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diff --git a/75711-0.txt b/75711-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9fcf4a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/75711-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9495 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75711 *** + + + THE MEANING OF + A LIBERAL EDUCATION + + + + + _The People’s Institute + “Lectures-in-Print” Series_ + + + PSYCHOLOGY + by Everett Dean Martin $3.00 + + BEHAVIORISM + by John B. Watson $3.00 + + INFLUENCING HUMAN BEHAVIOR + by H. A. Overstreet $3.00 + + INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY + by Charles S. Myers $2.50 + + THE MEANING OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION + by Everett Dean Martin $3.00 + + MODERN SCIENCE AND PEOPLE’S HEALTH + Edited by Benjamin C. Gruenberg $2.50 + + +_Other Volumes in Preparation_ + + _W·W·NORTON & COMPANY, INC._ + 70 Fifth Avenue New York + + + + + THE MEANING OF + A LIBERAL EDUCATION + + BY + + EVERETT DEAN MARTIN + + _Director, The People’s Institute, New York + Lecturer, The New School for + Social Research_ + + [Illustration] + + NEW YORK + W·W·NORTON & COMPANY, INC. + _Publishers_ + + + + + Copyright, 1926 + W·W·NORTON & COMPANY, INC. + + + 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 instruction, and inspired the + desire for scholarship, + MY MOTHER + THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED + + + + +PREFACE + + +Most books that deal with the subject of education, and there are +many, are concerned with the training of the young. Much is said about +educational methods but very little about content. There is discussion, +also, of the effectiveness of institutions, schools and colleges, and +the interest of the State in education. This book does not deal with +such matters. + +It is concerned with other problems. What is an educated person like? +How does he differ from the uneducated? Does he think differently and, +if so, why? We shall be empirical in our study. We shall study persons +who are generally recognized as outstanding educated minds and ask what +it is that characterizes them. Is an educated person one who is like +Socrates, Erasmus, Montaigne, Goethe, Arnold, Santayana? + +The theme of this book is that education is more than information, or +skill, or propaganda. In each age education must take into account +the conditions of that age. But the educated mind is not a mere +creature of its own time. Education is emancipation from herd opinion, +self-mastery, capacity for self-criticism, suspended judgment, and +urbanity. + +It is often believed that education, adult education in particular, is +an avocation or an interest to occupy the individual in his leisure +time, like music or stamp collecting. The work of The People’s +Institute at Cooper Union, New York, where these lectures were given, +is essentially that of adult education. I have tried to think through +with those who attended the lectures what it is that for ten years +we have been trying to achieve. Adult education is now becoming an +important interest in American life, and the inquiry seems timely. + +This book, then, contends that education is a spiritual revaluation +of human life. Its task is to _reorient_ the individual, to enable +him to take a richer and more significant view of his experiences, to +place him above and not within the system of his beliefs and ideals. +If education is not liberalizing, it is not education in the sense of +the title of the book. I use the term “liberal” not in the political +sense, as if it meant half measures, 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-interests. In this +sense, education is simply philosophy at work. It is the search for the +“good life.” Education is itself a way of living. + +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 people, but from the +standpoint of one who is concerned that his own education shall not +stop in middle-life. No one is fit to be a teacher in whose own mental +process education has ceased to go on. One is a student first and only +incidentally a teacher. The best teacher is the seeker after truth +amongst his students. Probably the most successful educator cannot tell +what is the secret of his success in teaching. 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 doing. + + EVERETT DEAN MARTIN. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + PREFACE vii + + I. INTRODUCTION 1 + + II. LIBERAL EDUCATION VERSUS ANIMAL TRAINING 23 + + III. LIBERAL EDUCATION VERSUS PROPAGANDA 45 + + IV. LIBERAL EDUCATION VERSUS BOOK LEARNING 66 + + V. THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF DOUBT 84 + + VI. A MAN IS KNOWN BY THE DILEMMAS HE KEEPS 107 + + VII. THE FREE SPIRIT 127 + + VIII. THE APPRECIATION OF HUMAN WORTH 146 + + IX. EDUCATION AND WORK 160 + + X. EDUCATION AND MORALS 180 + + XI. THE CLASSICAL TRADITION: PLATO AND ARISTOTLE 197 + + XII. HUMANISM: ERASMUS AND MONTAIGNE 220 + + XIII. SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION: HUXLEY 252 + + XIV. THE FRUIT OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE 286 + + XV. POSTSCRIPT--ADULT EDUCATION IN AMERICA 308 + + + + + 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 education. There is an increasingly +general