above all else1 that there is nothing which they should so anxiously guard1 or of which they are to be such good guardians1 as of the purity of the race4 ,they should observe what elements mingle in their offspring2 for if the son of a golden or silver parent has an admixture of brass and iron1 then nature orders a transposition of ranks1 and the eye of the ruler must not be pitiful towards the child because he has to descend in the scale and become a husbandman or artisan1 just as there may be sons of artisans who having an admixture of gold or silver in them are raised to honour1 and become guardians or auxiliaries4 ,for an oracle says that when a man of brass or iron guards the ,state1 it will be destroyed4'0 ,plato's ideal state is thus an aristocracy of intelligence and of virtue4 ,there must be selection of those who are to rule4 ,a series of tests is proposed4 ,those selected must have shown greatest eagerness to do what is good for their country4 ,the youth are to be subjected to various trials1 toils1 pains1 conflicts1 to determine whether they can be forced to change their opinions by suffering pain1 or by the influence of enchantments1 or the lure of pleasure1 or as a result of fear4 ,only those who come out of the trials victorious are to be made rulers4 ,their education is to be a rigid discipline1 and it is to continue as long as they live4 ,along with the tests which they must endure1 the young are to grow up in a healthy environment1 and in an atmosphere of simplicity4 ,first a censorship is established to guard them against evil influences4 ,only authorized tales are to be told them4 ,erroneous representation of the gods is forbidden4 ,as the young cannot judge what is allegorical and what is literal1 the state is to determine the general forms in which the poets may cast their tales4 ,mothers may not frighten children with myths4 ,the ,gods must never be represented as the authors of evil4 ,nor may one be allowed to say that wicked men are often happy and the good miserable4 ,elsewhere ,plato says that no one shall be permitted to travel abroad until he reaches the age of forty4 ,when he comes home he must tell the youth that the institutions of other states are inferior to their own4 ,if any man blasphemes1 he is to be put in the reformatory for five years4 ,if in the end he remains unrepentant he is to be put to death4 ,plato requires that the young receive training in gymnastics and music before entering upon the study of philosophy4 ,certain kinds of music they may not be allowed to hear4 ,flute players are not to be admitted to ,plato's state4 ,those who are clever at pantomime are to be exiled4 ,the theater is frowned upon1 for the guardians must not be trained to be imitators4 ,certainly they may not learn to imitate any kind of illiberalism or baseness4 ,in their acting they may not imitate slaves1 nor bad men1 nor madmen1 nor the neighing of horses1 the bellowing of bulls1 nor the roll of thunder2 nor may they represent smiths1 boatswains1 or other artificers4 ,and they may not play the part of a woman old or young quarreling with her husband1 or in conceit of her happiness or when she is in affliction or sorrow or weeping--8and certainly not one who is in sickness1 love1 or labor40 ,there must be temperance and order and not too much laughter4 ,there must be no sensuality and coarseness4 ,there will be no need of lawyers and physicians4 8,there can be no more disgraceful state of education than this2 that not only artisans and the meaner sort of people need the skill of first-rate physicians and judges1 but also those who profess to have had a liberal education40 ,thus would ,plato direct the early education of the guardians of the state4 ,he has much more to say about protecting them from what he regards as dangerous influences than about the subject matter in which they are to be trained4 ,his guardians are to become noble men2 they are not to be imitators or trained animals or exploiters or traders4 ,it is often said by those who believe in the materialist conception of history that education is an instrument for exploitation by the ruling class4 ,in ,plato's state education is a mark of privilege1 but his ideal nobleman is a communist4 ,he must not touch silver or gold2 he must live like a ,spartan4 ,he may call nothing his own1 neither house nor wife nor child4 ,the rulers are to be philosophers1 and philosophers1 kings4 ,hence the education of later life is the pursuit of philosophy4 ,it is knowledge of the idea of the good4 ,true knowledge is drawn from within1 it is the turning of the eyes toward the light shed by the world of the ,idea1 the spiritual world4 ,it is the awakening of memories of ideas seen by the soul of an earlier existence4 ,our world of concrete objects and of sense experience cannot give this knowledge4 ,education deals almost wholly with abstractions and with universals1 and its method is dialectic4 ,i think that much of the illiberalism of ,plato grows out of his theory of knowledge4 ,to him as to ,socrates1 knowledge is of universals4 ,mere awareness of concrete objects we will agree is not knowledge4 ,if we only knew unrelated things--just one thing and then another1 as we have them in sense experience1 we could have knowledge of them but not about them4 ,it is the knowledge about things that gives the world its meanings4 ,much of the significance of things depends upon how we conceive their relations4 ,every concept is an abstraction2 it signifies not some concrete fact1 but a class or a common quality which inheres in a number of objects4 ,so the ,greeks sought to find concepts which would not be self-contradictory and would hold for all of the class to which they were applied1 and for nothing else4 ,the ,greeks did not seek accurate information concerning facts4 ,they believed they had exact knowledge when they had discovered just what they meant by any concept4 ,they had almost no experimental science4 ,they had begun to be deeply interested in the phenomena of nature but their interest was largely speculative as yet4 ,if they had possessed the modern scientific laboratory their knowledge could still have been abstract but it would have remained knowledge about nature4 ,knowledge would have increased as men carefully observed objects1 classified them1 studied their relations and made note of the changes which take place under fixed conditions4 ,by the method of forming hypotheses and then trying to verify them by fact1 knowledge could have been at once both of the universal and of the concrete4 ,it would have been recognized all along that universals are merely descriptive terms signifying common properties and that they do not stand for realities which are independent of or outside the several individual objects in which these properties are found4 ,with ,socrates1 ,i believe1 knowledge is about universals1 but he is primarily concerned with attaining clear and workable abstractions1 that is1 he is interested chiefly in sharpening the instruments of thinking4 ,with ,plato the interest in ideas is very different4 ,he is a mathematician4 ,he is fascinated with ideas of number and of geometrical form4 ,mathematics to many minds seems to consist of a world of pure reason which is more permanent than the world of things4 ,philosophers before ,plato had wrestled with the problem of change4 ,existence was seen to be a stream in which everything is carried along toward its inevitable destruction4 ,every object at any moment is but the cross-section of the process of its becoming something different4 ,our bodies grow and perish1 so also does all pass away4 ,the rivers run to the sea1 the plants die1 the temples of the gods crumble4 ,even the mountains are but waves on the surface of a sea of time into which all things sink and are lost forever4 ,how can the temporary objects which whirl past in the course of their transformation be said really to exist8 ,existence surely must be endurance4 ,i think that ,plato1 like many thinkers since1 saw the terrifying significance of the flow of things and sought security and 8reality0 in something permanent outside the process of change4 ,what was more natural than that he should turn to the realm of abstract thought8 ,the objects we perceive change1 but a concept always means the same4 ,the world may pass away1 things may each turn into other things1 as water into vapor and fire to smoke and the body to dust1 but two and two are still four1 and the sum of the angles of a triangle remains constant4 ,hence above and behind the world of objects there is a world of ideas into which the teeth of time cannot gnaw4 ,you have only to believe that ideas have an existence independent of the minds which think them and all is transformed4 ,instantly you step out of ,time into ,eternity2 form without content2 number without things to be counted2 common properties of objects stripped of the objects in which such properties inhere2 the forms of logical discourse1 minus the things talked about and the talkers as well2 goodness1 without anything in particular to be good2 beauty in general1 independent of any concrete beautiful thing1 truth universal and absolute and outside experience4 ,all this is now the real world1 and the world of troublesome1 fleeting objects becomes a shadow and a delusion4 ,knowledge is knowledge of the 8real40 ,in other words1 knowledge is about itself4 ,the more abstract and universal an idea is the more reality it has4 ,the mind persuades itself that it possesses ,being1 ,motion1 the ,good and the ,beautiful merely by the magic of thinking about them in abstract terms4 ,the universe is transformed into an ordered system of postulates and verbal exercises4 ,education now is something more than the clarification of concepts2 it is initiation into the superworld of eternal verities4 ,it is not my purpose to attempt a discussion of ,platonic ,idealism4 ,it has fascinated many of the most subtle minds of the race down to our own times4 ,it is the foundation of much ,christian theology4 ,its re-affirmation at the time of the ,renaissance has brought with it the restatement of many problems which must be considered in the course of one's education4 ,my point is that ,plato with all his genius contributed to the tradition of liberal education a system of values very different from the humanism and agnosticism of ,socrates4 ,his influence has often tended to make the aim of education mere intellectuality1 rather than intelligent grappling with the problems of living1 and to transform the search for the good life into a flight from the realities of experience4 ,go one step further and you land in ascetic mysticism4 ,the ,soul1 the ,knower1 is no more at home in the world of objects than is the philosopher in the market place4 ,it belongs to the spiritual world1 the higher realms of ,being1 in which ideas are forever pure and free of distortion by matter4 ,in the ,phdo1 ,plato says that if we are to have pure knowledge1 the soul must be quit of the body which ever thwarts it4 ,body and soul belong to different worlds4 ,plato thus prepares the way for ,st4 ,paul and his doctrine that the spirit lusteth against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit1 and that to be present in the body is to be absent from the ,lord4 ,if matter is corruption and mankind is during life chained to the material body1 human nature ceases to be trustworthy4 ,plato's distrust of human nature bears fruit some centuries later in the statement that the natural man is sin and death1 and in the doctrine of regeneration4 ,and unregenerate man is prone to error4 ,knowledge of the truth comes by divine revelation and is to be sustained by infallible authority4 ,dissent is heresy2 assent may be required in the interest of salvation4 ,we have not yet reached the position of ,tertullian1 8,i believe that which is absurd10 but ,platonism is headed in that direction4 ,knowledge which feeds on itself in the end eats itself up4 ,but there is in ,plato something of far greater educational importance than any metaphysic or theory of knowledge4 ,when ,james said that in the study of the classics one learns to recognize human excellence1 ,i wonder if he had ,plato in mind4 ,i have no doubt that ,nietzsche was thinking of him when he turned to philosophy for an answer to his question1 8what is noble80 ,one who deliberately strives to imitate the manners and acquire the virtues of noble spirits1 is a prig and a clown4 ,but unless education ennobles the mind1 one becomes only a well-informed cad4 ,nietzsche's catalogue of noble traits is a little absurd4 ,we learn what is noble only when we see it4 ,and efforts at education 8for character0 are little more than cheap conventional substitutes for such excellence4 ,but there is a loftiness and sweep in ,plato's thought which are more than genius2 a graciousness which is more than skill2 a sincerity which is more than moral earnestness4 ,he has wrestled with the most searching problems that existence presents to the mind of man1 problems which each must face and to which he must give his answer if ever he is to become a master spirit4 ,would you know what nobility of mind is8 ,study ,plato4 ,the tradition of liberal education is a golden thread woven into the fabric of civilization4 ,viewed in the perspective of history1 the thread is often broken4 ,it is worked into various patterns according to the divergent interests of successive ages1 each pattern expressive of the values and meanings which men once held important4 ,the patterns1 whether lovely or grotesque1 whether they are woven in or are merely appliqu1 are the creations of the time4 ,the thread belongs to all times1 and whether for this tradition we are more indebted to ,plato than to ,aristotle is a question we leave to those who are interested in the history of education4 ,we are seeking to know what the tradition is4 ,i recently heard a teacher of philosophy say1 8,aristotle is dead40 ,his influence has died many times since the early death of his pupil1 the ,macedonian conqueror1 left the philosopher to the tender mercies of a suspicious ,athens4 ,it would seem that the interest in ,aristotle dies1 only to reappear subsequently in new configurations4 ,he has something that we always come back to when sanity returns after an epoch of exaggeration and over-emphasis4 ,if ,socrates is critical intelligence1 and ,plato nobility of spirit1 ,aristotle is sanity4 ,all three are essentials of liberal education4 ,one can hardly over-rate the extent of ,aristotle's influence upon the education of western ,europe4 ,for many centuries men spoke of him as 8,the ,philosopher10 drilled their minds in his logic1 added little to his metaphysics1 his natural philosophy1 his principles of ethics and politics4 ,three periods of intellectual awakening may be attributed largely to the revival of interest in his writings--that of ,rome at the time of ,cicero1 whose education and philosophy was essentially ,aristotelian2 that of the brilliant ,arabic culture which preceded the ,crusades2 and that of the scholastic education of western ,europe1 at the close of the ,middle ,ages4 ,in the last1 ,aristotle's teaching was very much distorted as a result of theological interest and of ignorance of the ,greek language2 and his hold upon education had with much difficulty to be broken before men could turn their attention to the study of nature or develop a logic of science4 ,aristotle could not have anticipated that his authority would one day become an obstacle to the study of nature4 ,he himself was the great naturalist of his age4 ,his extensive work of research and classification of natural phenomena remained unequalled until modern times4 ,had the ,greeks not despised mechanics1 ,aristotle might have possessed the necessary instruments for scientific experiment1 and our knowledge of nature might have been centuries ahead of where it is today4 ,unlike ,plato1 his former master1 ,aristotle did not displace the world of objects by a world of abstract thought4 ,he seems to have held that universals are real1 but only as an account of the order which prevails in the world4 ,his logic is primarily instrumental4 ,his whole philosophy is an attempt at well-ordered common sense4 ,the 8,politics0 and 8,ethics0 contain ,aristotle's philosophy of education4 ,it is the task of the legislator to consider how his citizens may be good men4 ,this is also the task of the educator4 ,goodness is not represented as obedience to divine commands4 ,neither is its aim that of securing reward in a future life4 ,the aim of goodness is the good life1 and the good life is the happy life1 the life that is lived well4 ,such a life requires certain material goods1 also friendships1 health1 good looks1 leisure and aret4 ,there is no word in ,english which is the exact equivalent of aret4 ,it is often translated virtue1 or excellence4 ,but ,aristotle has in mind a definite quality of excellence1 which includes distinction1 good breeding1 self-command1 wisdom1 balance and poise1 and equanimity in all things4 ,aret is the art of living4 ,nothing could be farther from ,aristotle's thought than that education should become a separate interest or pursuit of a knowledge that has nothing to do with the kind of life a man leads4 ,to his mind the central question for education is1 what sort of man is it most desirable that one should become4 ,moderns may justly criticise him because he omits any reference to work1 other than to say that it is debasing4 ,his philosophy of education is that of a leisure class4 ,and since work makes up the greater portion of most men's experience in life1 it may be said that ,aristotle would train men to possess the subjective qualities of virtue only1 and without reference to their tasks and duties4 ,it cannot be denied that his theory of education has often been so employed4 ,i have already discussed at some length the relation of education to work4 ,while ,aristotle1 like others of his time1 looks down upon labor1 it does not follow that a man is necessarily shut off from the good life as ,aristotle depicts it merely because he earns his own bread4 ,let us say that ,aristotle is in error when he says that work is debasing4 ,we may still hold that if his 8good life0 is good at all1 it is good for the man who works for his living4 ,my point is that this philosophy of education is not unrelated to the ordinary affairs of life1 but that it points out those habits which best enable one to turn such affairs to value and to happy use4 ,aristotle has set forth his idea of the good man in no uncertain terms4 ,the good is not ,plato's absolute or ideal good--good in general2 it is happiness4 ,it is to be attained not merely by philosophical speculation1 but by 8an energy of the soul according to reason10 by well-considered habits of choosing4 ,happiness is the aim of all knowledge and of every act4 ,but the educated do not agree with the vulgar as to what it is4 ,the latter believe it to be the accident of good fortune4 ,the former hold that it is the result of virtue4 ,virtues are praiseworthy habits4 8,virtue0 therefore is a habit accompanied with deliberate preference1 in the relative mean defined by reason1 and as the prudent man would define it1 8,it is the mean state between two vices1 one in excess1 the other in defect4 ,temperance and courage are destroyed both by the excess and the defect1 but are preserved by the mean4 ,virtues are neither passions nor capacities40 ,they are not mere moral enthusiasms nor any subjective state of mind4 ,wisdom and deliberation are required for virtue4 ,the good man is the educated man4 ,education is not merely the teaching of morals1 or the laying down rules for behavior4 ,the virtuous habits are not acquired by rote nor exercised automatically4 ,the habit of virtue is that of appropriate response to the situation1 the response which is right because 8nothing may be0 taken away from it nor added to it without causing it to tend toward vicious excess or defect4 ,there must be discrimination or one will go to extreme4 ,courage is not mere bravery2 it is that well-considered 8mean state0 between fear and over-confidence4 ,aristotle quotes ,socrates to the effect that courage is a 8kind of science40 ,the temperate man does not feel desire 8except in moderation1 nor more than he ought1 nor in any case improperly40 ,he does not desire things which are dishonorable or beyond his means4 ,he is in the mean in all things1 his desires are 8according to the suggestions of right reason40 ,liberality is the mean between prodigality and stinginess4 ,it is not virtuous to give unless one gives wisely4 8,the liberal man therefore will give for the sake of the honorable1 and he will give properly for he will give to proper objects1 in proper quantities1 at proper times1 and his giving will have all the other qualities of right giving1 and he will do this pleasantly and without pain2 for that which is done according to virtue is pleasant40444 8,but if it should happen to a liberal man to spend in a manner inconsistent with propriety and what is honorable1 he will feel pain1 but only moderately and as he ought1 for it is characteristic of virtue to feel pleasure and pain at proper objects1 and in a proper manner40 ,magnanimity is a virtue if accompanied by intelligence4 ,the magnanimous are concerned with honor4 ,he who being really worthy1 estimates his own worth highly1 is magnanimous4 ,he whose worth is low and who estimates it lowly is not magnanimous1 but modest4 ,he who estimates his worth lightly when he is really unworthy is vain4 ,he who estimates it less highly than it deserves is 8little-minded40 ,in good or bad fortune1 the magnanimous will behave with moderation1 he will not be too much delighted with success nor too much grieved at failure4 ,he must take more care for truth than for the good opinion of men4 ,he will not be servile1 for all flatterers are mercenary and low-minded4 ,he will not be given to the habit of too much admiring the great1 nor will he be fond of talking about himself or about other people2 he will not recollect injuries1 nor be over-anxious1 nor disposed to praise or blame4 8,the step of the magnanimous man is slow1 his voice deep and his language steady3 for he who only feels anxiety about a few things is not apt to be in a hurry3 and he who thinks highly of nothing is not vehement and shrillness and quickness of speaking arise from these things4444 ,but vain men are foolish and ignorant of themselves 444 little-mindedness is more opposed to magnanimity than vanity1 for it is oftener found and is worse40 ,hence a just appreciation of one's worth--knowledge of self1 as ,socrates would have said--is essential to ,aristotle's ideal man4 ,furthermore1 meekness is a virtue only when it is a sign of intelligence4 8,he who feels anger on proper occasions1 at proper persons1 and besides in a proper manner1 at proper times1 and for a proper length of time is an object of praise40 ,the meek man is not carried away by passion4 ,he who is excessively sensitive to anger is irascible4 ,he who is unsensitive is a fool4 ,even the virtue of truthfulness must be exercised in moderation and with good judgment4 ,the excess of it is arrogance1 the defect is cunning or false modesty4 ,wit is also a virtue2 the excess1 ,aristotle says1 is buffoonery or sarcasm1 the defect is clownishness4 ,justice is discussed in a manner quite different from that of ,plato4 ,the problem of universal justice is dismissed1 and justice is considered in relation to various transactions between man and man4 ,hence the necessity of defining 8right reason40 ,aristotle turns to a discussion of ,prudence1 ,intelligence1 ,deliberation1 ,wisdom4 ,he says1 8,it is not sufficient to know the theory of virtue10--the end is in 8practical matters40 ,aristotle holds the relation of morals to education is much the same as that which we found it to be in the preceding chapter4 ,mere precept and example are not enough2 there must be general culture1 and education should extend throughout a lifetime4 8,but reasoning and teaching1 it is to be feared1 will not avail in every case1 but the mind of the hearer must be previously cultivated by habits to feel pleasure and aversion properly just as the soil must be which nourishes the seed4 ,for he who lives in obedience to passion would not listen to reasoning which turns him away from it3 nay more1 he would not understand it4 ,and how is it possible to change the convictions of such a man as this8 ,on the whole1 it appears that passion does not submit to reasoning1 but to force4444 8,perhaps it is not sufficient that we should meet with good education when young3 but since when we arrive at manhood we ought also study and practice what we have learnt we should require laws also for this purpose40 ,aristotle discusses the desirability of public education4 ,he thinks that first men must become fitted for the duties of the legislator4 ,and since1 he says1 all previous writers have discussed the subject of politics without scientific examination of the subject1 he proposes to undertake such an examination for himself4 ,let us note that neither ,plato nor ,aristotle when considering the good life1 thinks that the individual may attain it in isolation4 ,it is not merely a quality of the soul1 but has to do with all of one's human relationships4 ,aristotle says that it is very difficult for the young to receive a good education under a bad government4 ,he would seem to make the state and the laws a means to education4 ,and it is the aim of both the state and education to enable the citizen to live happily4 ,education is training in wisdom and virtue1 and the exercise of these is freedom4 ,those who are incapable of education are slaves by nature2 those who obey only passion and abstain from vicious things not because they are disgraceful but for fear of punishment1 cannot be reasoned with2 they must be restrained by force4 ,education is liberal in that it enables a man to govern himself4 ,in comparison with ,plato1 ,aristotle appears prosaic1 worldly1 and lacking in charm and humor4 ,much that he says appears to us platitudinous1 for the same reason that the woman found ,shakespeare's dramas full of familiar quotations4 ,we forget how subversive of convention and dogma it is to found the good life in the life of reason4 ,aristotle has passed by mythology and tradition and the sanctions of religion and has achieved a purely secular guide to conduct4 ,he has made freedom and happiness the goal of virtue and education1 and has done this without descending to utilitarianism4 ,he has made right reason the standard of life and has at the same time given to the standard an sthetic valuation4 ,he has linked education with conduct1 and suggested a moral training which gives human nature credit for some degree of intelligence4 ,aristotle is no longer 8the ,philosopher40 ,education in the modern world is necessarily set to tasks very different from those of ancient ,greece4 ,but the good life is still the goal1 and ,aristotle's good man has remained one of the ideals of liberal education4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,humanism3 ,,erasmus ,,and ,,montaigne ,each man's education is a unique achievement4 ,there are as many kinds of education as there are kinds of men4 ,in every educated mind there is a mixture of temperament and learning1 a selection and emphasis1 an elusive quality like that which haunts a work of art4 ,we may recognize this elusive something but we cannot define it or describe it4 ,such words as wisdom1 virtue1 independence of judgment1 freedom1 cannot give us the meaning of education4 ,we must know the educated man4 ,if you read and understand ,erasmus of ,rotterdam1 you will see what education is better than if you read all the books written about theories of education4 ,a liberally educated person is like ,erasmus4 ,i do not mean that ,erasmus is the only type of educated mind1 or that the educated man is like him in all respects4 ,certainly ,i would not suggest that one living in the twentieth century should strive to imitate a scholar who lived in the fifteenth4 ,change of environment calls for a different response4 ,but there are certain constant factors4 ,new modes of response may be necessary in order to recreate the values which men of other times discovered1 values the loss of which in our times would cheapen our whole existence4 ,if this were not so there would be no point in trying to learn anything from men of other times4 ,there are those who have such faith in the infallibility of contemporary opinion that they are convinced the past has nothing to teach us4 ,the ways of the present are 8progress10 and progress is its own criterion of the good and needs no other guide than the interests of the hour4 ,such persons are usually to be found cheering for 8the latest thing40 ,as a rule they are people without background or reserve4 ,we live in the present1 to be sure4 ,but if we are really to live in it and are not content merely to act a part in the passing show1 we must consider the values which are at issue in the responses we make4 ,to that end there is enlightenment in knowing the values for which other men of other times struggled4 ,the kind of living we are to achieve with our environment is not determined by the environment itself1 but by the kind of men and women we are--by what we bring to our environment from the widest possible knowledge of what is worth doing4 ,men like ,erasmus and ,montaigne lived better lives than most of their contemporaries because of the wisdom of the ages that was in them4 ,it may be said that other men in their times also shared this ancient knowledge1 for was not ,the ,revival of ,learning at its height8 ,many did and were better men for it4 ,many were fascinated by the ,renaissance who merely shared its externalities but did not thereby become wiser men2 they remained creatures of their own times4 ,it became 8the latest thing0 to ape the ancients without understanding them4 ,among obscurantists1 and fanatics and corruptionists1 ,erasmus and ,montaigne lived like educated men4 ,at the close of the fifteenth century1 it was said1 8,whatever is artistic1 finished1 learned and wise is called ,erasmian40 ,it is difficult to speak of ,erasmus except in terms of the superlative4 ,the most broadly educated man of his times1 he was not only the representative scholar of his generation2 he remains an example to us all of the truly civilized man4 ,his polished wit1 his humanity1 his gentle irony1 his unfailing reasonableness1 his ability to see through cant and superstition1 his philosophic calm in the midst of intense partisan strife1 his good taste and sense of proportion3 these qualities of mind belong to no one age1 they are the constants of which ,i spoke a moment ago2 they are the essentials of a civilized attitude toward life in any age4 ,without them man is a barbarian4 ,the ,great ,humanist saw as no one else did the spiritual significance of the revival of learning1 and he came to represent all that was best in it4 ,scholarship to him was more than erudition and pedantry and literary style4 ,he found in classic literature a window opening upon a new vision of the meaning and possibilities of living4 ,he became the champion of a new way of life and thought4 ,past and present met and mingled in his thought and became a new life of reason4 8,he quietly stepped out of medievalism10 the first modern man1 the forerunner of ,descartes and ,voltaire4 ,in a time when all human interests were submerged in religion1 ,erasmus sought to humanize the ,church1 and leave it an international fellowship of culture1 free of dogma and superstition4 ,he turns from knowledge of divine things to human letters as the guide to living1 and from blind faith to reason4 ,the ,gospel becomes for him the 8philosophy of ,christ40 ,with equal impartiality he could translate the mocking dialogues of ,lucian and provide the coming ,reformation with its first standard ,greek text of the ,new ,testament4 ,his boldness in omitting passages from this latter work1 which he found not to be authentic1 and his occasional unconventional commentary on the text brought him under the suspicion of being at heart a sceptic and a heretic4 ,with bigotry and persecution almost universal all around him1 ,erasmus taught tolerance1 moderation1 respect for truth4 ,in a splendid biographical study1 ,professor ,preserved ,smith says that ,erasmus's 8,colloquies0 did more for the spread of liberal ideas than any book of the sixteenth century4 ,another historian says1 8,almost all the liberating ideas on which the international culture of the present rests1 are present in germ in his thought40 ,the continent of ,europe in the year fifteen hundred was culturally far inferior to ,asia4 ,compared to the civilization of ,greece and ,rome1 all ,christendom was barbarian4 ,the wave of interest in education which in the thirteenth century had caused the universities to become crowded1 while it had not passed1 had subsided into a dull scholastic dialectic4 ,education had little effect upon the life of the masses or their rulers4 ,in ,italy art and letters were breaking away from religious tradition1 but the new spirit which prevailed at ,florence1 ,padua1 and ,rome had little sway north of the ,alps4 ,medival ,christianity had reached its culmination and was in a period of moral and intellectual decline4 ,thoughtful men everywhere were dissatisfied4 ,the time was soon to come when this dissatisfaction could no longer be held in restraint1 when throughout a century of bloodshed1 civil war1 and violence and hatred such as ,europe had never known1 the ,church would be torn asunder and anarchy and terror reign until modern nationalism and industrialism could painfully emerge from the smouldering ruins4 ,it is said that when ,leo ,x ascended the ,papal throne1 there was placed above his head in ,latin the inscription1 8,nunc tempora ,pallas habet10--,now ,athene reigns4 ,not many years were to pass before the sacred walls1 which had under the ,pontificate of his predecessor been decorated by ,michelangelo and ,raphael1 were to echo the sound of church bells ringing out the tidings of the ,massacre of ,st4 ,bartholomew's ,day4 ,soon all over ,europe the floodgates would be open and ,christendom would be inundated by torrents of fury4 ,soon in defense of the sacred ,gospel1 ,christians would tear at ,christians' throats4 ,with instruments of iron1 tongues would be wrenched from the mouths of men and women1 eyes gouged from their sockets1 limbs broken on the rack4 ,the bed of torture and the heap of burning faggots would become commonplace spectacles for the public to gaze upon4 ,for a hundred years and more ,europe was to be ablaze with war on every hand1 until it should sink exhausted by the mutual destruction of ,christian armies into almost unimaginable misery and poverty4 ,and this struggle which was destined to breed hatreds and sectarian divisions lasting even till today1 might have been avoided1 probably could have been averted1 could the spirit of ,erasmus have prevailed4 ,protestants hold the ,catholics responsible for the horrors of the sixteenth and early seventeenth century4 ,catholics hold the ,protestants responsible4 ,both were equally guilty1 for they were equally ignorant and barbarous and deluded with superstition4 ,this is the kind of thing that happens and always will happen when ignorance breaks loose in the world4 ,then in the general madness even learned men like ,melanchthon and colampadius and the ,medicis lose their poise and become partisans4 ,erasmus during the most trying time kept his sanity4 ,and both sides denounced him bitterly4 ,he was accused of taking a cowardly middle of the road position4 ,what neither group of militant partisans could see was that ,erasmus1 far from being in the middle of the road1 was not on their wretched highway at all4 ,he remained true to the issue for which he had struggled from the first4 ,erasmus saw that what was wrong with ,europe1 indeed what really gave rise to the abuses of medival society1 was barbarism sanctioned by religious superstition4 ,he knew that vice and folly and brutality and hypocrisy were not to be removed by religious warfare1 but rather deepened4 ,he saw the same spirit of doctrinaire scholasticism1 the same intolerance and cruelty and pious ignorance on both sides of the coming controversy4 ,he knew that conditions could be improved only when the leading minds of contemporary ,europe could acquire the decencies which characterize the liberally educated of all times4 ,whether history has vindicated ,erasmus in this conviction of his is a matter concerning which opinions differ4 ,i think it has4 ,such liberty and cultural progress as the modern world enjoys it would seem to have derived from the ,erasmian tradition1 not that of ,luther1 ,calvin or ,wesley4 ,protestantism without the humanism of ,erasmus is ,fundamentalism4 ,and conversely1 ,paris and ,vienna and ,munich are nominally ,catholic1 but they have known the influence of ,erasmus and ,voltaire to a degree that many ,protestant communities have not known such influence1 and so far as the advance of civilization is concerned1 ,i think that life in such localities will compare rather favorably with that of certain strictly ,protestant communities4 ,i believe that those movements of the present day which have greatest spiritual significance and value--modernism in religion1 liberalism in education1 the dawning recognition of the necessity of intelligence and of individual responsibility in matters of belief and conduct1 efforts for the humanization of industry and the state--are but the belated resumption of the humanizing work begun in northern ,europe by ,erasmus and others and broken off by the ,reformation4 ,from this point of view the ,reformation is not the continuation of the ,renaissance1 but would appear to have been something of a bourgeois reaction against it4 ,long before the storm broke1 ,erasmus was carrying on a brave work against ignorance and obscurantism4 ,in our times1 we have seen something of the conflict of science with theology4 ,this issue is tame in comparison with the conflict of theology with ,humanism which occupied scholars at the beginning of the sixteenth century4 ,it is difficult for us now to imagine that there could be bitter opposition to the teaching of the ,latin and ,greek literatures4 ,the issue is blurred for us4 ,theologians are less acrimonious than they once were1 and ,scholasticism has long been on the decline4 ,the classics moreover1 are taught in such a manner that few students see the deep spiritual chasm which separates the ,christian approach to life from that of the ,latin and ,greek poets and philosophers4 ,it was pretty well recognized on both sides of the dispute that the ancients were pagans1 rank heathen4 ,those who opposed these unchristian writers did so for much the same reason that early ,christians in the second century had assailed 8the present evil world0 and all its works4 ,in ,italy the ,renaissance tended for a time to take on a definitely pagan aspect4 ,imitation of the ancients became a rather ridiculous gesture1 and the fad was often carried to extremes which were little less than childish4 ,cardinals assumed the speech and manners of ancient ,roman senators4 ,sermons were preached in sonorous ,ciceronian style4 ,in certain quarters ,christ was identified with ,apollo1 and ,god the ,father with ,jupiter4 ,nuns were spoken of as 8vestal virgins10 and painters and sculptors created figures of ,mars and ,venus and mingled these and other heathen idols with the images of the saints4 ,the apparent sympathy of high ecclesiastical personages with such goings on was one of the causes of the hostility to the ,papacy which later swept over northern ,europe4 ,the sanity of ,erasmus saved him and helped save the revival of learning from such superficiality4 ,he found in ,humanism a balanced and serious wisdom which he strove to combine with the ,christian philosophy of life4 ,the synthesis he achieved was not a new system of theology2 it was the gradual merging of an older outlook upon life into a new outlook1 a transformation of intellectual interests4 ,professor ,smith quotes a passage which indicates something of ,erasmus's position regarding the classics4 ,that this literature was pagan he well knew1 but its paganism did not to his mind exclude it from the spiritual life of mankind4 ,he says of an essay of ,cicero's1 8,a heathen wrote this to heathen and yet his moral principles have justice1 sincerity1 truth1 fidelity to nature2 nothing false or careless is in them40 8,when ,i read certain passages of these great men1 444 ,i can hardly refrain from saying1 #8,st4 ,socrates1 pray for me4'0 ,erasmus found himself the leader of ,humanism as an educational movement4 ,he stated the issue in precisely the terms that gave sincere and intelligent men a new vision of the spiritual life4 ,and he did it with such a wealth of learning1 such reasonableness1 such unanswerable irony and wit that his name became the symbol of the new scholarship4 ,his books had a larger circulation than those of any other writer of his generation4 ,and as for many years he travelled about ,europe1 moving from one center of learning to another1 his coming was hailed with triumph4 ,scholars everywhere attended him1 sat at his feet1 took up the cause he championed4 ,the ,humanists were winning victory after victory and could look forward to the triumph of their movement in the education of western ,europe4 ,how rapidly the spread and advance of culture might have proceeded or what directions it might have taken if men's thoughts had not been turned again to theological controversy and to bitter warfare1 no one can say4 ,perhaps the masses were not prepared to accept or tolerate so sudden a change as that for which ,erasmus strove1 for ,humanism was a much more radical departure from the mental habits and standards of value of the ,middle ,ages than was ,protestantism4 ,the leaders of the ,renaissance did not accept the ,reformation because they regarded it as a backward step4 ,perhaps they had themselves gone too far ahead4 ,perhaps the representation of the good man as the intelligent man1 an ancient ,greek idea which the ,humanists revived1 will always be offensive to the masses4 ,erasmus seemed--he still seems to many--to have lacked moral earnestness4 ,he generated light and what mankind wants is heat4 ,at any rate1 the masses in the nations where the new scholarship was being carried1 showed that they did not want the pagan wisdom4 ,instead they suddenly became possessed with a longing for the primitive faith of the first ,christian century1 or what they thought was that faith4 ,they followed the leader who gave them not insight1 but a moral issue4 ,both ,luther and ,erasmus had visited ,rome4 ,each was impressed by the 8sight of antique monuments40 ,each saw evidence of the corruption and veniality which along with luxury surrounded the gay ,papal court4 ,luther later spoke of ,rome as the 8sink of every abomination10 a conviction which doubtless had much to do with determining the course of events which led to his break with ,papal authority4 ,of the effect of all this on the mind of ,erasmus1 we have the record in a book1 one of the great classics of literature1 8,in ,praise of ,folly40 ,in the letter of dedication to his friend ,sir ,thomas ,more1 ,erasmus says that in his late travels from ,italy1 that he might not trifle away his time in the rehearsal of old wives' fables1 he began reflecting upon his past studies1 and thought it good to divert himself by drawing up a 8panegyrick upon ,folly40 ,he suggests that this trifling may be a whet to more serious thought and that 8comical matters may be so treated of1 as that a reader of ordinary sense may possibly thence reap more advantage than from some more big and stately argument40 ,he hints that he does not wish to be so carping that he will fail to instruct1 and says that he who points indifferently at all1 can hardly be accused of being angry with any one man or one vice4 ,and he wonders at the 8tender humor0 of an age in which some are so 8preposterously devout that they would sooner wink at the greatest affront against our ,saviour1 than be content that a prince or a pope should be nettled with the least joke or gird1 especially in what relates to their ordinary customs40 ,here we have the characteristic reactions of two contrasting types of men who probably can never understand each other4 ,to ,luther the vices of ,rome are sin2 to ,erasmus they are folly4 ,the one is filled with moral indignation at the iniquity of the world1 and rushes into the fray to stamp it out1 puts it on the defensive1 attacks it in its stronghold4 ,the other makes iniquity ridiculous1 renders it defenseless by laughing away its pretexts at justification1 showing it to itself as folly and reminding all men that their foolishness may be removed only by wisdom4 ,no doubt without more moral indignation in the world than ,erasmus seems to have shown there would be too easy tolerance of abuse4 ,on the other hand1 without his insight and scepticism and irony1 indignation turns to malice1 men lose their perspective1 and their power of self-criticism2 they become so intent upon the struggle for righteousness that they forget what they are struggling for1 and when the great cause finally triumphs1 it carries to victory the same old iniquities in new dress4 ,it is evident from a reading of 8,in ,praise of ,folly0 that ,erasmus' thought made deeper inroads into the very spirit of ,medival thought and religion than did ,luther's moral indignation4 ,it undermined many things that the ,reformer left standing4 8,in ,praise of ,folly0 was written eight years before ,luther's break with the ,pope1 and it reveals a mind emancipated from much more than the ,papacy4 ,the man who could write this satire must have regarded the ,reformation as a quarrel which dealt with only the surface of the problem4 ,i do not wonder that later both ,catholics and ,protestants considered him a sceptic4 ,it is my belief that he was too sceptical to become greatly excited about the ,reformation4 ,he is impressed with the whole stupid comedy of the life about him4 ,knowledge of this book should be part of every man's education4 ,it has much more than a historical interest for the modern student4 ,in form it is an oration which ,folly delivers in praise of herself4 ,she makes a good case2 perhaps too good a case4 ,folly says that however slightly she is esteemed in the common vogue of the world--being often decried even by those who are themselves the greatest fools--yet she is the deity who really rules the world and is the source of most men's happiness4 8,at first sight of me you all unmask and appear in more lively colors40 ,without ,folly society would go to pieces4 ,indeed no one would ever be born1 for would women ever have children or marry except for ,folly8 ,and except for ,folly marriages would be few and divorces many4 ,how could the government exist without ,folly8 ,have not wise legislators in all times recognized the necessity of fooling the people8 ,after showing how ,folly reigns in the arts and the professions1 and how each nation has its pet folly and self-conceit1 the speaker sums up1 8,i am so communicative and bountiful as to let no particular person pass without some token of my favor1 whereas other deities bestow gifts sparingly and to their elects only40 ,let us note this reference to ,folly as 8deity40 ,does ,erasmus mean to imply that ,folly is the deity that mankind really worships and has been worshipping all the while8 ,he makes ,folly say1 8,well1 but there are none 7say you7 build any altars1 or dedicate any temple to ,folly4 ,i admire 7as ,i have before intimated7 that the world should be so wretchedly ungrateful4 ,but ,i am so good natured as to pass by and pardon this seeming affront1 though indeed the charge thereof1 as unnecessary1 may well be saved2 for to what purpose should ,i demand the sacrifice of frankincense1 cakes1 goats1 and swine1 since all persons everywhere pay me that more acceptable service1 which all divines agree to be more effectual and meritorious1 namely1 an imitation of my communicable attributes8444 ,farther1 why should ,i desire a temple1 since the whole world is but one ample continued choir1 entirely dedicated to my use and service8 ,nor do ,i want worshippers at any place where the earth wants not inhabitants4 ,and as to the manner of my worship1 ,i am not yet so irrecoverably foolish1 as to be prayed to by proxy1 and to have my honour intermediately bestowed upon images and pictures1 which quite subvert the true end of religion44440 ,but ,folly has not time to recount all the foolishness of the ignorant1 neither is it necessary4 ,she confines herself to the follies of those who make pretense of wisdom4 ,of these the theologians doubtless 8least like to be reminded of their dependence upon ,folly10 but in evidence of this fact1 8,they will cut asunder the toughest argument with as much ease as ,alexander did the ,gordian knot2 they will thunder out so many rattling terms as shall fright an adversary into conviction4 ,they are exquisitely dexterous in unfolding the most intricate mysteries2 they will tell you to a tittle all the successive proceedings of omnipotence in the creation of the universe2 they will explain the precise manner of original sin being derived from our first parents2 they will satisfy you in what manner1 by what degrees1 and in how long a time our ,saviour was conceived in the ,virgin's womb1 and demonstrate in the consecrated wafer how accidents may subsist without a subject4 ,nay1 these are accounted trivial1 easy questions2 they have yet far greater difficulties behind1 which nothwithstanding they solve with as much expedition as the former2 444 whether ,christ1 as a son1 bears a double specifically distinct relation to ,god the ,father1 and his virgin mother8 whether this proposition is possible to be true1 the first person of the ,trinity hated the second8 whether ,god1 who took our nature upon him in the form of a man1 could as well have become a woman1 a devil1 a beast1 an herb1 or a stone8 and were it so possible that the ,godhead had appeared in any shape of an inanimate substance1 how he should then have preached his gospel8 or how have been nailed to the cross8 whether if ,st4 ,peter had celebrated the eucharist at the same time our ,saviour was hanging on the cross1 the consecrated bread would have been transsubstantiated into the same body that remained on the tree80 8,further1 does any one appear a candidate for any ecclesiastical dignity1 why an ass or a plough jobber shall sooner gain it than a wise man40444 8,all their preaching is mere stage-playing1 and their delivery the very transports of ridicule and drollery4 ,good ,lord6 how mimical are these gestures8 ,what heights and falls in their voice8 ,what toning1 what bawling1 what singing1 what squeaking1 what grimaces1 making of mouths1 and apes' faces1 and distorting of their countenance2 and this art of oratory as a choice mystery1 they convey down by tradition to one another4 ,the manner of it ,i may adventure thus farther to enlarge upon4 ,first1 in a kind of mockery they implore the divine assistance1 which they borrowed from the solemn custom of the poets4444 8,now as to the popes of ,rome1 who pretend themselves ,christ's vicars1 if they would but imitate his exemplary life1 in the being employed in an unintermitted course of preaching2 in the being attended with poverty1 nakedness1 hunger1 and a contempt of this world2 if they did but consider the import of the word pope1 which signifies a father2 or if they did but practice their surname of most holy1 what order or degrees of men would be in a worse condition8 ,there would be then no such vigorous making of parties1 and buying of votes1 in the conclave upon a vacancy of that see3 and those who by bribery1 or other indirect courses1 should get themselves elected1 would never secure their sitting firm in the chair by pistol1 poison1 force of violence4 ,how much of their pleasure would be abated if they were but endowed with one dram of wisdom8 ,wisdom1 did ,i say8 ,nay1 with one grain of that salt which our ,saviour bid them not lose the savour of4 ,all their riches1 all their honour1 their jurisdictions1 their ,peter's patrimony1 their offices1 their dispensations1 their licences1 their indulgences1 their