demand for it in some form or other. Everywhere and in all +classes of society the interest in acquiring better knowledge is +apparent. + +In England and on the continent of Europe there are thousands of +classes and groups patiently pursuing long and serious courses of +study. American colleges and universities are crowded and many students +are each year turned away. Vast and increasing numbers register +annually for correspondence and university extension courses. The +demand for more education is shown also in the increasing number +of lecture courses, people’s colleges, and other centers of public +discussion. + +While people do not always know just what it is they demand and +frequently the thing which they receive is not education, nevertheless +there is a new and very wide-spread interest. 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 +life. + +Until recently, people have thought of education as something for +children, something which a man either got or missed in his early +years, something which he generally forgot in his mature years. To +the average person, education was a matter of fond memories or of +unpleasant associations with teachers, school houses and experiences +of childhood. The “highly” educated person was the exceptional person +in the community, discussions of the philosophy of education did not +appeal to a wide public interest. Now higher branches of learning +are being pursued by numbers of people outside regular educational +institutions. Something very significant is happening. Perhaps at no +time since the thirteenth century has the desire for knowledge so +nearly approached a mass movement. + +Certain qualifications must however be made. While much of the demand +for education is genuine and spontaneous, much of it is spurious, +irrelevant, inconsequential. The increased attendance at school or +university does not necessarily mean that more education is going on. +It is frequently said that our colleges are crowded with inferior +students. Athletics, fraternities, schools of business and the +automobile tend to displace science and the classics. American youth +has acquired its ideal of college life from the motion pictures. We +should not infer from the large numbers engaged in adult education +that democracy has suddenly decided to rid itself of intellectual +shoddiness. If the advertisements of correspondence courses in +self-improvement which regularly appear in the popular magazines are +an indication of the instruction offered for sale, people might better +spend their money for patent medicine or in having their fortunes +told. At best adult education consists largely of brief courses of +a vocational nature. Even worker’s education, a movement which has +inspired hope in many liberals, may easily be over estimated. Much +of it is little more than a recrudescence of antiquated radical +propaganda, designed to enable the proletariat to “emancipate itself +from the slavery of capitalism,” and to get it “ready for a millennial +industrial democracy.” The initiative often comes not from studious +minded workers, but from enthusiastic intellectuals and idealistic +uplifters. The cultural gesture is often pathetic or comic. It is +not uncommon for those who have completed the courses of study in a +“workers” college to find themselves more unadjusted than they were +before. + +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 lot, to free the mind from servitude +and herd opinion, to train habits of judgment and of appreciation of +value, to carry on the struggle for human excellence in our day and +generation, to temper passion with wisdom, to dispel prejudice by +better knowledge of self, to enlist all men, in the measure that they +have capacity for it, in the achievement of civilization. + +Adult education is a way of living which should be open to all who care +for it for its own sake. It is not surprising that it frequently fails +of its true aims. Education has always been regarded as a mere means to +ends that have nothing to do with it. It is to be expected, therefore, +that education in our day should be regarded primarily as a means of +entrance to the already overcrowded professions, or to material gain or +better social position. Doubtless it must remain so until the community +becomes sufficiently civilized so that some degree of liberal education +is the expected thing in all classes, an interest and a goal, a +spiritual bond of union somewhat like the idea of catholic religion in +the middle ages. This is an ideal which will not be realized by magic. +There is no cheap popular substitute for education. Nor are we nearing +the goal while as now almost anything passes for education. + +Almost any method of salesmanship or trick of influencing people for +any ends whatever is now “education.” Every one educates the public. It +is marvelous how large a portion of the population of these states is +qualified to instruct. Education has become the game men perpetually +work to convert their neighbors. It is the cure for every social ill. +How shall we put an end to the crime wave, abolish war, how to prevent +social revolution,--or bring revolution about, how induce unwilling +people to accept cheerfully the coercion of national prohibition or +give lip service to some one’s favorite brand of patriotism? The answer +is in all cases--education. If you are engaged in increasing the sale +of a certain soap, in putting everyone on guard against that social +disability of which one’s best friend will not tell him, if you can +frighten a multitude with the danger of pyorrhea and thus increase your +profit in tooth paste--all this is now called education. + +Many see in the general movement for more education a great hope for +humanity. It was the belief in its political benefits that led to the +compulsory education of children in the nineteenth century. Men were +sure that all that held the world back was ignorance. People would +surely wish to have their ignorance removed. Remove it, teach men the +laws of a reasonable and beneficent nature, and mankind in general +would be wise and happy and good. Ingersoll used to rejoice whenever he +visited a town where the schoolhouse was larger than the church. + +As the humanitarians of the nineteenth century held that public school +education must inevitably put an end to tyranny and superstition, so +many of our contemporaries look upon adult education as the guarantor +of a new and better civilization. There is to be an end of bigotry and +partisan strife and of crowd hysteria and of the vulgarities which +beset democracy. They see genius appreciated, a selection by the masses +of a sincere and competent leadership. Men everywhere are to learn “not +only how to make a living, but how to live.” + +Finally, 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 them. A better informed adult population will naturally take +a more active and intelligent interest in the education of youth. And +when teachers try to instruct adults it will become necessary for them +to make their teaching interesting and significant. The teachers will +also learn something about life, gleaning sheaves of ripe wisdom out +of the mature experience of their students; they will become better +teachers. All this may or may not come to pass. The point of interest +is that there is this tendency to make a gospel of education. + +We Americans have a weakness for new gospels. They are a pleasant form +of verbal exercise. Liberty, Democracy, Social Reform, the Cause of +Labor, Psychoanalysis--all have been put to such evangelistic use. Now +we are to become an educated nation by the simple process of everyone +educating everyone else. Education is like reform, it is something +which is always good for other people. There is much talk about adult +education and there are many conferences. 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 knowledge. And as with most +gospels, 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 is. + +Education has one thing in common with religion. One must come to it +with clean hands and a pure heart or one can never know the secret +power of it. This is as true of a nation as of an individual. As a +people we have certain traits which may be praiseworthy in themselves, +but are distinctly hostile to the work of education. I will enumerate +them and then briefly indicate their element of hostility. They +are, first, our genius for organization; second, our well-known +utilitarianism; third, our cleverness in finding shortcuts to the ends +we seek; and fourth, our tendency to make propaganda. + +The American way of doing things is to proceed to organize them. Our +genius for organization is probably our most generally recognized +national characteristic. It has given us such prestige as we enjoy +among the nations of the earth. Ours is the land of the Woolworth +Building, the Ford factories, the Anti-saloon League, Rotary, the Ku +Klux Klan, and the college cheer leader. In organization there is power +and there is efficiency, as seen in the success of our industries. +Labor, politics, morals, religion, charity have all followed the +same course. In fact a man gains recognition in this country only by +virtue of his membership in some power-seeking group. He who remains +unorganized is lost. And without a chairman, a committee, an executive +secretary and a press agent no human interest can survive. We simply do +not know what to do with it or how to think about it. + +Organization, which is instrument or means, tends to become an end in +itself. This is the fate of most organized causes; a movement arises +with its standardized labels and values, its stereotyped mannerisms, +its rigamarole. Success is estimated in terms of material effects, +tangible results, numbers and power. The organizer takes precedence +over those who possess the interest which it is his task to serve. +When a man becomes a labor organizer, he stops work. Many university +presidents are not themselves teachers or even scholars. They are +good organizers, and with very much the same methods and standards +of value one could as well organize a labor union or an insurance +company. This is no criticism of the college president. His practical +ability is requisite of modern conditions. But ways of thinking and of +feeling are elusive and essentially personal, and when the attempt is +made to institutionalize them they vanish and a lifeless imitation is +substituted. You may as well try to organize the weather as to organize +faith, hope and love. “Organized charity” is almost a contradiction +in terms. Organized religion is a garden of artificial flowers, badly +faded too. The spiritual life of the race was carefully weeded out long +ago. + +To know the effect of organization upon education, one need only attend +a convention of the National Educational Association, or familiarize +oneself with the public school system anywhere. The system supplants +education. The present interest in adult education is in part a protest +against the system. 