long train and attendants1 7see in how short a compass ,i have abbreviated all their marketing of religion27 in a word1 all their perquisities would be forfeited and lost40444 ,finally1 after quoting many passages in praise of ,folly and of foolish actions and foolish persons which occur in his precious classic literature1 ,erasmus does a surprising thing4 ,at the time this book was written those who later were to become the ,reformers were already disposed to appeal to the ,bible as an infallible authority equal to1 if not above1 that of the ,church4 ,that ,erasmus placed the ,holy ,scriptures in the same category as other ancient literature is indicated by his free and easy treatment of it4 ,he humorously quotes many passages to prove that the ,bible actually enjoins men to practice folly and eschew wisdom4 ,were not our first parents expelled from ,eden in punishment for the sin of eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge8 ,he does not even spare the ,new ,testament4 8,now therefore ,i return to ,st4 ,paul1 who uses these expressions #8,ye suffer fools gladly1' applying it to himself2 and again1 #8,as a fool receive me1' and #8,that which ,i speak1 ,i speak not after the ,lord1 but as it were foolishly'2 and in another place1 #8,we are fools for ,christ's sake4' ,see how these commendations of ,folly are equal to the author of them1 both great and sacred4 ,the same holy person does yet enjoin and command the being a fool1 as a virtue of all others most requisite and necessary3 for1 says he1 #8,if any man seem to be wise in this world1 let him become a fool1 that he may be wise4'444 8,nor may this seem strange in comparison to what is yet farther delivered by ,st4 ,paul1 who adventures to attribute something of ,folly even to the all-wise ,god himself1 #8,the foolishness of ,god 7says he7 is wiser than men' 444 wherein is to be understood that other passage of ,st4 ,paul1 #8,the preaching of the cross to them that perish1 is foolishness4' ,but why do ,i put myself to the trouble of citing so many proofs1 since this one may suffice for all1 namely1 that in those mystical psalms wherein ,david represents the type of ,christ1 it is there acknowledged by our ,saviour1 in way of confession1 that even he himself was guilty of ,folly2 #8thou 7says he7 ,o ,god knowest my foolishness8' ,nor is it without some reason that fools for their plainness and sincerity of heart have always been most acceptable to ,god ,almighty4444 ,so our ,saviour in like manner dislikes and condemns the wise and crafty1 as ,st4 ,paul does expressly declare in these words1 #8,god hath chosen the foolish things of the world'2 and again1 #8it pleased ,god by foolishness to save the world'2 implying that by wisdom it could never have been saved4 ,nay1 ,god himself testifies as much when he speaks by the mouth of his prophet1 #8,i will destroy the wisdom of the wise1 and bring to nought the understanding of the learned4' ,again1 our ,saviour does solemnly return his ,father thanks for that he had #8hidden the mysteries of salvation from the wise1 and revealed them to babes1' i4 e4 to fools40 ,the book ends with these words1 8,i hate a pot-companion with a good memory3 so indeed ,i hate a hearer that will carry anything away with him4 ,wherefore in short1 farewell3 be jolly1 live long1 drink deep1 ye most illustrious votaries of ,folly40 ,it is said that ,luther was repelled by this book4 ,i do not wonder4 ,erasmus would seem to be as far removed from the spirit of ,protestantism as from that of medival ,catholicism4 ,has ,erasmus1 perhaps without wholly realizing the fact himself1 stepped quite outside the traditional ,christian system of beliefs and values into a world-view which is partly that of the ancient philosophies and partly that of the eighteenth century ,rationalist8 ,i do not know4 ,he is certainly a liberal in matters of religion1 but unlike our contemporary liberals1 he shows little interest in natural science4 ,he was severely criticised for refusing to participate in the ,reformation on the side of the ,reformers4 ,the following bits of correspondence which ,i quote from ,professor ,smith's biography indicate the esteem in which he and ,luther finally held each other4 ,luther wrote about the year #aebd3 8,since we see that the ,lord has not given you courage and sense to assail those monsters openly and confidently with us1 we are not the men to expect what is beyond your power and measure4444 ,we only fear that you may be induced by our enemies to fall upon our doctrine with some publication1 in which case we should be obliged to resist you to your face4444 ,hitherto ,i have controlled my pen as often as you prick me1 and have written in letters to friends1 which you have seen1 that ,i would control it until you publish something openly4 ,for although you will not side with us1 and although you injure and make skeptical many pious men by your impiety and hypocrisy1 yet ,i cannot and do not accuse you of willful obstinancy4444 ,we have fought long enough2 we must take care not to eat each other up4 ,this would be a terrible catastrophe1 as neither of us wishes to harm religion1 and without judging each other both may do good40 ,erasmus wrote to his friend1 ,everard1 8,with what odium ,luther burdens the cause of learning and that of ,christianity6 ,as far as he can he involves all men in his business4 ,everyone confessed that the ,church suffered under the tyranny of certain men1 and many were taking counsel to remedy this state of affairs4 ,now this man has arisen to treat the matter in such a way that he fastens the yoke on us more firmly1 and that no one dares to defend even what he has said well4 ,six months ago ,i warned him to beware of hatred4 #8,the ,babylonian ,captivity' 7a bitter treatise which ,luther wrote7 has alienated many from him1 and he daily puts forth more atrocious things40 ,and again to ,luther1 in reply to a very unkind letter1 8,your letter was delivered to me late and had it come on time it would not have moved me4444 ,the whole world knows your nature1 according to which you have guided your pen against no one more bitterly and1 what is more detestable1 more maliciously than against me4444 ,the same admirable ferocity which you formerly used against ,cochlaeus and against ,fisher1 who provoked you to it by reviling1 you now use against my book in spite of its courtesy4 ,how do your scurrilous charges that ,i am an atheist1 an ,epicurean1 and a skeptic help the argument8444 ,it terribly pains me1 as it must all good men1 that your arrogant1 insolent1 rebellious nature has set the world in arms4444 ,you treat the ,evangelic cause so as to confound together all things sacred and profane as if it were your chief aim to prevent the tempest from ever becoming calm1 while it is my greatest desire that it should die down4444 ,i should wish you a better disposition were you not so marvelously satisfied with the one you have4 ,wish me any curse you will except your temper1 unless the ,lord change it for you40 ,much has been made of the following 8damning0 admission3 8,would that some #8deus ex machina' might make a happy ending for this drama so inauspiciously begun by ,luther6 ,he himself gives his enemies the dart by which they transfix him1 and acts as if he did not wish to be saved1 though frequently warned by me and by his friends to tone down the sharpness of his style4444 ,i cannot sufficiently wonder at the spirit in which he has written4 ,certainly he has loaded the cultivators of literature with heavy odium4 ,many of his teachings and admonitions were splendid1 but would that he had not vitiated these good things by mixing intolerable evils6 ,if he had written all things piously1 yet ,i should not have courage to risk my life for the truth4 ,all men have not strength for martyrdom4 ,i fear least1 if any tumult should arise1 ,i should imitate ,peter 7in denying the ,lord740 ,it is doubtful if ,erasmus meant this confession of weakness to be taken literally4 ,cowards are not often so honest with themselves1 nor do they make such candid revelations of their fears1 but rather affect a show of bravery so long as it is possible to disguise their weakness of character4 ,had ,erasmus been less strong1 he would have yielded to pressure1 joined the reformers and sought refuge among them4 ,instead1 he stood against the crowd1 knowing well that although he might decline to join the ranks of ,luther1 there was no refuge for him amongst the churchmen whom he had been attacking for many years4 ,he did not betray his own cause1 the ,renaissance1 but remained true to it in opposition to bigotry and ignorance on both sides of the controversy4 ,in support of the revival of learning he was courageous enough4 ,surrounded as he was by madness1 he conceived it to be the task of the wise man to keep his balance and work for peace and sanity4 ,i believe this to be the first social task of the educated4 ,could a ,socrates1 or a ,seneca1 or ,cicero have returned to life in the year #aebe1 it is difficult to imagine that he would have pursued a course very different from that ,erasmus pursued4 ,a man's intellectual integrity does not require that he take sides when he believes that neither side has the truth4 ,i believe ,erasmus took the longer view1 for today we find ,humanism gradually supplanting orthodoxy among educated ,protestants1 and ,i have no doubt that something similar is taking place in ,catholic centers of culture4 ,the liberal ,catholic and the liberal ,protestant are more nearly of one mind than is either of them with the ,fundamentalist in his own sect4 ,and they are each nearer to ,erasmus4 ,erasmus did not suffer martyrdom1 neither did he make martyrs of those who opposed him4 ,persecution and martyrdom are the first things that the uneducated think of in any social crisis4 ,the masses are prepared to make any conflict the occasion of both1 and with only the vaguest idea of what the killing is all about4 ,if there were more men like ,erasmus there would be less occasion for such practices4 ,his is the cause which will never triumph by force4 ,humanism1 which in the ,italian ,renaissance was something of a parvenu effort at culture1 comes to its maturity with ,montaigne4 ,it is an educational experience lived through1 a wisdom grown into1 as ,montaigne says1 with everything in its season4 ,montaigne's mind is stored with the fruits of the wisdom of all historic times4 ,he quotes the ancients as only ,erasmus could1 yet he is never an imitator or copier4 ,his is one of the most original minds in literature1 and his originality increases as he grows older and has time to think4 ,it is very different from the rebelliousness of certain contemporary radicals1 whose liberalism might be characterized as retarded adolescence4 ,a contemporary critic says of him1 8,montaigne 444 was one of the most civilized men of whom we have any record3 his intellectual curiosity was matched by his magnanimity4 ,he hated cruelty1 prejudice1 violence and stupidity3 his love of life was so great that it illumined every object in the world of sense and in the world of thought4 ,his style was so original that his remarks on little things have outlived thousands of works dealing soberly with portentous ideas4 ,he could write on trivial themes without becoming trivial40 ,like ,erasmus1 he has a delicious sense of humor in which there is no bitterness4 ,he is so accustomed to ideas that he can play with them4 ,he can smile at his own weaknesses1 and discuss every question with open mind and with that 8kindly irony which is perhaps the ripest of all moods in which poor humanity can look at itself40 ,but ,erasmus was the professional scholar1 and we think of him always moving in circles where learning is of special interest4 ,one does not think of educational institutions when one reads ,montaigne's essays1 but of the educated man himself4 ,he is the learned layman1 the amateur whose learning is assimilated with all the interests of the daily routine of living4 ,he is not 8taken in0 by his culture so as to make it an end in itself4 ,he says1 8,i labor not to be beloved more and esteemed better being dead than alive4444 ,if ,i were one of those to whom the world may be indebted for praise1 ,i would quit it for one moytie1 on condition it would pay me before hand4444 ,i make no account of goods which ,i could not employ to the use of my life4 ,such as ,i am1 so ,i would not be elsewhere than on paper4 ,mine art and industry have been employed to make myself of some worth2 my study and endeavor to doe1 and not to write4 ,i have applied all my skill and devoire to frame my life4 ,lo--heere mine occupation and my work4 ,i am a less maker of books than of anything else4444 ,whosoever hath any worth in him1 let him shew it in his behaviour1 manners and ordinary discourses2 be it to treat of love or of quarrels2 of sport and play or bed-matters1 at board or elsewhere2 or be it in the conduct of his own affairs or private household matters4444 ,demand a ,spartan whether he would rather be a cunning ,rhethorician1 then an excellent souldier2 nay1 were ,i asked1 ,i wuld say a good ,cooke1 had ,i not some one to serve me4 ,good ,lord--how ,i would hate such a commendation1 to be a sufficient man in writing and a foolish1 shallow-headed braine or coxcombe in all things else40 ,he ridicules those who strive to make a show of learning and 8alledge ,plato and ,saint ,thomas for things which the first man they meete would decide as well4444 ,such learning as could not enter into their middle hath staid on their tongues40 8,being young ,i studied for ostentation2 then a little to enoble myselfe and become wiser2 now for delight and recreation1 never for gaine4 ,a vaine conceit and lavish humour ,i had after this kinde of stuffe2 not only to provide for my need1 but some what further to adorne and embellish my selfe withall2 ,i have since partlie left it40 ,he loves ,letters but does not worship them4 ,he remains a little surprised and amused at his own bits of wisdom and does not quite know how he came into the company of the philosophers4 8,nothing may be spoken so absurdly but that it is spoken by some of the philosophers4 ,and therefore do ,i suffer my humors or caprices more freely to pass in publike4 ,for as much as though they are borne with1 and of me1 and without any patterne2 well ,i wot1 they will be found to have relation to some ancient humour1 and some shall be found1 that will both know and tell whence1 and of whom ,i have borrowed them4 ,my customes are naturall2 when ,i contrived them1 ,i called not for the help of any discipline3 ,and weake and faint as they were1 when ,i have had a desire to expresse them1 and to make them appeare to the world a little more comely and decent1 ,i have somewhat endevoured to aide them with discourse1 and assist them with examples4 ,i have wondred at my selfe1 that by mere chance ,i have met with them1 agreeing and sutable to so many ancient examples and ,philosophicall discourses4 ,what regiment my life was of1 ,i never knew nor learned but after it was much worne and spent4 ,a new figure3 ,an unpremeditated ,philosopher and a casuall40 ,it is this unostentatious1 unpremeditated1 casual and chatty quality of ,montaigne's writing that reveals the genuineness of his education4 ,a present-day critic would lead us to believe that he kept a note book and patiently copied out of his classics the passages which he might use as illustrations4 ,in a characteristic bit of humor at his own expense1 ,montaigne seems to justify this idea that he was a mere compiler of other men's thoughts4 8,we labor and toyle and plod to fill the memorie and leave both understanding and conscience empty4 ,even as birds flutter and skip from field to field to peck up corn or any grain and without tasting the same carrie it in their bills therewith to feed their little ones3 so doe our pedants glean and pick learning from books and never lodge it further than their lips only to disgorge and cast it to the wind4 ,it is strange how filthy sottishness takes hold of mine example4 ,is not that which ,i do in the greatest part of this composition all one and self same thing8 ,i am forever here and there picking and culling from this and that book the sentences that please me1 not to keepe them 7for ,i have no store house to reserve them in7 but to transport them into this3 where to say truth1 they are no more mine than in their first place40 ,but it is obvious that these essays were not the product of a mind which worked in such a sophomoric manner as this4 ,montaigne's mind is saturated with 8ancient humor40 ,there is no pretense or conscious effort to appear erudite4 ,while many other ,renaissance scholars were writing in ,latin and affecting a ,ciceronian style1 ,montaigne wrote in ,french4 ,he is1 ,i believe1 the creator of the essay as a form of literary expression1 a style which is more free and informal than the conventional forms of his day4 ,a man who spent his days in seclusion in his library in the tower of his castle1 he writes not of books but of every conceivable human interest and commonplace reality4 ,his wisdom turns to such considerations as1 8,by diverse means men come to a like end40 8,how the soul dischargeth her passions upon false objects40 8,whether the captaine of a place besieged ought to sally forth to parley40 ,he writes of 8,idleness10 of 8,liars10 or 8,virtue10 of 8,drunkenness10 of 8,exercise or ,practice10 of 8,profit and ,honesty10 of 8,repenting10 of 8,coaches10 of 8,the ,verses of ,virgil10 of 8,vanity10 of 8,the affection of fathers to their ,children10 of 8,seneca0 and 8,plutarch0 and 8,julius ,caesar40 ,always his interest is in human experience4 ,shrewd personal observations are mingled with stories from antiquity and quaint philosophic maxims in a mind which is at once mature and inquisitive1 loquacious and sceptical1 candidly self-revealing1 without pretention1 equally at home among books and things4 ,let those who object to the teaching of the classics on the ground that they tend to a 8separation of education from life0 go back and re-read ,montaigne4 ,although the two were by temperament very different1 ,montaigne would have pleased ,erasmus4 ,his education and philosophy of life were very much the type that ,erasmus strove to encourage4 ,when ,montaigne was born1 in #aecc1 the influence of the ,renaissance had already made itself felt in ,france4 ,he was three years old when ,erasmus died4 ,but his casual mention of 8,the ,adages0 and 8,colloquies0 of ,erasmus would indicate that sometime in his youth these books formed part of his education4 ,his knowledge of ,greek and ,latin began at a very early period in his life4 ,it is said that when he was a mere infant his father placed him in the home of a neighboring scholar so that he would grow up with the same familiarity with these languages as with his mother tongue4 ,he entered what was called a 8college0 at the age of six4 ,it was1 ,i suppose1 a preparatory school4 ,it must have come under the influence of the revival of learning for it had on its faculty some of the ablest scholars in ,france at that time4 ,at the age of thirteen he entered a university to study ,law1 took his degree at twenty1 and at twenty-one was appointed councilor for the ,parliament of ,bordeaux4 ,he seems to have had some military experience also1 and to have spent some gay years at court4 ,when he was thirty-nine years old he inherited the estate and castle of ,montaigne near ,bordeaux4 ,he married1 and except for the few years1 when against his inclination he served as ,mayor of ,bordeaux1 he spent the remainder of his days in private life1 looking after his estate and enjoying hours of unbroken meditation in his tower library1 reading his ,horace and ,plutarch and the ancient poets and philosophers generally4 ,he says he was not a great reader1 but that he liked to have his books about him4 ,he especially enjoyed the privacy of his library1 from which1 he gives us to understand1 his wife and the rest of the household were excluded4 ,montaigne began writing brief essays when he was forty-five years old1 not at first for publication but rather so that he might present a true picture of himself to his family and friends4 ,the writing evidently amused him for as the years passed the essays grew longer and their content more serious4 ,if we are to see the full significance of the essays as the revelation of an achievement in education--and that is our present interest in them--we must remember what was happening in the world at the time they were written4 ,the struggle of the ,reformation was in full swing4 ,montaigne's lifetime coincides with what was doubtless the most bitter and acrimonious period of that religious conflict4 ,everywhere there was persecution1 riot1 intrigue1 retaliation2 men seemed to have lost utterly the liberal spirit of the ,renaissance and to have forgotten that there was such a virtue as tolerance4 ,montaigne was an exception4 ,it is said that during the years of bloodshed in ,france1 his castle was never fortified1 nor closed1 and that both ,catholics and ,protestants were welcome there4 ,the battle does not disturb ,montaigne's equanimity1 nor warp his judgment2 it remains to him a little more than a fight in the street4 ,i should like to call attention to this indifference to the great mass movement of the times1 for there are those who contend that philosophy1 art and letters are but the by-products of such movements4 ,at a time when nearly every one is eaten up with partisan zeal1 ,montaigne hardly mentions the ,reformation4 ,he says1 8,i perswade you1 in your opinions and discourses1 as much as in your custom1 and in every other thing1 to use moderation and temperance1 and avoid all newfangled inventions and strangenesses4 ,all extravagant wais displease me40 ,while others are resorting to torture and massacre for the sake of a faith which they do not question1 ,montaigne quietly retires and has time to see when he is making himself ridiculous4 8,it is not long since ,i retired my selfe unto mine owne house1 with full purpose1 as much as lay in me1 not to trouble myselfe with any businesse1 but solitarily and quietly to weare out the remainder of my wellnigh spent life3 when me thought ,i could doe my spirit no greater favor than to give him the full scope of idlenesse1 and entertaine him as best he pleased1 and withall to settle himselfe as best he liked3 which ,i hoped he might1 now being by time become more settled and ripe1 accomplish very easily3 but ,i finde #8444 evermore idlenesse ,doth wavering mindes addresse4' ,that contrariwise1 playing the skittish and loose broken jade1 he takes a hundred times more cariere and libertie unto himselfe than he did for others3 and begets in me so many extravagant chimeraes and fantastical monsters1 so orderless1 and without any reason1 one huddled upon the other1 that at leisure to view the foolishnesse and monstrous strangeness of them1 ,i have begun to keep a register of them1 hoping1 if ,i live1 one day to make him ashamed and blush at himselfe40 ,toward the multitude and its judgments of value he is indifferent1 8,our soule must play her part1 but inwardly1 within our selves1 where no eyes shine but ours3 444 not for any advantage but for the gracefulness of honestie itselfe4 ,this benefit is much greater1 and more worthie to be wished and hoped1 then honor and glory1 which is naught but a favorable judgment that is made of us4444 ,is it reason to make the life of a wise man depend on the judgment of fooles8 ,nothing is so incomprehensible to be just waied as the mindes of the multitude4444 8444 ,in this breathie confusion of brutes and frothy chaos of reports and of vulgar opinions which still push us on1 no good can be established4 ,let us not propose so fleeting and so wavering an end unto ourselves4 ,let us constantly follow reason3 ,and let the vulgar approbation follow us that way1 if it please4 ,of the many thousands of worthie1 valiant men which fifteen hundred years since the day of ,juvenal have died in ,france with their weapons in their hands1 not one in a hundred have come to our knowledge4444 ,it shall be much1 if a hundred years hence the civil warres which lately we have had in ,france be but remembered in grosse40 ,yes1 the multitude may follow if it pleases2 ,montaigne will not urge it4 ,he may remind it that in a few years its cause may be forgotten4 ,but how free he is from the righteous indignation and vindictiveness and factiousness which everywhere storm about him4 ,he has that urbanity of which ,i spoke1 and the serenity of one who has learned to laugh at his own prejudices4 8,surely1 man is a wonderful1 vaine1 divers and wavering subject3 it is very hard to ground any directly constant and uniforme judgment upon him40 ,his wisdom leads him to see not only the folly of mankind1 but also his own folly and weakness1 which he does not strive to conceal1 but relates with amusing candor4 8,i have1 a kind of raving1 fanciful behavior that retireth well into myselfe3 and on the other side a grosse and childish ignorance of many ordinary things3 by means of which two qualities ,i have in my daies committed five or six as sottish trickes as any one whatsoever3 which to my derogration may be reported4444 8,for my part1 ,i may in generall wish to be other than ,i am3 ,i may condenme and mislike my universall forme3 ,i may beseech ,god to grant me an undefiled reformation and excuse my natural weaknesse3 but me seemeth ,i ought to tearme this repentance1 no more than the displeasure of being neither an ,angell nor ,cato4444 8,when ,i consult with my age of my youthe's proceedings1 ,i finde that commonly 7according to my opinion7 ,i managed them in order4 ,this is all my resistance is able to perform4 ,i flatter not myselfe3 in like circumstances ,i should be ever the same4 ,it is not a spot1 but a whole dye that staynes mee4 ,i acknowledge no repentence 7that7 is superficiall1 meane1 and ceremonious4 8,crosses and afflictions 7works of penance7 make me doe nothing but curse them4 ,they are for people that cannot be arroused but by the whip4444 ,the happy life 7in my opinion1 not as said ,antisthenes1 the happy death17 is it that makes man's happinesse in this world4 8,i have not preposterously busied myselfe to tie the taile of a ,philosopher unto the head and bodie of a varlet3 nor that this paultrie end1 should disavow and belie the fairest soundest and longest part of my life4 ,i will present myselfe and make a generall muster of my whole1 everywhere uniformally4 ,were ,i to live againe1 it should be as ,i have already lived4 ,i neither deplore the past1 nor dread what is to come40 ,the man who can speak so of himself is not likely to hold up any universal standard of faith or practice4 ,he is not the man with the message for humanity1 as were the ,reformers and their enemies in the church4 ,he is not a partisan because he has gone beyond such dilemmas4 ,his knowledge of many books and of many and diverse explantations of the riddle of life and many kinds of goods and evils has made him see that there is no 8one right way40 ,reason has often been opposed to faith4 ,montaigne sees that reason too is faith1 and faith all too human4 ,there can be no finality4 ,i suspect that his tolerance and aloofness during the ,reformation in ,france were the result of a point of view somewhat similar to that of ,lessing's 8,nathan the ,wise10 and his story of the three rings4 ,no one possessed the original1 which was supposed to entitle the owner to the ancestral blessing and inheritance4 ,all1 like all religions1 were counterfeits of the lost article4 ,montaigne gives his ideas of religion and philosophy in the longest of his essays1 8,an ,apologie of ,raymond ,sebond40 ,he says that his father once requested him to translate a book on natural ,theology by an unknown ,spanish writer of this name4 ,his remarks reveal the extent to which his mind is freed from both rationalism and religious dogmatism4 8,we should accompany our faith with all the reason we possess3 yet always with this proviso1 that we think it does not depend on us1 and that all our strength and arguments can never attain to so supernaturall and divine a knowledge40 ,his remarkable detachment is seen in the following4 ,he says that the best test of ,verity is the practice of virtue4 8,and therefore was our good ,saint ,lewis in the right1 when that ,tartan ,king who was to become a ,christian intended to come to ,lions to kisse the ,pope's feet1 and there to view the sanctitie he hoped to find in our lives and manners1 instantly to divert him from it fearing lest our dissolute manners and licentious kind of life might scandalize him and so alter his opinion foreconceived of so sacred a religion4 ,how be it the contrary happened to another who for the same effect being come to ,rome1 and there viewing the dissoluteness of the prelates and people of those days1 was so much more confirmed in our religion1 considering with himselfe what force and divinity it must of consequence have since it was able1 amidst so many corruptions and so viciously poluted hands to maintain her dignitie and splendor4444 8,our zeale worketh wonders when ever it secondeth our inclination toward hatred1 cruelitie1 ambition1 avarice1 detraction or rebellion4444 ,among other discommodities of our nature this is one1 there is darkness in our minds1 and in us not only necessity of erring but love of errors4444 ,presumption is our naturall and originall infirmitie4 ,of all creatures1 man is the most miserable and fraile1 and therewithall the proudest and disdainfullest 444 he ascribeth divine conditions unto himselfe that he selecteth and separateth himselfe from out the ranke of other creatures4444 ,by what comparison from them to us doth he conclude the brutishness he ascribeth unto them8 ,when ,i am playing with my cat who knows whether she have more sport in dallying with me than ,i in gaming with her8 ,we entertain one another with mutuall apish tricks40 8,we understand them 7the beasts7 no more than they us4 ,by the same reason may they as well esteem us ,beasts1 as we them4 ,it is no great marvell if we understand them not3 no more doe we understand the ,cornish1 the ,welch1 or ,irish40 ,he is persuaded he says1 that if anyone who has pursued knowledge will 8speak in conscience1 he will confess that all the benefit he hath gotten by so tedious a pursuit1 hath been that he hath learned to know his own weaknesse40 8,my profession is not to know the truth nor to attaine it4 ,i rather open than discover things4 ,the wisest that ever was1 being demanded what he knew1 answered that he knew nothing40 ,he speaks with approval of the doubters1 the ,phyrronians who 8but desire to be contradicted1 thereby to engender doubt and suspense of judgment which is their end and drift40 ,thus these men have attained the condition of a quiet and contented life1 exempted from the agitations which beset ourselves because we imagine we have a certainty and a knowledge that we do not possess4 ,after all 8that ignorance which knoweth and condemneth itselfe10 is not absolute ignorance4 ,montaigne seems to hold that it is the best we may attain and that in knowing and condemning our ignorance we may avoid much of the misery and mischief we inflict upon ourselves and one another4 ,the fears and revenge and jealousies and partisan strife and rebellion and envy and immoderate desires which everywhere he finds about him all proceed1 he thinks1 from presumptuous ignorance which does not know itself to be ignorance4 ,in the midst of theological disputation he smilingly reminds his neighbors that as1 8,xenophanes said pleasantly that if beastes frame any gods unto themselves 7as likely it is they doe7 they surely frame them like unto themselves and glorifie themselves as we do4 ,for what may not a ,goose say this8 ,all parts of the world behold me1 the earth serveth me to tread upon1 the sunne to give me light1 the starres to inspire me with influence3 this commodity ,i have of the winds1 and this benefit of the waters3 there is nothing that this world's vault doth so favorably looke upon as me selfe3 ,i am the favorite of nature4 ,is it not man that careth for me1 that keepeth me1 and serveth me8 ,for me it is he soweth and reapeth and grindeth4 ,if he eat me1 so doth man feede on his fellow1 and so doe ,i on the wormes that consume and eat him40 8,i commend the ,milesian wench who seeing ,thales the ,philosoper continually amusing hemselfe in the contemplation of heaven's wide bounding vault and ever holding his eyes aloft1 laid something in his way to make him stumble1 thereby to warne and put him in minde that he should not amuse his thoughts about matters above the clouds before he had provided for and well considered those at his feet4 ,verily she advised him well1 and it better became him rather to looke to himselfe than to gaze on heaven40 8,the wisest judging of heaven is not to judge of it at all40 ,his own modest answer to the riddle of existence in contrast to those who would 8turne and winde ,god ,almighty according to their own measure10 is 8,que scay-je80--,what do ,i know8 ,montaigne is not a hard and soulless sceptic4 ,he is a well poised1 modest thinker and an honest man4 ,he is not a denier1 but one whose mind is free from cant1 humbug1 pretentiousness4 ,historically he is one of the links between the best in modern education and the questioning ,socrates whom he knew and loved4 ,i trust that in presenting the ,humanist tradition in this concrete manner1 ,i have been able to suggest something of its spirit4 ,it has a necessary place in liberal education because it helps liberate the mind from the clutches of opinionated ignorance1 from the follies which prevail as truth in our own age1 and from conceit and vanity to which our human nature is ever prone4 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,science ,,and ,,superstition--,,huxley ,when the ancient ,humanist1 ,protagoras1 said1 8,man is the measure of all things10 he probably did not mean that all things may be measured by man1 for in his following sentence he is sceptical of our knowledge of many things4 ,he meant rather that all our measurements are human4 ,this independence of supernaturalism was not always characteristic of educated minds of antiquity1 but it is one of the distinguishing features of the educational tradition which we have derived from ,greece and ,rome4 ,thus ,aristotle would establish ethics in the life of reason4 ,this same naturalistic bias also inspires those early attempts at science which were broken off under the influence of ,christianity4 ,the ,renaissance was accompanied by a re-awakened interest in nature1 and in human nature as part of nature as a whole4 ,the trend toward naturalism is seen in art1 in the resumption of scientific research and experimentation1 and in the effort to supplant scholastic theology by the study of human letters4 ,to ,da ,vinci1 for instance1 science1 art1 and letters were but the varied aspects of the same cultural awakening4 ,but for the greater number of those who felt the influence of the ,renaissance1 science and letters became quite separate interests4 ,the new learning of the ,humanists was almost exclusively a literary scholarship4 ,erasmus and his followers had very little interest in natural science4 ,they found in classic literature a body of mature wisdom ready to hand4 ,science on the contrary1 was obliged to begin de novo1 and slowly construct its instruments of thought1 building1 gradually a new system of knowledge4 ,the brunt of the conflict with scholastic education fell upon the humanists4 ,the real renaissance of science did not take place until the seventeenth century4 ,meanwhile the ,reformation had caused a revival of religious interest1 and in ,protestant countries like ,england1 and later ,america1 the influence of religion upon higher learning remained powerful4 ,it permitted the classical tradition to survive in letter rather than in spirit4 ,the naturalistic implications of the classics were ignored2 commentators whenever possible read into the texts the conventional beliefs and sentiments of ,protestantism4 ,humanism became 8traditional education10 a new scholasticism1 formal and innocuous1 a mark of intellectual respectability1 a 8refining0 influence1 an embroidery of familiar quotation in the speech of parsons and country squires4 ,successive generations of grown-up schoolboys in ,gothic halls1 laboriously translated1 over and over again1 hackneyed passages from a literature that in the fifteenth century had been carried about like the fire of ,prometheus1 kindling defiance to ,heaven all over ,europe4 ,often men could think of no better reason for the study of the ancient classics than that in the tedium and monotony of language drill there was a 8discipline0 which was good for the soul4 ,the student's attention was centered upon the niceties of construction and upon the task of memorizing rules of grammar and a vocabulary1 all stuffed into his head in the most artificial manner conceivable4 ,he was not likely to be puzzled over the discovery that there might be something spiritually irreconcilable between ,lucretius and the ,thirty ,nine ,articles1 or between the dialectic of ,socrates and the ,westminster confession of faith4 ,there is a world of difference between this denatured ,humanism and that of ,erasmus or ,montaigne4 ,that this traditional education made for polish and good breeding cannot be denied4 ,neither1 ,i think1 can it be denied that there was something sterile and illiberal in ,protestant-classical education4 ,it is significant that both the ,enlightenment of the eighteenth century and the progress of science in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries took place chiefly outside the established universities and sometimes in spite of their opposition4 ,i do not see how the situation could well have been otherwise4 ,in the first place the older ,humanists themselves dealt the naturalism of the ancients and such of it as was again coming to life a severe blow when they championed letters and remained indifferent to science4 ,in the second place1 the ,reformation quite side-tracked the revival of learning1 superseded it1 and took over into its own service only so much of it as it found congenial to its religious interests4 ,it was a mass movement1 an attempt at a restatement of ,christianity in terms of the philosophy of the common man1 a philosophy to which the questioning1 enlightened common sense and worldly wisdom of a ,montaigne1 a ,voltaire or a ,hume is never very congenial4 ,santayana says1 8,the philosophy of the common man is an old wife that gives him no pleasure1 yet he cannot do without her1 and resents any aspersions that strangers may cast on her character4 8,of this homely philosophy the tender cuticle is religious belief2 really the least vital and most arbitrary part of human opinion1 the outer ring1 as it were1 of the fortifications of prejudice1 but for that very reason the most jealously defended2 since it is on being attacked there1 at the least defensible point1 that rage and alarm at being attacked at all are first aroused in the citadel4 ,people are not naturally sceptics1 wondering if a single one of their intellectual habits can be reasonably preserved2 they are dogmatists angrily confident of maintaining them all4 ,integral minds1 pupils of a single coherent tradition1 regard their religion1 whatever it may be1 as certain1 as sublime1 and as the only rational basis of morality and policy4 ,yet in fact religious belief is terribly precarious1 partly because it is arbitrary1 so that in the next tribe or in the next century it will wear quite a different form2 and partly because1 when genuine1 it is spontaneous and continually remodelled1 like poetry1 in the heart that gives it birth4 ,a man of the world soon learns to discredit established religions on account of their variety and absurdity1 although he may good-naturedly continue to conform to his own2 and a mystic before long begins fervently to condemn current dogmas1 on account of his own different inspiration4 ,without philosophical criticism1 therefore1 mere experience and good sense suggest that all positive religions are false1 or at least 7which is enough for my present purpose7 that they are all fantastic and insecure40 ,speaking of the ,reformation and its relation to science1 ,whitehead says1 8,we cannot look upon it as introducing a new principle into human life40 ,perhaps he is inclined to over-emphasize the assertions of the ,reformers that they were only restoring what had been forgotten4 ,but he says1 8,it is quite otherwise with the rise of modern science4 ,in every way it contrasts with the contemporary religious movement4 ,the ,reformation was a popular uprising and for a century and a half drenched ,europe in blood4 ,the beginnings of the scientific movement were confined to a minority among the intellectual lite40 ,it is doubtless because the ,humanists remained relatively indifferent to science1 that its early struggles with theology were comparatively mild4 ,it was permitted to make remarkable progress in the seventeenth century without raising an issue too great for its strength4 ,it is interesting to note that when in the nineteenth century the conflict of natural science with theology became acute1 science was at the same time engaged in a struggle for recognition by the official educational system in which the classical tradition held sway4 ,the outstanding public champion of science in this conflict was ,thomas ,h4 ,huxley4 ,he could say of university education in ,england in the year #ahfh1 that the colleges no longer promoted research in science1 and were hardly more than 8boarding schools for bigger boys40 ,once they had been homes for the life study of the most abstruse and important branches of knowledge4 8,i believe there can be no doubt that the foreigner who should wish to become acquainted with the scientific1 or the literary1 activity of modern ,england1 would simply lose his time and his pains if he visited our universities with that object4 8,the countrymen of ,grote and of ,mill1 of ,faraday1 of ,robert ,brown1 of ,lyell1 and ,darwin1 to go no further back than the contemporaries of men of middle age1 can afford to smile at such a suggestion4 ,england can show now1 and she has been able to show in every generation since civilization spread over the ,west1 individual men who hold their own against the world1 and keep alive the old tradition of her intellectual eminence4 8,but in the majority of cases1 these men are what they are in virtue of their native intellectual force1 and of a strength of character which will not recognise impediments4 ,they are not trained in the courts of the ,temple of ,science1 but storm the walls of that edifice in all sorts of irregular ways1 and with much loss of time and power1 in order to obtain their legitimate positions4 8,our universities not only do not encourage such men2 do not offer them positions1 in which it should be their highest duty to do1 thoroughly1 that which they are most capable of doing2 but1 as far as possible1 university training shuts out of the minds of those among them1 who are subjected to it1 the prospect that there is anything in the world for which they are specially fitted4--,imagine the success of the attempt to still the intellectual hunger of any of the men ,i have mentioned1 by putting before him1 as the object of existence1 the successful mimicry of the measure of a ,greek song1 or the roll of ,ciceronian prose60 ,twelve years later ,huxley was still waging his contest for the admission of science to the curricula of school and college against an opposition the obstinacy of which is a little difficult for us today to understand4 8,for ,i hold very strongly by two convictions--,the first is1 that neither the discipline nor the subject-matter of classical education is of such direct value to the student of physical science as to justify the expenditure of valuable time upon either2 and the second is1 that for the purpose of attaining real culture1 an exclusively scientific education is at least as effectual as an exclusively literary education4 8,i need hardly point out to you that these opinions1 especially the latter1 are diametrically opposed to those of the great majority of educated ,englishmen1 influenced as they are by school and university traditions4 ,in their belief1 culture is obtainable only by a liberal education2 and a liberal education is synonymous1 not merely with education and instruction in literature1 but in one particular form of literature1 namely1 that of ,greek and ,roman antiquity4 ,they hold that the man who has learned ,latin and ,greek1 however little1 is educated2 while he who is versed in other branches of knowledge1 however deeply1 is a more or less respectable specialist1 not admissable into the cultured caste4 ,the stamp of the educated man1 the ,university degree1 is not for him40 8,the representatives of the ,humanists1 in the nineteenth century1 take their stand upon classical education as the sole avenue to culture1 as firmly as if we were still in the age of ,renascence4 ,yet1 surely1 the present intellectual relations of the modern and the ancient worlds are profoundly different from those which obtained three centuries ago4 ,leaving aside the existence of a great and characteristic modern literature1 of modern painting1 and1 especially of modern music1 there is one feature of the present state of the civilized world which separates it more widely from the ,renascence1 than the ,renascence was separated from the middle ages4 8,this distinctive character of our own times lies in the vast and constantly increasing part which is played by natural knowledge4 ,not only is our daily life shaped by it1 not only does the prosperity of millions of men depend upon it1 but our whole theory of life has long been influenced1 consciously or unconsciously1 by the general conceptions of the universe1 which have been forced upon us by physical science40 8,the scientist1 no longer disposed to remain on the defensive with the usual apology for science1 carries the battle into the opposing camp and indicts the opposition1 with some justice ,i think1 for its failure even when judged by its own traditional standards of education4 8,there is no great force in the tu quoque argument1 or else the advocates of scientific education might fairly enough retort upon the modern ,humanists that they may be learned specialists1 but that they possess no such sound foundation for a criticism of life as deserves the name of culture4 ,and1 indeed1 if we were disposed to be cruel1 we might urge that the ,humanists have brought this reproach upon themselves1 not because they are too full of the spirit of the ancient ,greek1 but because they lack it4 8,the period of the ,renascence is commonly called that of the 8,revival of ,letters10 as if the influences then brought to bear upon the mind of ,western ,europe had been wholly exhausted in the field of literature4 ,i think it is very commonly forgotten that the revival of science1 effected by the same agency1 although less conspicuous1 was not less momentous4444 8,we cannot know all the best thoughts and sayings of the ,greeks unless we know what they thought about natural phenomena4 ,we cannot fully apprehend their criticism of life unless we understand the extent to which that criticism was affected by scientific conceptions4 ,we falsely pretend to be the inheritors of their culture1 unless we are penetrated1 as the best minds among them were1 with an unhesitating faith that the free employment of reason1 in accordance with scientific method1 is the sole method of reaching truth4 8,thus ,i venture to think that the pretensions of our modern ,humanists to the possession of the monopoly of culture and to the exclusive inheritance of the spirit of antiquity must be abated1 if not abandoned40 ,huxley was one of the few educators of his time who ought to have seen clearly that in the education of the ancients there was no conflict of interest between science and letters2 the two were one in the naturalistic minds of the ,greeks4 ,he is aware of the fact that both science and letters were revived by the ,renaissance1 but it would seem that he permits his zeal in the cause of scientific training to force him at times into a rather one-sided and partisan position4 8,but for those who mean to make science their serious occupation2 or who intend to follow the profession of medicine2 or who have to enter early upon the business of life2 for all these1 in my opinion1 classical education is a mistake2 and it is for this reason that ,i am glad to see #8mere literary education and instruction' shut out from the curriculum of ,sir ,josiah ,mason's ,college1 seeing that its inclusion would probably lead to the introduction of the ordinary smattering of ,latin and ,greek44440 8,the great peculiarity of scientific training1 that in virtue of which it cannot be replaced by any other discipline whatsoever1 is this bringing of the mind directly into contact with fact1 and practising the intellect in the completest form of induction2 that is to say1 in drawing conclusions from particular facts made known by immediate observation of nature40 ,the struggle for recognition of the liberalizing educational value of science was carried to successful issue in the nineteenth century4 ,in backward communities1 ,fundamentalism still sets its face against certain of the anti-supernaturalist implications of science1 and it is always possible that if at any time the populace now dazzled by the 8wonders0 of science1 should suspect the full meaning of the world-view which science would substitute for the older anthropomorphic ideas about the universe1 there may be a wide-spread popular reaction against it in the name of religion4 ,but at present in educational institutions generally1 scientific courses tend to predominate over the classical4 ,most of the struggles for 8academic freedom0 and most of the live problems in education revolve about the teaching of the sciences4 ,a vastly greater number of minds are today set free from dogma and superstition and childish deference to authority by methods of scientific research than by the study of the classics4 ,the latter is on the decline and ,i suppose must continue to be so until ,humanism again possesses that vitality and naturalism1 and independence of judgment which men had when the ,greeks set out to discover the ,good ,life4 ,dewey says that without initiation into the scientific spirit one is not in possession of the best tools which humanity has so far devised for effectively directed reflection4 ,in it may be realized that desire for exact knowledge as different from mere opinion which the ancients sought4 ,it tests all things in the light of experiment and by appeal to cold objective fact4 ,it is often said that science is ,reason in contrast with ,faith4 ,certainly the scientist cannot in his research permit himself to be swayed by religious belief and remain scientific4 ,he must accept no conclusion on authority or because he wishes to believe it4 ,but the scientific mind is not1 as a matter of fact1 as strictly rationalistic as was the scholastic mind4 ,the logic of the latter is a formal vindication of ,the ,truth conceived in advance of knowledge of fact4 ,the reasoning of the former proceeds by a succession of shrewd guesses which are held to be mere hypothesis until verified by the facts4 ,this necessity of holding judgment in abeyance1 and of being willing to discard any belief or postulate that may not be confirmed by objective reality1 has the greatest educational value4 ,in spite of the everlasting deceitfulness and conceit of human nature and notwithstanding the fact that pompous ignorance and fraud are often palmed off upon the public as scientific knowledge1 ,i should say1 precisely because of these things1 training in scientific methods is the best device available to the educator for instilling into the human mind some measure of respect for truth4 ,to this end ,huxley would introduce scientific experimentation into the elementary school and would establish 8scientific ,sunday schools10 8,would there really be anything wrong in using part of ,sunday for the purpose of instructing those who have no other leisure1 in a knowledge of the phenomena of ,nature1 and of man's relation to ,nature8 8,i should like to see a scientific ,sunday-school in every parish1 not for the purpose of superseding any existing means of teaching the people the things that are for their good1 but side by side with them4 ,i cannot but think that there is room for all of us to work in helping to bridge over the great abyss of ignorance which lies at our feet4 8,and if any of the ecclesiastical persons to whom ,i have referred object that they find it derogatory to the honour of the ,god whom they worship1 to awaken the minds of the young to the infinite wonder and majesty of the works which they proclaim ,his1 and to teach them those laws which must needs be ,his laws1 and therefore of all things needful for man to know--,i can only recommend them to be let blood and put on low diet4 ,there must be something very wrong going on in the instrument of logic if it turns out such conclusions from such premises40 ,there is an intellectual cleanness1 something downright and honest about the scientific pursuit of knowledge1 and this uncompromising mental integrity characterizes everything that ,huxley said and did4 ,there is nothing shifty in a mind trained as his was4 ,his is like a cool north breeze on one of those clear summer days that sometimes follow a period of sultriness1 fog and rain4 ,if things are a little too sharply outlined1 they are at least recognized for what they are4 ,no evasive mistiness obscures the landscape4 ,to ,huxley the foundation of morality is to give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence4 ,he held that the lowest depths to which the human race could fall--after knowing what science now reveals of nature--would be to go back and deceive itself with comforting fictions4 ,you will remember his correspondence with ,kingsley when death had entered his home4 ,the grief-stricken ,huxley refused the consolations of a faith in which he could not whole-heartedly believe4 ,like ,socrates and ,montaigne and many educated men today1 ,huxley was candidly agnostic with respect to matters which lie beyond the radius of human knowledge4 ,huxley was a determinist1 but it is doubtful if he was a materialist4 ,at least he held to a materialism which in one sense might be reconciled with a form of idealism4 ,in the address in honor of ,joseph ,priestley he said1 8,without containing much that will be new to the readers or ,hobbs1 ,spinoza1 ,collins1 ,hume1 and ,hartley1 and indeed1 while making no pretensions to originality1 ,priestley's #8,disquisitions relating to ,matter and ,spirit1' and his #8,doctrine of ,philosophical ,necessity ,illustrated1' are among the most powerful1 clear1 and unflinching expositions of materialism and necessarianism which exist in the ,english language1 and are still well worth reading4 8,priestley denied the freedom of the will in the sense of its self-determination2 he denied the existence of a soul distinct from the body2 and as a natural consequence1 he denied the natural immortality of man4 8,in relation to these matters ,english opinion a century ago was very much what it is now4 8,a man may be a necessarian without incurring graver reproach than that implied in being called a gloomy fanatic1 necessarianism1 though very shocking1 having a note of ,calvinistic orthodoxy2 but1 if a man is a materialist2 or1 if good authorities say he is and must be so1 in spite of his assertion to the contrary2 or1 if he acknowledge himself unable to see good reasons for believing in the natural immortality of man1 respectable folks look upon him as an unsafe neighbour of a cashbox1 as an actual or potential sensualist1 the more virtuous in outward seeming1 the more certainly loaded with secret #8grave personal sins4' 8444 ,i must confess that what interests me most about ,priestley's materialism1 is the evidence that he saw dimly the seed of destruction which such materialism carries within its own bosom4 ,in the course of his reading for his #8,history of ,discoveries relating to ,vision1 ,light1 and ,colours1' he had come upon the speculations of ,boscovich and ,michell1 and had been led to admit the sufficiently obvious truth that our knowledge of matter is a knowledge of its properties2 and that of its substance--if it have a substance--we know nothing4 ,and this led to the further admission that1 so far as we can know1 there may be no difference between the substance of matter and the substance of spirit 7#8,disquisitions1 p4 #af'74 ,a step farther would have shown ,priestley that his materialism was1 essentially1 very little different from the ,idealism of his contemporary1 the ,bishop of ,cloyne40 ,perhaps ,william ,james may have had ,huxley or his type in mind when he wrote his famous passage about learning 8to stand this universe40 ,yet ,i suspect that ,huxley's universe was more simple and benevolent1 more navely conceived than was that of ,james4 ,huxley was to the end a rationalist1 and lived and worked in a period when ,nature was thought to be essentially reasonable4 ,man need only learn the laws of nature and obey them to become wise and happy and good4 ,the aim of education was to acquaint the student with the laws of nature4 8,well1 what ,i mean by ,education is learning the rules of this mighty game4 ,in other words1 education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of ,nature1 under which name ,i include not merely things and their forces1 but men and their ways2 and the fashioning of the affections and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to move in harmony with those laws4 ,for me1 education means neither more nor less than this4444 8,suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every one of us would1 one day or other1 depend upon his winning or losing a game of chess4 ,don't you think that we should all consider it to be a primary duty to learn at least the names and the moves of the pieces2 to have a notion of a gambit1 and a keen eye for all the means of giving and getting out of check8 8,yet it is a very plain and elementary truth1 that the life1 the fortune1 and the happiness of every one of us1 and1 more or less1 of those who are connected with us1 do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess4 ,it is a game which has been played for untold ages1 every man and woman of us being one of the two players in a game of his or her own4 ,the chess-board is the world1 the pieces are the phenomena of the universe1 the rules of the game are what we call the laws of ,nature4 ,the player on the other side is hidden from us4 ,we know that his play is always fair1 just and patient4 ,but we also know1 to our cost1 that he never overlooks a mistake1 or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance4 ,to the man who plays well1 the highest stakes are paid1 with that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength4 ,and one who plays ill is checkmated--without haste1 but without remorse4 8,my metaphor will remind some of you of the famous picture in which ,retzsch has depicted ,satan playing at chess with man for his soul4 ,substitute for the mocking friend in that picture a calm1 strong angel who is playing for love1 as we say1 and would rather lose than win--and ,i should accept it as an image of human life4444 8,that man1 ,i think1 has had a liberal education who has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will1 and does with ease and pleasure all the work that1 as a mechanism1 it is capable of2 whose intellect is a clear1 cold1 logic engine1 with all its parts of equal strength1 and in smooth working order2 ready1 like a steam engine1 to be turned to any kind of work1 and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind2 whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of ,nature and of the laws of her operations2 one who1 no stunted ascetic1 is full of life and fire1 but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will1 the servant of a tender conscience2 who has learned to love all beauty1 whether of ,nature or of art1 to hate all vileness1 and to respect others as himself4 8,such an one and no other1 ,i conceive1 has had a liberal education2 for he is1 as completely as a man can be1 in harmony with ,nature4 ,he will make the best of her1 and she of him4 ,they will get on together rarely2 she as his ever beneficent mother2 he as her mouthpiece1 her conscious self1 her minister and interpreter40 ,but surely liberal education is more than becoming the mouthpiece of a benevolent nature4 ,it seems to me that ,huxley omits one of the essentials4 ,just as the nineteenth century ,humanists1 because of their neglect of science1 possessed only a distorted and one-sided view of ,humanist education1 so it would seem to me that nineteenth century science in its opposition to traditional education1 failed to see that science is itself a part of ,humanism4 ,it is not merely the discovery of given 8,laws0 which exist independently in a benevolent and rational universe4 ,it is the observation of certain relationships and recurrences and the statement of these things in general terms that will give them significance for human beings4 ,what nature is aside from the fact that we are interested spectators does not concern us4 ,science grows out of the fact that we are more interested in some things than in others4 ,it is a human achievement2 it is one of the answers that mankind gives to the riddle of existence4 ,it is not existence which gives that answer1 it is man4 ,and education must not only seek knowledge of the facts of nature1 but having obtained such knowledge1 must try to understand what to do about it4 ,now that we understand our natural environment1 what kind of life can we best achieve with it8 ,what valuations have men put upon deeds and things8 ,what values is it possible to achieve8 ,our education is not done when we have learned ,nature's yes and no2 we have our own yes and no to give4 ,scientists quietly observing certain aspects of reality--those which lend themselves to knowing as a specialized undertaking--are happy to find that their abstract conceptions mutually imply and support one another in an ordered system of knowledge4 ,their own reason which they are thus able to impose upon nature1 they believe they have discovered in nature itself4 ,hence nature appears to be more ordered than it really is1 and to be essentially reasonable and beneficent4 ,compare ,huxley's picture of nature as a beneficent mother of whom the educated mind 8makes the best1 and she of him10 he 8her conscious self1 her minister and interpreter10 with ,william ,james' statement about 8this partially hospitable and #8stepmotherly' world of ours40 ,the latter is surely the more profound and correct view4 ,water is not only ,h,o1 it may drown you or quench your thirst4 ,fire is not merely a process of oxidation1 it is hot4 ,it may be your willing servant1 or your relentless enemy4 ,the modification of species which nineteenth century scientists held to be the outcome of natural selection is not what natural selection means to the organisms which experienced it4 ,to them it is a relentless struggle for a precarious and fleeting existence in which satisfactions and victories are mingled with terror and starvation and agony4 ,and man placed in the midst of such a world seeks education not only that he may interpret its happenings to an intelligence which is part of the natural process1 but that he may select wisely among the alternatives which ,nature presents to him1 lift himself above chaos and the slime1 and achieve an existence that1 at least while it lasts1 has some significance and quality of decency and worth4 ,it is to this end that science is education2 a true ,humanism is impossible without it4 ,such a ,humanism is as anti-supernaturalistic as determinism4 ,but it is naturalism with mankind1 however1 not merely pictured as a passive resultant of natural forces1 but actively selecting and creating value4 ,as ,huxley himself says1 its aim is to provide criteria for a 8criticism of life40 8,moreover this scientific #8criticism of life' presents itself to us with different credentials from any other4 ,it appeals not to authority1 nor to what anybody may have thought or said1 but to nature4 ,it admits that all our interpretations of natural fact are more or less imperfect and symbolic1 and bids the learner seek for the truth not among words but among things4 ,it warns us that the assertion which outstrips evidence is not only a blunder but a crime40 ,he saw a new culture in process of development1 one which would enlist the whole spiritual life of mankind1 8,the scenes are shifting the great theatre of the world4 ,the act which commenced with the ,protestant ,reformation is nearly played out1 and a wider and deeper change than that effected three centuries ago--a reformation1 or rather a revolution of thought1 the extremes of which are represented by the intellectual heirs of ,john of ,leyden and of ,ignatius ,loyola1 rather than by those of ,luther and of ,leo--is waiting to come on1 nay1 visible behind the scenes to those who have good eyes4 ,men are beginning1 once more1 to awake to the fact that matters of belief and of speculation are of absolutely infinite practical importance2 and are drawing off from that sunny country #8where it is always afternoon'--the sleepy hollow of broad indifferentism--to range themselves under their natural banners4 ,change is in the air4 ,it is whirling feather-heads into all sorts of eccentric orbits1 and filling the steadiest with a sense of insecurity4 ,it insists on reopening all questions and asking all institutions1 however venerable1 by what right they exist1 and whether they are1 or are not1 in harmony with the real or supposed wants of mankind40 ,huxley's services to education were more than his struggle for the recognition of the educational value of science4 ,his own contributions to the science of biology and his able championing of the case which ,darwin had made in favor of the hypotheses of evolution did much to place the biological sciences in their present position of preminence and to aid in placing both education and modern thought upon the basis of a philosophy of evolution4 ,after receiving his degree in medicine1 ,huxley was appointed to the position of assistant surgeon in the ,british navy4 ,as he cruised about on the war-ship #8,rattlesnake1' he began his studies of marine animals4 ,darwin1 you will remember1 had also spent long months on southern seas as government naturalist assigned to the ,beagle4 ,during the years that followed each had risen to a high position as a ,british scientist1 conducting research1 publishing papers1 making new discoveries1 all of which contributed to make the nineteenth century1 as ,john ,fiske said1 8the century of science40 ,during the years when ,darwin was patiently elaborating the theory of 8descent with modification0 which was destined within his own lifetime to bring about a revolutionary transformation in the philosophy of nature1 ,huxley did much to organize the science of ,biology as a definite branch of natural history4 ,his great energy and industry1 his passion for exact knowledge and his genius for clear and comprehensive statement made him one of the outstanding scientists of ,england4 ,as professor of ,natural ,history at the ,royal ,school of ,mines1 and later in the ,royal ,college of ,surgeons1 and as publicist and member of numerous commissions on science and education1 he was in a position to throw a tremendous weight of influence to the support of his convictions1 should he be drawn into a scientific controversy4 ,when in #ahei ,darwin published the 8,origin of ,species10 ,huxley was one of the small group of eminent scientists whose favorable judgment ,darwin felt would be necessary if the theory of natural selection were to command the attention of the scientific world4 ,darwin did not invent the doctrine of evolution4 ,this idea had from time to time suggested itself to men's minds whenever a naturalistic account of creation was attempted4 ,the increase of knowledge of comparative anatomy1 of geology and of zology1 and the discovery of certain structural likenesses and differences among both living organisms and the fossil remains which were found in the several layers of the earth's surface1 could not fail to suggest to many minds the thought that perhaps all forms of life might be related in one comprehensive evolutionary process4 ,although the evidence against the dogma of special creation was rapidly accumulating1 no valid explanation had been found4 ,lamarcks' theory that the structural modifications which characterize the various species of organisms were the result of effort and use and of special energizing and development of various organs1 was under discussion4 ,the theory did not1 however1 interest ,huxley1 because it implied that modifications which occurred as a result of effort and use could be inherited1 a belief for which there was not sufficient evidence4 ,darwin's book put the whole problem in a new light1 and stated the hypotheses of organic evolution as an alternative to 8special creation0 in terms which were comprehensible to a mind trained in natural science4 ,heretofore a mysterious principle of development had been substituted for a miracle of creation4 ,darwin did not invoke any such principle but with good scientific logic sought his explanation of the origin of species in the casual connections among observable facts4 ,it is not my purpose now to enter upon a discussion of ,darwinism1 or its present status in biology1 a general understanding of which ,i think should be part of the education of a modern man4 ,i suspect that many moderns who 8believe in evolution0 merely cherish a popular faith in some mystical law of unusual progress1 such as is expressed in the verse1 8,some call it evolution and some ,god40 ,huxley was uncompromisingly opposed to all such romantic theologizing in science4 ,he was moreover1 aware1 as ,darwin himself was1 of the difficulties of ,darwin's theory4 ,but he grasped the significance of what ,darwin had done and saw the ground upon which he had placed the discussion of the problem1 and he held that in the main ,darwin was correct4 ,gracefully and courageously he took his stand at ,darwin's side4 ,in various addresses1 essays1 books1 he drew upon his extensive knowledge for evidence in support of the theory4 ,in 8,man's ,place in ,nature0 he uncompromisingly placed the origin and development of the human race within the process of the evolution of animal organisms4 ,he did not remain indifferent to the storm of ecclesiastical indignation and popular abuse and ridicule with which a grateful humanity greeted the most important scientific discovery of the century4 ,he accepted the challenge1 and during the decades that followed #ahfj he was probably the outstanding champion in ,england1 not only of evolution1 but of science itself4 ,in #aibe1 upon the centennial of his birth1 his grandson1 ,julian ,huxley wrote1 8,of the general truth of the evolutionary hypothesis1 its enormous value to biology1 and the necessary reorientation which it would give to the general current of thought1 he had no doubts2 nor did he spare himself in the cause4 ,it is sometimes as well1 in these easier-going and theologically more tolerant days1 when we are reaping what he and others like him sowed1 and may sometimes be tempted to think of his criticism as essentially destructive1 to remember what power of inertia1 what violence of the odium theologicum there was in the opposition4 #8,professor ,huxley' became a sort of bogy in orthodox lower middle-class families1 almost as #8,boney' had done for the nation in earlier days4 ,he was attacked as irreligious1 immoral1 unscrupulous1 on the platform1 in the press1 by letter4 ,that sort of opposition cannot be persuaded2 it must die out or be destroyed40 ,the scholar confronted by the fury and stupidity of the mob1 and counted a fool for his pains when he strives to induce it to listen to reason1 has often turned aside in disgust4 ,henceforth he will write and speak for the learned few4 ,let the masses1 who think that a scientific demonstration may be satisfactorily refuted with derision and slander1 consume themselves in their own ignorance4 ,they have made it clear that learning is not for such as they4 ,in the ,theatetus ,plato tells us of the discomfiture of the philosopher in the marketplace4 ,as 8the rabble0 is in all times heedless or hostile to reason1 there has often developed the idea that any belief that is popular is thereby shown to be untrue and vulgar4 ,cato at once became suspicious of himself when any utterance of his met with applause4 ,among would-be educated minds this suspicion becomes a cult4 ,anything is 8refined0 and true to the extent that it is unpopular--and for the reason that it is not shared by the many4 ,today this attitude--which is really intellectual snobbishness--gains plausibility from the fact that much of the popularization of science is base caricature and misrepresentation4 ,it is obvious that the wider the circulation of pseudo-science1 the greater is the need of genuine instruction in the elements of science and of general culture4 ,i can see no other way by which modern learning or modern civilization may be sustained4 ,the man on the street has power to determine which values shall survive in our common life1 and which shall perish1 to a degree that he never had before4 ,he exercises this influence upon our culture in many ways both direct and indirect1 and his sway is not likely to be diminished in an industrial society which increasingly tends to give social power to the various groups which compose it in direct proportion to their numerical strength4 ,moreover1 it is not likely that a strictly esoteric intellectualism can survive at all1 much less attain that leadership which is the proper function of intelligence in human affairs in a world organized as ours is4 ,as ,i have said before1 our intellectual hold upon reality1 even for the best trained minds1 is more precarious than we think4 ,a slight general shifting of emotional interest or of perspective--the spread1 let us suppose1 of ,fundamentalism through lower middle class minds generally1--a sudden spasm of popular disillusionment regarding the 8wonders0 of science or of hostility toward scientific methods which are ever upsetting the consolations of faith1--might conceivably occur at any time1 and bring the beginning of the end of all that scholars have struggled for since the ,renaissance4 ,if as ,huxley said1 the epoch which began with the ,reformation is about played out1 it is not by any means a foregone conclusion what the sequel is to be4 ,if science and letters are to join forces in the achievement of a truly ,humanist culture1 this culture must be rooted in the life and thought of the community4 ,it will not likely be again a fifteenth century ,italian mimicry of the age of ,cicero2 neither can it support itself like a bridge over an illiterate and enslaved populace1 after the fashion of ancient ,athenian ,humanism4 ,this modern public can read1 it is very vociferous1 it has votes and purchasing power and it pays to flatter it4 ,but there is in the modern public a small and growing minority1 scattered throughout all classes in the community1 who honestly desire knowledge of science and the humanities4 ,professional scholarship has in the example of ,huxley a splendid precedent for any attempts it may care to make to ally itself with this teachable minority4 ,i once invited a neighboring biologist to participate with other research scholars1 in a course of lectures at ,cooper ,union on scientific methods4 ,he declined1 because he believed that a scientist who lectured to popular audiences cheapened his reputation4 ,i wondered if he had forgotten the great service to science rendered by ,huxley1 who did not think it beneath the dignity of one who was perhaps the leading biologist of ,england to wage the struggle for scientific advance in the presence of a public which was much less trained in the principles of natural science than the people who regularly attend the lectures at ,cooper ,union4 ,huxley seemed to believe that the outcome of the struggle of evolution against popular ignorance and superstition was inseparable from the fate of science itself4 ,he set himself to make knowledge of the principles of science universal4 ,he did a work of adult education that has not been surpassed in modern times4 ,if today there is greater freedom for scientific research and teaching1 and in general a more liberal and tolerant attitude on the part of official and popular religion toward scientific discovery1 our generation is in no small measure indebted to ,huxley4 ,in reply to the commonly expressed fear that liberal education may give us a type of mind which is sceptical and ineffective1 ,i offer ,huxley4 ,the educated man may not perhaps take sides on the ever recurrent question who is to profit at another's expense1 nor easily give his devotion to the particular ,utopian scheme of social reorganization which happens to be the fashion of the reformers of his day4 ,but if he is like ,huxley1 he will be alert enough when he finds that intellectual integrity and cultural progress are at stake4 ,like ,erasmus1 ,huxley survives in the philosophy of modern education as a symbol of enlightenment in its struggle against obscurantism4 ,both insist upon the recognition of the value of one aspect of a developing educational tradition which has its origin in ancient ,greece1 and is in sharp contrast both with popular opinion and with medival scholasticism4 ,as ,i have indicated1 it was unfortunate that these two educational interests did not develop out of the ,renaissance1 as one1 for a well-rounded ,humanism is an integration of both4 ,erasmus champions the cause of 8human letters0 and in the end classical education degenerates into a species of ,protestant scholasticism4 ,huxley champions science1 but is unable to liberate science itself from a mechanistic philosophy which became associated with it two centuries earlier4 ,the struggle of science with theology was but a continuation of the spirit of the ,renaissance4 ,the struggle of science against an entrenched classical tradition meant that the ,renaissance had become divided against itself4 ,this dualism is reflected in science down to the present time4 ,it is revealed in ,huxley's type of agnosticism1 which is really nave in comparison with the sophisticated1 mellow scepticism of ,montaigne or ,hume1 or in our own day with that of ,mr4 ,santayana1 who sees that all knowledge is faith4 ,it was not so with ,huxley2 about the finality of the knowledge that can be brought within the scope of scientific method he had no doubt whatever4 ,of other knowledge he is sceptical because of want of evidence4 ,this is courageous and honest1 and1 from the standpoint of the struggle in which science was then engaged with theological rationalism1 the issue cannot be compromised without the surrender of science to superstition4 ,although ,huxley is an evolutionist and clearly sees that human intelligence is part of the behavior of an organism which is itself a cross-section as it were of a process of nature1 he seems to hold that morality and truth are absolute and eternal principles which exist outside the process and constitute the very basis of existence4 ,reason which knows these eternal principles and in which they inhere1 must then also exist outside the process4 ,but we have seen that reason is a function of the behavior of an animal4 ,huxley is thus a ,rationalist2 as much so as any ,scholastic4 ,the body of scientific knowledge which we possess is the revelation of the true nature of the facts which we experienced4 ,it is the intellectual equivalent of reality4 ,but is scientific knowledge knowledge of facts taken in their wholeness1 or is it in each instance knowledge of some special aspect of the facts--fact reduced to abstract quality1 to number and point in space and to a multiple of smaller and 8more real0 units all conceived in logical relationship rather than as experienced8 ,suppose we should say that scientific ideas do not exist independent of the minds that think them1 are not equivalents of independent truths which reason discovers1 but are the devices which an unusually intelligent animal constructs out of the many kinds of relationships it is able to notice amongst the objects which interest it4 ,from this point of view1 the one most consistent1 ,i believe1 with a biology and a psychology which must take evolution into account1 scientific ideas are seen to be humanly created symbols1 not cerebral photographs of the ultimate nature of things4 ,why should the ultimate nature of a lobster be the fact that a morphologist discovers it to be an 8articulate10 anymore than that ,i discover that it turns red when put in boiling water8 ,scientific ideas are instruments4 ,abstraction and classification are in a sense labor-saving devices1 according to which we may hold that what is true for one object or event is true for all of its kind4 ,but the success of our thinking depends upon which of these many aspects and relationships we observe and hence how we classify them4 ,all aspects and relationships are equally true1 as ,james said1 if true at all4 ,correct thinking is the thinking which seizes upon those which are relevant to our interest and purpose4 ,and the interest and purpose are human1 not inherent in the world of things4 ,hence the order science finds in nature is not given2 it is the order of human thought itself4 ,thus science also is 8human letters40 ,the humanist1 or organic1 view of the world of science differentiates the twentieth century philosophy of nature from the mechanistic philosophy of earlier science4 ,mechanism1 which is faith that the universe is reducible to ,reason is1 ,i hold1 a survival from the old religious dualism1 according to which matter and spirit were separate entities each belonging to its own world of phenomenon4 ,the existence of ,reason as an entity in itself could be taken for granted1 because ,reason belonged to the realm of spirit or mind1 which though it existed outside the material order of being1 had yet established this order in conformity to ,reason4 ,huxley's agnosticism properly denies that man can have knowledge of this world of spirit1 yet retains from that realm the principle of reason which it re-discovers in the world of material phenomena4 ,hence ,huxley was more religious than he knew4 ,it is not the agnostic who is the non-religious man1 but the nave realist who sees every fact and situation uncolored by fancy or theory or illusion4 ,for such a mind1 spiritual values do not exist4 ,this kind of materialism is a different thing from philosophical materialism1 which is very theoretical and fanciful4 ,there are persons who approach this nave realism1 but ,i doubt if anyone is wholly lacking in poetry and fancy4 ,certainly ,huxley was not4 ,ordinarily we see our environment in a perspective of wish-fancy and traditional myth and magic4 ,to more logical minds the world of objects is colored by the 8sentiment of ,rationality40 ,the universe appears to them to be governed1 not by an indulgent or harsh imaginary ,father1 but by a principle of ,reason4 ,in each case1 the fiction of security gives the feeling of salvation4 ,in a wholly rational universe salvation is explanation4 ,everything is reasonable1 hence right1 if only we could explain it and show its place in the whole4 ,nineteenth century science could conceive of the world order as a mechanism and believe that it had passed from faith to knowledge in its agnosticism of the things of the spirit1 but as ,whitehead says1 8the faith in the possibility of science generated antecedently to the development of modern scientific theory is an unconscious derivative from medieval theology40 ,the conflict in the nineteenth century on behalf of science has effected education in various ways4 ,it has not emptied the churches1 but it has had a marked liberalizing influence1 causing various groups of believers to seek to modify the public expressions of their faith in the light of modern knowledge4 ,it has given the average educated person of today a very different conception of his world from that commonly held a century ago4 ,it has to some extent revived the ,socratic insistence upon clear and accurate thinking as the first requirement of an educated mind4 ,it has brought a greater degree of objectivity and wholesomeness of outlook to bear upon the formation of the mental habits of students4 ,it is by its insistence upon the biological point of view1 causing marked changes in men's ideas of human nature and society1 gradually turning their thought away from the political dogma of the eighteenth century to a less doctrinaire social philosophy4 ,on the other side1 it may be said to be in part responsible for the over-specialization common in our educational institutions4 ,it has left on the mind of the public the impression that science is a new kind of magic1 sometimes actually augmenting the general credulity and gullibility4 ,almost any sort of nonsense may now find space in the columns of the ,sunday papers and pass current with the assertion that it is 8scientific40 ,minds stuffed with a smattering of science may be just as opinionated as minds stuffed with a smattering of theology4 ,a result which could perhaps not have been foreseen in #ahge--;and which ,i believe twentieth century science is destined to remedy--grew out of the one-sidedness of the ,humanism of ,huxley and others of his day which ,i have discussed4 ,the scientific interest tended to have a mechanizing influence upon all life and culture1 to ignore and sometimes deny all values which resisted laboratory methods4 ,and having reduced all possible phenomena of life to a statement of the movements of particles of matter which were said to underlie and cause all else1 this purposeless correlation of matter1 space and movement expressed in mathematical formulae was frequently given out as the true picture of the nature of all existence--human life included4 ,biologists and psychologists often have resorted to rather amusing gestures and have deliberately ignored possible lines of inquiry in order to imitate as closely as possible the physicists and the astronomers4 ,just as matter was thought to consist of combinations of atoms1 so living organisms consisted of cells1 and complex acts of behavior were seen to consist of combinations of simple reflexes4 ,the cell and the reflex1 being the irreducible minimum of physiology and of psychology1 were said to be the realities which constituted the nature of the organism and its acts4 ,all phenomena of life were but combinations of these elemental realities4 ,find the smallest particles in the combination1 show how by a mechanical principle they are inevitably placed in certain temporal and spacial and other quantitative relationships1 and behold1 science has led you to ,reality4 ,all this seemed to be very certain in the nineteenth century2 it alone was knowledge1 all else was mere opinion and error4 ,professor ,whitehead says1 8,but the progress of biology and psychology has probably been checked by the uncritical assumption of half-truths4 ,if science is not to degenerate into a medley of ad hoc hypotheses1 it must become philosophical and must enter upon a thorough criticism of its own foundations4444 8,there persists1 however1 throughout the whole period the fixed scientific cosmology which presupposes the ultimate fact of an irreducible brute matter1 or material1 spread throughout space in a flux of configurations4 ,in itself such a material is senseless1 valueless1 purposeless4 ,it just does what it does do1 following a fixed routine imposed by external relations which do not spring from the nature of its being4 ,it is this assumption that ,i call #8scientific materialism4'0 8,the progress of science has now reached a turning point4 ,the stable foundations of physics have broken up3 also for the first time physiology is asserting itself as an effective body of knowledge1 as distinct from a scrap-heap4 ,the old foundations of scientific thought are becoming unintelligible4 ,time1 space1 matter1 material1 ether1 electricity1 mechanism1 organism1 configuration1 structure1 pattern1 function1 all require reinterpretation4 ,what is the sense of talking about a mechanical explanation when you do not know what you mean by mechanics80 ,it is this disposition to find the real nature of the facts in the smallest homogeneous particles1 in other words1 8atomism10 which science in the twentieth century modifies4 ,the parts themselves1 considered without regard to their position in the whole event1 are nothing4 ,the reality is the organism1 the situation as a whole4 ,the unity of a tree is very different from that of a machine1 and even physicists are beginning to suspect that they also deal with the former kind of unity4 ,the effect of this change of view upon education is difficult to predict4 ,i believe there are indications of a better synthesis of science with general culture than that which obtained in ,huxley's time4 ,and as science modifies its mechanistic presuppositions1 there will doubtless be an increase of the importance of philosophy in education1 less pretense at finality1 greater intellectual modesty and more general appreciation of human worth than is possible when educational philosophy is under the sway of a scientific dogma which dehumanizes the individual1 reduces him to atoms1 and regards him as a machine4 ,the recognition of the probability that much even of our established scientific knowledge is a human convention1 should have a liberalizing effect upon the education of the present generation4 ,compare the assurance of ,huxley with the following passages which ,i quote from the writings of ,bertrand ,russell1 the first from his book on 8,relativity10 and the second from the closing words of 8,the ,,abc of ,atoms40 8,what we know about the physical world1 ,i repeat1 is much more abstract than was formerly supposed4 ,between bodies there are occurrences1 such as light waves2 of the laws of these occurrences1 we know something--just as much as can be expressed in mathematical formulae--but of their nature we know nothing4 ,of the bodies themselves1 as we saw in the preceding chapter1 we know so little that we cannot even be sure that they are anything3 they may be merely groups of events in other places1 those events which we should naturally regard as their effects4444 ,perhaps an illustration may make the matter clear4 ,between a piece of orchestral music as played1 and the same piece of music as printed in the score1 there is a certain resemblance1 which may be described as a resemblance in structure4 ,the resemblance is of such a sort that1 when you know the rules1 you can infer the music from the score or the score from the music4 ,but suppose you had been stone deaf from birth1 but had lived among musical people4 ,you could understand1 if you had learned to speak and to do lip-reading1 that the musical scores represented something quite different from themselves in intrinsic quality1 though similar in structure4 ,the value of music would be completely unimaginable to you1 but you could infer all its mathematical characteristics1 since they are the same as those of the score4 ,now our knowledge of nature is something like this4 ,we can read the scores1 and infer just so much as our stone-deaf person could have inferred about music4 ,but we have not the advantages which he derived from association with musical people4 ,we cannot know whether the music represented by the scores is beautiful or hideous2 perhaps1 in the last analysis1 we cannot be quite sure that the scores represent anything but themselves40 8,the theory of relativity has shown that most of traditional dynamics1 which was supposed to contain scientific laws1 really consisted of conventions as to measurement1 and was strictly analogous to the #8great law' that there are always three feet to a yard4 ,in particular1 this applies to the conservation of energy4 ,this makes it plausible to suppose that every apparent law of nature which strikes us as reasonable is not really a law of nature1 but a concealed convention1 plastered on to nature by our love of what we1 in our arrogance1 choose to consider rational4 ,eddington hints that a real law of nature is likely to stand out by the fact that it appears to us irrational1 since in that case it is less likely that we have invented it to satisfy our intellectual taste4 ,and from this point of view he inclines to the belief that the quantum-principle is the first real law of nature that has been discovered in physics4 8,this raises a somewhat important question3 ,is the world #8rational1' i4 e41 such as to conform to our intellectual habits8 ,or is it #8irrational1' i4 e41 not such as we should have made it if we had been in the position of the ,creator8 ,i do not propose to suggest an answer to this question40 ,no1 we do not know whether the world is such as we would have made it if we had been in the position of the ,creator4 ,but it is possible for us to gain some intelligent idea of what we can and should make of our world so far as lies within our human power and understanding4 ,throughout all historic times men have striven to attain that insight1 discrimination and foreknowledge which would enable them to become 8legislators of values0--to give their existence quality and their experiences an order of preference that would lend beauty and harmony and some permanence to the half-chaotic stream of events and objects which swept through their lives4 ,this is the aim of the pursuit of knowledge4 ,it is to give to existence an 8order of rank40 ,what if the order be a human one8 ,general coperation in its development is what we mean by culture4 ,and education is not mere perpetuation of the order of the past4 ,the hierarchy of values must be constantly recreated if it is to survive4 ,knowledge of the past is the inspiration to such creative effort and knowledge of nature is a guide to it4 ,a generation ago ,william ,james1 whose philosophy of science was thoroughly ,humanistic1 suggested that the fascination of the pursuit of knowledge was that we might thus be in at the places where truth is actually in the making1 and that we should never know what sort of world this would be 8till the last man's vote is in and counted40 ,what we are to make of this unfinished world depends largely upon the power and wisdom and appreciation of value which we may attain through our education4 ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,the ,,fruit ,,of ,,the ,,tree ,,of ,,knowledge ,finally1 with what appraisement may the seeker for knowledge view education itself8 ,in the course of our study we have cast aside numerous idols and comforting fictions4 ,we have seen that in the process of a liberal education old dilemmas are outgrown2 that the habit is formed of questioning all things2 that the educated mind becomes capable of amused self-criticism1 attains urbanity of spirit and tolerant scepticism of the crowd and its partisan controversies1 and with civilized resignation learns that it may not possess finality in matters of truth and right1 but that a man must order his life according to the wisest discrimination of value of which he is capable4 ,now1 ,i believe1 the wise man will pursue his education always viewing it with a certain light-heartedness and detachment4 ,wisdom itself will not be taken too seriously by one who sees that in the best of it there is an entertaining amount of human folly4 ,like ,falstaff's confession1 8,i am not much better than one of the wicked10 ,socrates1 the wisest1 knows he is not much better than one of the foolish4 ,people who solemnly try to improve their minds1 with groanings of the spirit that cannot be uttered1 determined to reach some cultural 8,pike's peak or bust10 do not often become educated2 they become intellectual bores4 ,education is a way of living1 but it is never a substitute for life4 ,rational living does not mean that interest1 feeling1 love1 respect1 practical achievement1 do not count1 or that in the end education should make of life a mere knowledge affair4 ,one does not pursue scholarship merely for the sake of philosophical contemplation1 or as an intellectual trick4 ,and there is no magic about education1 but plain common sense4 ,i think we may safely say that a life guided by reason and good taste is better than one enslaved to tradition1 tabu1 narrow utilitarianism1 conventionalism and passion4 ,but surely education is not a hair shirt to be worn in order to discipline the spirit and achieve the modern idea of salvation4 ,neither is it something to be attained by practicing before the mirror4 ,it is nothing ostentatious4 ,nor is it to be made a cult of4 ,it does not work miracles1 nor can it create out of airy nothingness an intelligence that does not exist4 ,i think much of the criticism of education that one frequently hears these days grows out of an exaggerated notion of the transformation which some people expect a few years of education to work4 ,i know a number of college graduates who are very bitter in their criticism of college education1 protesting that they did not learn anything that did them any good4 ,perhaps they expected too much for the amount of effort put forth and tried to do too great a business on a small intellectual capital4 ,or perhaps such criticism is in part a pose2 in certain circles it is now 8the thing40 ,an article which recently appeared in a student's journal is typical of this attitude toward ,college education4 ,the writer asks1 8,are the ,american colleges worth their keep80 ,they have not1 he says1 given to the nation the trained leadership which we had the right to expect of them4 ,enter any ,university ,club and you will find yourself far removed from that intellectual atmosphere which should be characteristic of education in a great democracy4 ,few college men may be found fighting on the side of social justice4 ,few have the courage to deviate in any way from the totums and tabus of a plutocratic1 materialistic society4 ,few have any very different ideas from those of their chauffeurs of what constitutes success in life4 ,men's colleges are no different from girl's finishing schools2 they are not educational institutions1 but exist merely to impart information of the ways and manners of upper-class society4 ,instructors are devitalized1 for none but a devitalized person could endure the system4 ,trustees have the habit of judging colleges by the same standards they apply to business1 yet judged even by such standards1 the author thinks higher education is a failure4 ,if ,mr4 ,henry ,ford turned out motor cars as bad as the products the colleges turn out1 he would soon be bankrupt6 ,in so far as such sweeping indictments are inspired by a feeling of antipathy toward the so-called upper classes1 it is not necessary for us to discuss them4 ,but ,i think that criticisms of this sort also reveal a tendency to expect too much of education4 ,we become more charitable when we pause to consider how small a part1 even at best1 intelligence plays in the control of human behavior4 ,we have seen what ,erasmus thought about this subject4 ,most of those who call attention to the general lack of intelligence1 draw a distinction between the amount of it in existence and the amount in common use4 ,this is a democratic view of the matter4 ,it flatters the average man if you tell him that he possesses more intelligence than he is using4 ,a more correct view is perhaps that of ,freud1 who says that most of us in modern civilization are living 8psychologically beyond our means40 ,a good example of this democratic view may be found in a discussion of 8,intelligence in ,our ,time10 by a very able professor in one of the ,eastern colleges4 8,the general state of intelligence in our time is of the strangest4 ,it is richly and splendidly equipped and it is tragically unsuccessful1--unsuccessful1 that is1 in the conduct of life1 both personal and social40 ,you may test it1 broadly speaking1 by the troubles of the world4 8,one of the foremost failures of human intelligence is not to remember its own importance40 ,in other words1 ,i suppose we haven't enough intelligence to use our intelligence4 ,we live in 8a sea of loose and floating ideas1 more of them produced daily1 and no clearly recognized way of deciding1 to the coercion of all trained minds1 which is right4444 ,when people go wrong in reasoning they usually do so in obvious ways1 by violating obvious rules40 ,intelligence has its standards1 but does not enforce them2 it 8lacks confidence in itself4444 ,on most important subjects opinions differ4 ,in each case something else appears as more important than intelligence1 something else has the right of way40 ,in other words1 we know better than to believe and behave as we do most of the time4 ,but ,i doubt if this unfortunate state of man is a peculiarity of our times4 ,i suspect that there has long been more knowledge than intelligence in the world4 ,the difficulty is that we frequently do not know how to use the knowledge we possess1 for to use knowledge well requires wisdom1 and no one can give us wisdom4 ,i can see no gain in condemning the human race for not using its intelligence4 ,i suspect that the beliefs we entertain and the deeds we perform or leave undone are the best measure of the intelligence we possess4 ,let us each own up to a certain native stupidity and deceitfulness of heart which no amount of education can wholly cure or even successfully disguise4 ,the admission will to some extent save us from that childish pride of intellect which is a common affliction of those who 8go in0 for education4 ,sometimes pride of intellect disguises itself with a holy tone and reverential mien1 as if education were a very solemn affair4 ,when ,i was a school boy1 there was in our town a woman librarian who presided over our little public library with deadly seriousness4 ,she filled the place with a crushing and awesome silence1 as with reverential whispers she quietly moved on tiptoe among the books like one ministering in the house of the dead4 ,i have known people to behave in this spirit toward literature4 ,i have seen school teachers and professors take such an attitude toward education4 ,it characterizes the average baccalaureate address and is discernible in much that is said and written about education4 ,i know several 8prophets0 of adult education who succeed in giving a similar impression4 ,their very souls creak under the weight of the world-mending 8spiritual values0 of adult education4 ,if people will take their education as hard as the ,kantians take morality1 they are welcome to their 8sublimities40 ,there are minds which seem to have been formed only for the service of the sublime and do not work well except when closeted in its presence4 ,but ,i would rather dwell in the tents of the wicked than be a door-keeper in such a house of serious thinkers4 ,extravagant claims for education lead to pretense1 to painful efforts at keeping up appearances1 to exposure and ultimate disillusionment4 ,several times in history there has occurred a wide-spread reaction against education1 followed by a long period of decline of interest in it4 ,usually such reactions have taken the form of a revival of religion and have followed upon a period of general intellectual awakening4 ,the ,augustan age is followed by primitive ,christianity1 the ,renaissance by the ,reformation1 the eighteenth century1 the age of 8the ,enlightenment10 by those distinctly anti-intellectualist movements1 the ,revival1 the ,revolution and ,romanticism4 ,may not one of the causes of such reactions be the fact that people have been led to expect too much of the prevailing education8 ,men for a time believe that education will disclose some wonderful secret which is about to transform the world1 and when they find that the learned doctors do not reveal the secret because they have none to reveal1 and that the world does not at once proceed to transform itself1 they turn from learning to religion where the secret is kept from the wise and revealed unto babes4 ,no one is more concerned than ,i that the interest in education be as wide-spread and as genuine as possible4 ,but ,i would not force its growth lest we get all foliage and no fruit4 ,it is better that in its due season the tree be known by the fruit it bears4 ,just as some believe that education is a sort of gospel1 there are others who contend that knowledge makes for unhappiness4 ,one evening at an informal dinner in ,new ,york a small group of thoughtful people1 all of middle age1 were discussing in a rather desultory manner the education of the younger generation4 ,suddenly the conversation became serious4 ,one of the women said1 8,they are hard1 disillusioned young realists4 ,what else could we expect8 ,it is the result of the education we are giving them4 ,they know too much40 ,she continued1 8,i wish1 though ,i do not see how it could have been done1 that we could have retained the simple beliefs of our parents4 ,it was very comforting to believe those things4 ,it seems to me that everything ,i learn robs me of some consoling ideal and makes the world appear cruel and terrible40 ,to the question1 what shall we put in the place of the old faiths which education leads us to doubt1 there is perhaps no other answer than that we shall exchange an infantile mentality for a mature one4 ,most people will agree that it is better to grow up1 but as to whether we are happier without our childish illusions1 opinions differ4 ,much of the tenderness which people show for small children is a mixture of pity and envy4 ,the other day ,i saw a business man about fifty years old gaze long and wistfully at an infant playing with his toys4 ,he said as he turned away1 8,i wish ,i could remember what it feels like to be his age4 ,can you imagine what this world must look like to him80 ,there is my own small son who is now just learning to stand on his feet and speak a word or two4 ,how trusting and sweet he is4 ,he is not afraid of any one or any thing4 ,no one would of course wish him to live always surrounded only by pretty pictures and parental kindness4 ,but it is easy to understand how one in moments of weariness and doubt might envy him his brief day of blessed ignorance4 ,think of it1 he does not even know that people have to work1 and that it is the common lot of mankind both to endure and inflict suffering4 ,he does not suspect the existence of such things as hospitals1 slaughter houses1 war1 slums1 jails1 policemen or ,congress4 ,he does not know that he is not immortal1 or that he must ever part with those he loves4 ,he must know these things since they exist1 and must learn about many other facts equally hard to endure4 ,and as he grows up ,i want him to learn to cut his way through the fictions with which men strive to disguise the significance of many painful realities from which there is no escape4 ,such is knowledge1 and such is the price we pay for it4 ,one reason why mankind persistently resists the introduction of knowledge is the disinclination to pay the price4 ,it is not altogether easy1 as ,james said1 to 8stand this universe40 ,the longing for the irresponsibility of childhood is very common among mankind1 and it gives rise to many comforting fictions which yield reluctantly to knowledge of fact4 ,the general attitude toward wisdom has in it always a touch of the dread of the unknown4 ,there is a very old legend that our first parents were expelled from paradise after eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge4 ,even our boasted practical knowledge of nature and of mechanics can hardly be said to be an unmixed blessing4 ,we are not quite so utopian in our enthusiasm over applied science as we were twenty years ago4 ,i once burst into eloquence with an entertaining peroration something like the following3 8,everywhere as science displaces the hallowed survivals of primitive magic and superstition1 man emerges from darkness with dignity and freedom in his bearing and titanic power in his hands4 ,the great friend for whom humanity has waited is the quiet man in the laboratory amongst his test tubes and apparatus4 ,what kings could not command1 nor priests call down from an unanswering heaven1 he can command and bring into being to enrich the heritage of happiness for all4 ,the earth blossoms for science4 ,where the medicine man in the desert once vainly prayed for rain1 science digs an irrigation ditch and waste lands turn into fields of grain4 ,since the beginning of time men have cringed in the shadow of death as the specter of plague walked in their midst heedless of the prayers of faith4 ,science offers no sacrifice to propitiate revengeful gods3 it drains the swamps3 it resorts to such mundane devices as screens1 vaccine and the quarantine1 and for the first time in all history the human race is freed of its most terrifying scourge4 ,science has drawn the nations together as its lines of mechanical communication have annihilated the spacial distances which have hitherto isolated man from man4 ,it has lightened the burden of toil and has multiplied the productive force of labor a hundredfold4 ,it has lengthened the span of the average human life by nearly a decade4 8,and with what a wealth of unforeseen goods it has supplied us1 motor cars1 and aroplanes1 and talking machines1 and a countless variety of new chemical products4 ,what indeed can we not achieve with its aid2 we can send our messages around the world1 dig the ,panama ,canal1 throw a dam across the ,mississippi and turn the wheels and light the homes of distant cities4 ,we can make the lightning our household servant1 we can fly through the clouds1 we can weigh distant suns1 and by throwing their light waves through a spectroscope1 analyze them chemically and tell whether they are composed of gas or solid matter and whether they are moving towards us or receding4 ,as science is giving us mastery over nature1 why should it not likewise give man control over his own nature8 ,the existence in a scientific age of poverty and crime and injustice and corruption is an anachronism4 ,human reason has at last decided to make itself at home and put the house of life in order1 and all nature smilingly welcomes it4 ,it is flushed with success and well it may be1 for in it is the promise of the final triumph of man on the earth40 ,we are not so sanguine now4 ,we have seen the destructive uses to which scientific knowledge may be put in warfare4 ,we are not so hopeful about the easy control of human nature by means of it4 ,it cannot be said that there has been a general gain in intelligence1 corresponding to the increase of specialized scientific knowledge4 ,the disturbing thought has been expressed that the tremendous power of the engines created by applied science for our generation is something like dangerous explosives in the hands of young children4 ,we are like passengers on a steamship speeding through fog with an empty pilot house4 ,we move swiftly from one place to another1 but it is doubtful if we find more happiness or good when we reach our destination1 or if we behave more wisely than do men who know nothing of the fruits of science4 ,those who are acquainted with ,china1 a country in which a vast population has maintained the oldest civilization extant without any science at all1 say that the cultural level of that nation has not been raised by the occasional importation of western methods of sanitation1 military science1 electric lights and chewing gum4 ,medical research has saved the lives of countless numbers of children1 so that infant mortality is negligible now as compared with that of the ages that had no science4 ,i am sure no one would wish to give up such a splendid application of modern knowledge to human welfare4 ,yet even this has its price4 ,there are biologists who doubt if the amount of human suffering has been so greatly reduced as we at first supposed4 ,they say that many physically unfit persons are thus preserved1 only to suffer in later life1 and that the survival to maturity1 of such poorly equipped organisms and their reproduction lowers the quality of the racial stock of the nation4 ,this is an extreme position and is perhaps a premature conclusion1 but it illustrates my point that at best our modern knowledge may not be had without paying some price for it4 ,theoretical knowledge of nature may be said to be no less costly than applied science4 ,in the sixteenth century man could without fear of contradiction proclaim the earth to be the center of the ,universe and his own welfare and salvation the purpose of creation4 ,every step in the progress of science from ,newton to ,einstein has tended to rebuke the egotism of man--unless perchance he could find compensation in the fact that he is a creature who has the intellectual courage to saw off the bough of sustaining belief that he is sitting on4 ,early astronomy revealed to man that his earth1 far from being 8the ,center0 was but a perishable and relatively very small kind of moon whirling about a slowing cooling sun1 by no means the best of a galaxy of bigger and brighter suns all moving by necessity through freezing space in utter indifference to the inhabitants of this little planet4 ,chemistry showed man that his glowing life was a molecular process4 ,physics taught him that all change and movement were but the redistribution of a meaningless and purposeless energy the quantity of which remained forever constant4 ,geology reminded him that he was but a newcomer among the forms of life which had lived and left their remains in the crust of the earth4 ,biology revealed to him his kinship with other animals and his lowly origin4 ,psychology sought to find his soul1 and gave up the search1 finding it easier to account for his behavior in terms of animal impulse and reflex action4 ,anthropology discovered for him the origin of his cherished beliefs in the customs of primitive man4 ,sociology reduced his individual existence to that of a statistical unit in the mass4 ,it now appears probable that science may abandon in time its traditional mechanistic conceptions of the cosmos and of life1 but there is little likelihood that such a change of outlook will restore man to the place in nature which he once thought he occupied4 ,nor may we expect it to envisage for him a world more conducive to his wishes than that pictured by the science of the nineteenth century4 ,indeed1 it is possible that he may have to learn to live without even those fictions of security which were features of the older rationalism of science4 ,now ,i have tried to state the situation in its bold harshness1 for the educated mind today must know all this and must wrestle with it4 ,the knowledge cannot of itself lead to happiness1 nor do ,i think that it necessarily leads to unhappiness4 ,all depends upon what we are able to make of our existence in such a world4 ,although we possess different and more precise instruments of knowledge1 ,i do not think this is the first time that thoughtful minds have seen through popular fancy and the shows of things4 ,i believe wise men of all times have suspected that existence is different from what people navely imagine it to be4 ,and it is precisely because they wrestled with such suspicions1 asked1 8what then801 and have sought to give their existence some meaning and worth1 that their words are precious4 ,now that education is general1 and vast numbers seek it1 it is well to remind ourselves that no one of us can really find wisdom until he has alone struggled for value with destiny and naked fact4 ,the fear that most men cannot do this1 and that they will turn aside with some substitute for knowledge or with that 8little learning which is a dangerous thing0 has led some writers1 wrongly ,i think1 to question that any good may come of universal education4 ,this esoteric point of view is dramatically stated by ,dostoevsky in 8,the ,brothers ,karamazov10 in the person of the ,grand ,inquisitor who rebukes the ,christ on the occasion of his return to ,seville to comfort the victims of the ,inquisition4 ,the ,inquisitor tells the ,christ that he has demanded too much of mankind4 ,what the masses need is not freedom of the spirit1 but mystery1 miracle1 and authority2 someone to take their bread from their hands1 bless it and give it back to them2 someone who will permit them to sin1 and take the responsibility on his own soul1 someone who will guard the secret and deceive mankind every step of the way as he leads it down to death4 ,the old ,inquisitor says to the ,christ1 8,if at the last day you condemn me1 ,i will defy you to your face1 for ,i too have eaten bitter roots in the wilderness40 ,nietzsche in his lectures on 8,the ,future of our ,educational ,institutions0 at ,ble1 takes a similar position4 ,nietzsche believed that to the degree that education is extended it is weakened and minimized4 ,the masses think they can reach at a single bound what the wise man has had to win for himself only after long and determined struggles to live like a philosopher4 8,and do you not fear that solitude will wreak its vengeance upon you8 ,just try living the life of a hermit of culture4 ,one must be blessed with overflowing wealth in order to live for the good of all on one's own resources6 ,extraordinary youngsters6 ,they felt it incumbent upon them to imitate what is precisely most difficult and most high1--what is possible only to the master1 when they1 above all1 should know how difficult and dangerous this is1 and how many excellent gifts may be ruined by attempting it6444 ,no one would strive to attain to culture if he knew how incredibly small the number of really cultured people actually is1 and can ever be40 8444 those blatant heralds of educational needs1 when examined at close quarters1 are suddenly seen to be transformed into zealous1 yea1 fanatical opponents of true culture1 i4 e41 all those who hold fast to the aristocratic nature of the mind2 for1 at bottom1 they regard as their goal the emancipation of the masses from the mastery of the great few2 they seek to overthrow the most sacred hierarchy in the kingdom of the intellect--the servitude of the masses1 their submissive obedience1 their instinct of loyalty to the rule of genius4444 ,the education of the masses cannot1 therefore1 be our aim2 but rather the education of a few picked men for great and lasting works4 ,we well know that a just posterity judges the collective intellectual state of a time only by those few great and lonely figures of the period4444 ,what is called the #8education of the masses' cannot be accomplished except with difficulty2 and even if a system of universal compulsory education be applied1 they can only be reached outwardly4444 8,we know1 however1 what the aspiration is of those who would disturb the healthy slumber of the people1 and continually call out to them3 #8,keep your eyes open6 ,be sensible6 ,be wise6' we know the aim of those who profess to satisfy excessive educational requirements by means of an extraordinary increase in the number of educational institutions and the conceited tribe of teachers originated thereby4 ,these very people1 using these very means1 are fighting against the natural hierarchy in the realm of the intellect1 and destroying the roots of all those noble and sublime plastic forces which have their material origin in the unconsciousness of the people40 8,this eternal hierarchy1 towards which all things naturally tend1 is always threatened by that pseudo-culture which now sits on the throne of the present4 ,it endeavors either to bring the leaders down to the level of its own servitude or else to cast them out altogether40 ,whether ,nietzsche's theories of education were derived from his political philosophy1 or the reverse1 ,i do not know4 ,we are not1 however1 interested in discussing political and sociological theories4 ,the point is that ,nietzsche held that education is difficult and dangerous1 and that only the rare1 strong1 courageous spirits may attain it4 ,the many really do not want education at all1 he thinks1 but only that cheaper knowledge which will give them success and enable them to take their places in the rank and file2 seeking such education the herd tramples culture under foot1 like cattle in growing corn when the fences are down4 ,difficult and dangerous as knowledge is1 it is to ,nietzsche the most precious possession of man4 ,all his writing on this subject is a warning cry that the cultural values of civilization are in danger of being lost in an education for democracy4 ,i think he had a real issue1 although ,i wish he had possessed more self-control in arguing his case2 he had always something of the intemperance and over-excited gestures of a religious evangelist or soap-box orator4 ,a much more sane statement of the true aims of education in conflict with ,philistinism is that of ,matthew ,arnold4 ,i hesitate to mention ,arnold because those who are still guilty of the errors he exposed will say he was a ,victorian1 and how could his ideas of education have any value for a progressive twentieth century population8 ,i doubt if many men of today1 advocates of advanced theories of education included1 are as far removed from the vulgarities and pseudo-culture of the ,victorian age as ,arnold was4 ,like ,nietzsche1 he holds that the multitude gives evidence that it does not really want education4 ,unlike ,nietzsche1 he does not think that knowledge is some grim secret which only a few heroic supermen may attain4 ,the fruits of knowledge are not merely ideas about life and reality which men may or may not believe in1 but are to be known in the quality of life and thought which characterize the educated mind4 ,arnold's phrase 8sweetness and light0 is a little suggestive of a ,unitarian sermon1 or of some cult of the 8higher life40 ,it is obvious that if a man deliberately set out to drill his soul in the ways of sweetness and light he might become a very lady-like individual2 he would not necessarily become an educated person4 ,all such deliberate efforts at self-improvement1 if they are not characterized by a sentimental insincerity which is content with imitation and appearance1 are at least a little like the effort of ,benjamin ,franklin to school himself in the moral virtues1 who1 finding the task too great1 decided that he could best gain proficiency by practicing his desired virtues one at a time4 ,you may rest assured that ,arnold had nothing of this sort in mind1 much as he seems at one time to have admired the wisdom of ,franklin4 ,he meant that certain mental traits are sufficiently characteristic of educated minds generally to be the distinguishing marks which differentiate them from the uneducated4 ,to be sure1 it is a thankless task to call attention to such traits1 and no one who does it may expect to be very popular1 but sometimes1 when the culture of a nation is in danger1 it has to be done4 ,arnold has in mind characters like ,socrates1 ,erasmus1 ,montaigne--no muddle-headed1 opinionated or narrow-minded men1 but men who had attained clarity of thought and the insight which pierces the glamour of things and the follies of men1 and yet could speak and write without bitterness or rancor or malice4 8,here culture goes beyond religion1 as religion is generally conceived by us4 8,if culture1 then1 is a study of perfection1 and of harmonious perfection1 general perfection1 and perfection which consists in becoming something rather than in having something1 in an inward condition of the mind and spirit1 not in an outward set of circumstances1--it is clear that culture1 instead of being the frivolous and useless thing which ,mr4 ,bright1 and ,mr4 ,frederic ,harrison1 and many other ,liberals are apt to call it1 has a very important function to fulfill for mankind4 ,and this function is particularly important in our modern world1 of which the whole civilisation is1 to a much greater degree than the civilisation of ,greece and ,rome1 mechanical and external1 and tends constantly to become more so4 ,but above all in our own country has culture a weighty part to perform1 because here that mechanical character1 which civilization tends to take everywhere1 is shown in the most eminent degree4 ,indeed nearly all the characters of perfection1 as culture teaches us to fix them1 meet in this country with some powerful tendency which thwarts them and sets them at defiance4444 ,so culture has a rough task to achieve in this country4 ,its preachers have1 and are likely to long have1 a hard time of it1 and they will much oftener be regarded1 for a great while to come1 as elegant or spurious ,jeremiahs than as friends and benefactors4444 8,faith in machinery is1 ,i said1 our besetting danger2 often in machinery most absurdly disproportioned to the end which this machinery1 if it is to do any good at all1 is to serve2 but always in machinery1 as if it had a value in and for itself4 ,what is freedom but machinery8 what is population but machinery8 what is coal but machinery8 what are railroads but machinery8 what is wealth but machinery8 what are1 even1 religious organisations but machinery8 ,now almost every voice in ,england is accustomed to speak of these things as if they were precious ends in themselves1 and therefore had some of the characters of perfection indisputably joined to them4444 ,but culture indefatigably tries1 not to make what each raw person may like the rule by which he fashions himself2 but to draw ever nearer to a sense of what is indeed beautiful1 graceful1 and becoming1 and to get the raw person to like that4444 8,the people who believe most that our greatness and welfare are proved by our being very rich1 and who most give their lives and thoughts to becoming rich1 are just the very people whom we call ,philistines4 ,culture says1 #8,consider these people1 then1 their way of life1 their habits1 their manners1 the very tones of their voices2 look at them attentively2 observe the literature they read1 the things which give them pleasure1 the words which come forth out of their mouths1 the thoughts which make the furniture of their minds2 would any amount of wealth be worth having with the condition that one was to become just like these people by having it8'0 ,as ,nietzsche sees that education must struggle for its values if it is to survive in a democracy1 ,arnold is equally aware of its conflict with middle-class ,english ,puritanism4 ,he will give the ,puritan credit for his moral earnestness1 but-- 8the ,puritan's ideal of perfection remains narrow and inadequate1 although for what he did well he has been richly rewarded4 ,notwithstanding the mighty results of the ,pilgrim ,fathers' voyage1 they and their standard of perfection are rightly judged when we figure to ourselves ,shakespeare or ,virgil1--souls in whom sweetness and light1 and all that in human nature is most humane1 were eminent1--accompanying them on their voyage1 and think what intolerable company ,shakespeare and ,virgil would have found them6 ,in the same way let us judge the religious organizations which we see all around us4 ,do not let us deny the good and the happiness which they have accomplished2 but do not let us fail to see clearly that their idea of human perfection is narrow and inadequate1 and that the ,dissidence of ,dissent and the ,protestantism of the ,protestant religion will never bring humanity to its true goal40 ,of the relation of education to the growing power of nineteenth century democracy1 ,arnold says1 8,other well-meaning friends of this new power are for leading it1 not in the old ruts of middle-class ,philistinism1 but in ways which are naturally alluring to the feet of democracy1 though in this country they are novel and untried ways4 ,i may call them the ways of ,jacobinism4 ,violent indignation with the past1 abstract systems of renovation applied wholesale1 a new doctrine drawn up in black and white for elaborating down to the very smallest details a rational society for the future4444 ,culture is the eternal opponent of the two things which are the signal marks of ,jacobinism1--its fierceness1 and its addiction to an abstract system4 ,culture is always assigning to system-makers and systems a smaller share in the bent of human destiny than their friends like40 ,the following is as truly the problem of education today as it was on the day it was written1 and the answer that our generation gives to the problem will determine the whole quality of the fruit of knowledge for our lives4 8444 ,plenty of people will try to give the masses1 as they call them1 an intellectual food prepared and adapted in the way they think proper for the actual condition of the masses4 ,the ordinary popular literature is an example of this way of working on the masses4 ,plenty of people will try to indoctrinate the masses with the set of ideas and judgments constituting the creed of their own profession or party4 ,our religious and political organisations give an example of this way of working on the masses4 ,i condemn neither way2 but culture works differently4 ,it does not try to teach down to the level of inferior classes2 it does not try to win them for this or that sect of its own1 with ready-made judgments and watchwords4 ,it seeks to do away with classes2 to make the best that has been thought and known in the world current everywhere2 to make all men live in an atmosphere of sweetness and light1 where they may use ideas1 as it uses them itself1 freely1--nourished1 and not bound by them4 8,the great men of culture are those who have had a passion for diffusing1 for making prevail1 for carrying from one end of society to the other1 the best knowledge1 the best ideas of their time2 who have laboured to divest knowledge of all that was harsh1 uncouth1 difficult1 abstract1 professional1 exclusive2 to humanise it1 to make it efficient outside the clique of the cultivated and learned1 yet still remaining the best knowledge and thought of the time1 and a true source1 therefore1 of sweetness and light4 ,such a man was ,abelard in the ,middle ,ages1 in spite of all his imperfections2 and thence the boundless emotion and enthusiasm which ,abelard excited4 ,such were ,lessing and ,herder in ,germany1 at the end of the last century2 and their services to ,germany were in this way inestimably precious4444 ,and why8 ,because they humanized knowledge2 because they broadened the basis of life and intelligence40 ,the human race has demonstrated how it can get along without knowledge2 it has not on any general scale demonstrated how it can get along with knowledge4 ,ignorance and vulgarity have amazing survival value in human society4 ,knowledge has its dangers4 ,one may lose one's faith in the pursuit of it or expend much effort1 and never attain it2 and1 what is worse1 never know that one has not attained it4 ,or having gained some bit of knowledge1 one may not store it up as final truth and abide with it1 but having seen must pass on to other knowledge4 ,the pursuit of knowledge is an open road4 ,all1 or nearly all1 who have pursued knowledge will say that such a pursuit is a great adventure4 ,it is an adventure which never goes stale1 nor loses its lure1 nor grows old1 and there are indirect results of such an adventure which cannot be measured4 ,just as he who has traveled in many lands returns and views his home with new eyes never really having seen it before1 so he who follows knowledge in time sees the things about him in new light4 ,they have a richer meaning and better perspective for they have a wider reference4 ,what might happen if a considerable portion of the population should1 or could1 become devoted to education in the way that men have engaged themselves in religion1 war1 and commerce1 we perhaps can never know4 ,men have been converted to religion and have 8back-slid0 or have outgrown their faith4 ,men have gaily marched off to war and before the conflict ended have grown sick of it4 ,men have given up commerce1 finding that it does not satisfy some deep longing in their natures4 ,most of those who begin their education leave off before they learn what it is about4 ,but the few who have remained to taste the fruit of knowledge as a rule become addicted to it1 and never leave off1 being never satisfied with what they have yet attained4 ,if for eating this fruit they find themselves outside the paradise of childish innocence and popular belief1 they do by their bearing give us the impression that the experience is worth its cost4 ,it is only the half-educated1 those who would follow wisdom and at the same time look back over their shoulders casting longing glances at comforting ignorance1 unable to say farewell1 who dwell upon the painfulness of knowledge4 ,i have the suspicion that those who wear a long face as if they knew some dreadful secret that would break the heart of the world if the rest of mankind knew it1 are men who find in the ,byronic attitude a convenient way of convincing themselves that they are intellectual heroes4 ,or they are romanticists who enjoy the sorrows of ,werther4 ,for the encouragement of those who might wish to continue their education or assist in the education of another1 ,i have tried to present certain historical examples of men who have attained wisdom4 ,they are brave men and true2 they do not make us ashamed of our race4 ,it is a pleasure to try to understand such minds1 and ,i trust that in these times when every fence is down and there are in the field of education many strange animals and much shouting and confusion1 we may have been able to gain something1 from turning our attention to ,socrates and ,plato and ,aristotle and ,erasmus and ,montaigne and ,huxley and ,nietzsche and ,arnold1 that will help us to see the meaning of education4 ,but we can never be sure whether we like its fruits until we taste them4 ,,chapter ,,xv--,,postscript ,,adult ,,education ,,in ,,america ,when the ,european universities were established in the late ,middle ,ages1 they were not1 like our modern ,american colleges1 super-high-schools4 ,it was not their primary purpose to give to undergraduates and aspiring professional students a maximum fund of information during a brief period of residence4 ,there were many thousands of such students1 but the college or university was in a real sense an institution for adult education4 ,it was a place of residence for mature scholars1 a center where such men could pursue their studies and live the life of education1 just as in the monasteries men could live the 8religious0 life4 ,the teaching which went on in these universities was in a sense a secondary activity4 ,among the many changes which have occurred in life and education since the thirteenth century1 that represented by ,goethe's 8,faust0 has special interest for us4 ,the modern man attempts to live the life of the spirit outside the cloister4 ,in this respect we are1 as ,i have said1 more like the ancient ,athenians who formed themselves into little groups and attached themselves as disciples to their teacher for an indefinite period of time4 ,we may easily imagine the students and friends of ,socrates continuing with him for years their philosophical inquiries1 while at the same time engaged in the conduct of their duties as citizens and householders4 ,both ,plato and ,aristotle1 as we have seen1 thought of education in this way4 ,it was an interest which as a matter of course extended into adult life4 ,this continued emphasis upon the education of the mature mind is important1 for it is in contrast with much modern thought on the subject4 ,modern educators are chiefly interested in the problems of teaching children4 ,but there is a still more significant fact about such adult education as we may have today which necessarily differentiates it from both the thirteenth century and the ancients4 ,the average mature individual1 is not like the ancient ,greek student1 a member of the leisure class1 nor may he like the medival scholar retreat to a cloister4 ,he must earn his living and seek education during his leisure time4 ,to be sure1 the formal and professional education of our time has still the advantages of a certain privilege and seclusion4 ,adult education must necessarily proceed without these valuable aids to learning4 ,in earlier ages it was generally believed that education could not be achieved without these advantages4 ,modern men insist that the spiritual values of life be realized not in contemplative aloofness but in the life of activity4 ,they also demand a satisfactory existence for as many people as possible2 hence all are to have opportunity to share in the cultural goods of civilization4 ,education is made universal and1 below a certain age1 compulsory4 ,but it is obvious that unless education is to remain the privilege of a few professionally trained scholars1 large numbers of people must be given the facilities for continued study after school or college days are passed4 ,in other words1 the aim of adult education is the cultivated amateur4 ,i have tried to show that this is precisely the aim of all liberal education4 ,learning which is discontinued when one leaves school has been for the most part wasted effort4 ,education is not culture unless outside college halls it is a permanent and wide-spread interest which makes a difference in the tastes and habits of thought of the community4 ,we have seen that ,huxley deplored the fact that much of the intellectual leadership of ,victorian ,england was found outside the university faculties4 ,while this may have been a just criticism of the universities1 it was a sign of intellectual vigor in the nation4 ,education may be said to be achieving its purposes in a nation to the extent that quiet reflection supplants superficial cleverness1 and that minds with patience and grace and breadth of outlook1 with indifference to fads and catchwords and with respect for excellence1 supplant the 8go-getter10 the 8movie-fan10 the worshipper of ,mammon1 the sensation monger and the narrow sectarian4 ,the extent to which our education is a reality in the life of this ,republic is almost daily brought to our attention4 ,a very small percentage of the population spends four years at college1 during which time most of it retains very much the same general habit patterns and beliefs and outlook on life that it had when it entered4 ,after graduation1 students bring home little cultural interest or added civic virtue4 ,they for the most part vote the regular party ticket1 support a church in which they happen to have been brought up1 play golf1 dance to jazz music1 talk prohibition and drink synthetic gin1 repeat the shibboleths of the group in which they grew to maturity1 and make money4 ,a small minority of students attend post-graduate schools1 become research scholars1 and within the radius of their special branch of study often reach high proficiency and unequalled scholarship4 ,in the universities of ,new ,york ,city are gathered many of the most eminent scholars in ,america4 ,but it must be said that very little educational influence passes over the chasm which separates our professionalized education from the man in the street4 ,today a mob is moved to tears of a patriotic fervor and to murderous indignation at the sight of a woman removing from the front of her property some faded red1 white and blue bunting which had been hung up by a tenant for the occasion of a street festival some days previous2 tomorrow an empty-pated multitude tries to break into an undertaker's establishment and tramples hysterical women under foot in the effort to view the body of a deceased motion picture actor2 and anon half the city runs oggling and open-mouthed after a young woman who can swim across the ,english ,channel4 ,without background or tradition other than folkway and a perishing ancient dogma1 and with quantity production methods devised to pamper to its fancy1 this multitude tends to cheapen the quality of everything it comes near1 while it parades its material prosperity before the world as evidence of superior ,american virtue4 ,education has not yet taken root in our soil4 ,it is a potted plant1 like those little evergreen trees which may be seen growing in painted tubs on the stoops of ,new ,york houses4 ,such ancestral systems for valuing experience and controlling behavior as people brought to this country were mostly cast aside in the process of ,americanization2 the swift tempo of industrialism supplanted the slow process of spiritual maturing1 and a newspaper-fashioned public opinion became the dominant cultural force for the country at large4 ,we do not know at present whether the alleged general interest in adult education is evidence of a spontaneous and growing desire for knowledge1 or is something promoted1 worked up by interests which would 8educate the masses0 in order to attain certain economic ends1 individual or social4 ,nearly three million persons are said to be annually enrolled for various courses of study outside the resident classes of established institutions of learning4 ,undoubtedly a great variety of motives prompts these hundreds of thousands of people to take up the task of study4 ,but wide-spread as this interest is1 popularization of knowledge is not the same as the humanization of knowledge4 ,we have seen how the values of religion may decline into empty caricatures of the spiritual life amongst certain popular sects4 ,those engaged in the work of adult education1 often fear that the movement may become standardized after the fashion of the public school system4 ,is it possible to keep up the standards without resorting to the mechanical uniformity we commonly call standardization8 ,i think this is possible only if we are guided by a philosophy of liberal education4 ,lose sight of such a philosophy and adult education becomes a confusion of tongues4 ,in such confusion there is of course freedom from uniformity1 yet there may be much standardization2 each educational cult may easily degenerate into a doctrinaire1 misguided sect4 ,if ,i am correct in holding that the aim of liberal education is to produce the cultivated amateur1 who possesses in general the mental traits which in the preceding chapters of this book we have seen to characterize the liberally educated mind1 we have in the pursuit of such a goal the very thing that will save adult education from degenerating1 like ,protestantism1 into a conflict of narrow orthodoxies4 ,without such a goal1 any passing fancy or popular prejudice1 however ungrounded in philosophy1 may come to serve as a dominant ideal of education4 ,adult education then becomes the means to every sort of propaganda and personal ambition4 ,one educator of adults conducts short-time 8institutes0 for farmers in which during a period of two or three weeks instruction is given in such subjects as the fertilization of the soil1 rotation of crops1 marketing1 and the elements of bookkeeping4 ,others offer instruction to industrial workers which will improve their efficiency and deepen their loyalty to the company4 ,others teach various trades and professions4 ,much of the ,americanization propaganda which gave employment to uplifters during the years following the war is now called adult education4 ,there is a group of very serious idealists who believe that by means of adult education they may initiate working people into the 8proletarian culture of the future10 and arm the working class with the necessary weapons for a social revolution4 ,others would conduct schools in which young people may be trained to become professional labor leaders4 ,to still others the task of adult education is very clear and simple3 it is nothing else than the transformation of our entire civilization by the method of leading people back to nature and enabling them to express their emotions1 to which end classes in appreciation and self-expression are organized1 and students are sent out after two or three months of such training prepared to teach the emotional awakening to others4 ,adult education thus becomes a matter of slogans4 ,each educator is sure he has it and can give the formula4 ,it is that 8every man be given opportunity to think for himself10 or it is to give people 8a new and modern world view10 or to help people 8get out of the ruts in which they find themselves10 or to enable one to 8evaluate his experience10 or it is 8an adventure in independence40 ,many of these things may be very desirable1 but are they education8 ,taken together1 they reveal something of the confusion which always results when men try to find their standards of value in the passing interests of the hour4 ,adult education is a democratic movement and hence tends to make the desires and ideals of the uneducated rather than those of the educated its standards and aims4 ,the idea sometimes prevails in education1 just as it has prevailed in religion and in politics1 that if only the masses may emancipate themselves from the past and start all over again1 setting up their own values1 there will necessarily be great improvement4 ,hence ,labor1 for instance1 is to have 8its own education10 whatever that is4 ,to be sure1 every person1 be he a laborer or anyone else1 must in the end educate himself1 and perhaps the masses in insisting upon their own values and ideals can make no worse business of their education than when they are 8given0 the education which someone equally uneducated and materialistic thinks is good for them4 ,it is obvious that the methods of adult education must be different from those in common use in teaching children4 ,the instructor cannot compel attendance2 he cannot require submission to his authority2 he must realize that he is among people who1 though they have not his special knowledge1 have yet each his own experience1 and he must see the relations of his knowledge to such experience2 and in fact he must make himself a student with the others4 ,now because the methods differ from those of formal education1 people frequently infer that the aim also is different4 ,there are many things which would seem to lead to such an inference4 ,in the first place1 in all education1 attention is focused almost exclusively upon methods of teaching rather than upon the question1 8what is an educated person80 ,again many of those who are interested in adult education both as instructors or as students have grown up in an environment of traditional education1 they have seen the futility and meaninglessness of much that passes for education in the schools and colleges1 and are often moved to protest against the system and all its works4 ,i have tried to show that the failure of formal education is the result of the fact that educators frequently do not know what liberal education is4 ,but many people who are irritated with the school system seem never to have raised the question whether what is taught in school is liberal education4 ,they assume that it is what it appears to be1 and hence1 instead of seeking the meaning of liberal education1 they turn away and strive to set up a hastily considered educational aim of their own4 ,finally1 adult students are sometimes very opinionated--especially when they first come to class4 ,often they have violent prejudices and are extremely 8advanced40 ,such minds are very much creatures of the popular movement of the hour4 ,the educator1 if he is to keep his hold upon these persons1 must gain their favor and sustain their interest4 ,the easiest way to gain and keep a following is to make concession to popular prejudice4 ,classes in adult education1 like the reading public1 wish to be told what they would like to regard as true4 ,one of the great 8truths0 for which they often seek support is the belief that the increasing or anticipated supremacy of the mass is 8progress40 ,men wish adult education to be modern1 to reflect current thought and present-day tendencies4 ,in an earlier chapter ,i tried to show how much of the popular thought that men believe very advanced is really unrecognized ,rousseauism4 ,often the idea of a new start in education is only a survival of ,rousseau's revolt against civilization4 ,since the influence of ,rousseau serves always to rationalize any plebeian wish-fancy whatsoever1 it is not surprising that it should sometimes appear to set the goal of adult education4 ,to the degree that the desire for education is genuine and spontaneous1 the demand will naturally be for what people think1 is education4 ,but in spite of all the chaos and confusion as to aims1 adult education1 when the initiative comes from people who are hungry for knowledge1 even though they do not know what education is1 shows more promise than when the initiative comes from the professional school teacher4 ,in the former case1 there is some likelihood that someone will stumble upon the meaning of a liberal education4 ,as a form of protest against the established educational system1 ,i think adult education is a wholesome movement4 ,the school authorities frequently show an interest in this new thirst for knowledge which is met with suspicion4 ,i do not wonder4 ,they have not shown themselves so uniformly successful in the training of youth that they are justified in seeking to extend their machinery over adult efforts for knowledge4 ,much that school superintendents regard as adult education is really only elementary education1 primary instruction offered to adults4 ,the surest way to defeat learning is to place it in charge of those whose own education has stopped4 ,their influence is everywhere to divert this mature interest in learning to the only ends such professional educators know2 service to the state1 conformity and routine1 material advancement and industrial efficiency1 the uplift of the masses4 ,in the words of a great educator of the nineteenth century1 we should 8inquire whether it is the masses alone who need a reformed and improved education40 ,adult education is not something to be 8given0 to the masses1 while college education may be kept for the sons of privilege4 ,there is no such thing as 8mass education40 ,throughout the mass of mankind1 college graduates included1 there are scattered here and there persons who can learn something and have the desire to continue learning4 ,it is as important for us to consider for whom adult educational opportunities should exist as it is to consider what education is4 ,such opportunities are for people who are worth educating4 ,adult education is selective4 ,its aim is not to provide a slight increase of information and a few noble sentiments for the rank and file1 but to select out of the undifferentiated mass those who are naturally capable of becoming something more than automatons4 ,these need no credits or examinations or promise of diplomas to spur them to intellectual effort4 ,they would gain wisdom if there were no educational institutions1 or classes1 or lectures4 ,but they need advice and the fellowship of other studious minds1 for they are often lonely4 ,very few even professional students can easily carry on their studies when isolated from their kind4 ,hence the existence of universities4 ,the rush and racket of our industrial civilization are so great that there is need to establish for those whose minds can rise above it1 an environment where thought is leisurely and where people may be found who have had learning long enough to be at home with it4 ,the isolated student1 like the person learning to swim1 makes much needless effort4 ,he tries to stuff his head with learning4 ,he needs time to meditate upon what he learns1 talk about it1 assimilate it1 see its relations to his knowledge and experience as a whole4 ,i believe this to be the value of group discussion1 where there is a real meeting of minds4 ,i do not1 however1 as some seem to do1 believe that a company of uninformed people talking nonsense are necessarily engaged in a work of mutual education4 ,it is not as groups that men may attain wisdom4 ,with all the aid possible from others1 education is necessarily an individual achievement4 ,we need adult education not because it is a path to some ,utopia1 or imaginary triumph of the masses1 or because it will add to the contentment of the poor1 or improve their morals and their industrial efficiency1 or raise the tone of politics4 ,we need adult education for the same reason that we need any education at all4 ,from the beginning of time men of a certain type have sought such knowledge of the riddle of existence as would make some measure of excellence possible to man4 ,the result of all their striving is a vast body of knowledge which is the heritage of the men and women of our time4 ,to share in the possession of this knowledge and to work for its improvement and increase is to men and women of a certain type simply to attain to their true human estate4 ,they desire education because that is the kind of animal they happen to be4 ,such persons are different from the common lot4 ,it is not that they may possess some secret information which the others may not have4 ,they have a different goal4 ,such decency and tolerance and good sense and genuine idealism as exist in the midst of general human folly are largely the indirect results of the efforts of these men and women for knowledge and wisdom4 ,society as a whole is the gainer for their education4 ,to the end that such minds may find themselves1 together with the work and the adventure which are their destiny1 the widest possible efforts at general education should be made4 ,it is because of what people are in themselves and may become1 not because of something they may get1 that liberal education is the duty of man4 ,what ,huxley said of ,england in #ahfh is true for ,america today3 8a few voices are lifted up in favour of the doctrine that the masses should be educated because they are men and women with unlimited capacities of being1 doing1 and suffering1 and that it is as true now1 as it ever was1 that the people perish for lack of knowledge40 ,,the ,,end ,announcing ,,the ,,new ,,science ,,series ,one of the most significant developments in our life today is that as scientific knowledge almost daily advances1 educated people are left more and more in ignorance of its achievements4 ,scientists for the most part write for each other and the general reader is forced to resort to popularizers of science for his information4 ,it is apparently forgotten that many of the greatest scientists from ,galileo and ,copernicus to ,darwin and ,huxley wrote largely for the public they wished to reach with their ideas4 ,the publishers have this tradition in mind in offering ,,the ,,new ,,science ,,series which will present the latest scientific trends and discoveries from all parts of the world in a series of books written by leading scientists or those in close touch with their work4 ,it is the aim of this series to help modern men and women to know more about themselves and their world1 and to feel that they understand something of what it is all about4 ,,edited ,,by ,c4 ,k4 ,,ogden ,,vol4 ,i4 ,,myth ,,in ,,primitive ,,psychology ,,bronislaw ,,malinowski1 ,ph4,d41 ,d4,sc4 ,,vol4 ,,ii4 ,,science ,,and ,,poetry ,i4 ,a4 ,,richards1 ,m4,a4 ,,vol4 ,,iii4 ,,fatalism ,,or ,,freedom ,c4 ,,judson ,,herrick1 ,sc4,d41 ,ph4,d4 ,other ,volumes in ,preparation ,,each ,,volume #a4jj ,for descriptive catalogue1 ask your bookseller or write ,w ,w ,,norton ,,company #gj ,fifth ,avenue ,new ,york 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's note ,minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice4 ,spelling was standardized except for quotes4 ,hyphenation was standardized where appropriate4 ,the following changes were made3 ,page #cg3 8,pavlow4 ,a hungry dog0 8,pavlov4 ,a hungry dog0 ,page #ed3 8information that anyone0 8information than anyone0 ,page #gf3 8in the early nineteeth0 8in the early nineteenth0 ,page #hh3 8,nietsche said that0 8,nietzsche said that0 ,page #abc3 8it not the social problem0 8is not the social problem0 ,page #acj3 8,max ,sterner's 8,ego00 8,max ,stirner's 8,ego00 ,page #acg3 8it hestitated to carry0 8it hesitated to carry0 ,page #ada3 8organized soicalist locals0 8organized socialist locals0 ,page #adb3 8sort of convenant among0 8sort of covenant among0 ,page #agf3 8its value it not0 8its value is not0 ,page #agf3 8a philosophy it true0 8a philosophy is true0 ,page #aih3 8creation of ,plato's genuis0 8creation of ,plato's genius0 ,page #aii3 8to aquiescence to authority0 8to acquiescence to authority0 ,page #bbd3 8,michaelangelo and ,raphael0 8,michelangelo and ,raphael0 ,page #bbd3 8,melanchthon and colampadus0 8,melanchthon and colampadius0 ,page #bci3 8matched by his magnaminity0 8matched by his magnanimity0 ,page #bec3 8fire of ,promethus0 8fire of ,prometheus0 ,page #bef3 8believe there an be0 8believe there can be0 ,page #cjd3 8system-makers and sytems0 8system-makers and systems0 ,page #cjd3 8destiny then their friends0 8destiny than their friends0 ,page #cjf3 8a covenient way0 8a convenient way0