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 organization. In such places people who +desire further knowledge of some subject in which they are interested +come together, voluntarily, and their only basis of association is +their common intellectual interest. There is no cult or “movement”; +there are no promoters for there is nothing to promote. There are +no ulterior ends to serve and there are no outside influences or +regulations save those necessary to insure honest scholarship and +competent instruction. Many adult students would resent any attempt at +further organization. + +There is in existence at the present time a World Association for adult +education, and there was recently formed an American Association. +But these associations have no ambition to guide or control or to +standardize. Nor are they equipped to do so. One of the greatest +services that such an association, made up of teachers and students, +could perform would be to work to prevent the diversion of the present +interest in popular education to ends that are not educational. + +“Adult Education” is becoming a slogan, a phrase to capitalize, a +label to attach to various activities which have hitherto borne other +brands,--Americanization for instance, or social work, or community +organization, or reforms and propagandas of one sort or another. Much +that is now labeled Adult Education has a curiously familiar look. +There are faces one has seen before somewhere in other climes that then +enjoyed the sunshine of popular interest. Praiseworthy enterprises +no doubt, and not less praiseworthy is the somewhat tardy discovery +that the organizers have all along been speaking the prose of adult +education without knowing it. + +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 organization. In a recent conference on adult +education in a New England state, an enthusiastic public school +administrator in a burst of oratory proposed that adult education be +made compulsory. Another called attention to the appalling extent of +illiteracy, particularly as regards the use of the English language, +and urged that adult education be promoted as a preventive of crime. +A third, a dean in an eastern college, insisted that adult education +at once be departmentalized; graded, I suppose, into its primary, +secondary, collegiate and post-graduate branches. Nothing has yet +been said about an adult kindergarten, though doubtless many people +could profit by attending such an institution. Perhaps the associated +kindergartens have not yet discovered the fact that they also have been +engaged in adult education. + +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 leave. 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 years. + +It is very difficult for the man of the system to think of education +itself, he is too much preoccupied with gradations, requirements, +discipline, reports, with seeing that a given minimum of identical work +is done by all in a given time. He thinks in terms of buildings and +equipment, submission to authority, conformity to herd opinion, service +to the state. All or at least some of these things are necessary, but +it is obvious that they do not constitute an education. This lesson +America has got to learn. There can be no quantity production of the +things of the spirit. + +Another national trait which influences our education is our +utilitarianism. I do not use this term in the sense that it was used by +those philosophers who held the principle of the Greatest Happiness. +I refer to that in us which is spoken of as “Yankee shrewdness.” +Except in politics and religion, we are a sensible people. And by +sensible I mean--and most Americans would agree--practical. We can be +very efficient when we wish to,--that is, when there is anything to +gain by it. We are straightforward, and except in matters concerning +which we prefer to deceive ourselves, not easily taken in. Whatever we +profess, we are born pragmatists. Our first question about anything is +‘what good is it’, that is, what use is it? We demand results and we +get them. We get things done because our philosophy of life is one of +action, and our prevailing ethical standard is one of service. In the +solution of a practical problem, and most problems to which we give our +attention are practical, we pride ourselves on our directness. We come +to the point. We dispense with the unnecessary, the ornamental, the +traditional. It is a valuable trait. + +But things sometimes have meanings other than that of usefulness. There +are values which can not be measured in terms of money or personal +advantage, or of time lost or gained, or of industrial efficiency. +Health for instance is good not merely because the healthy man can +do more work; it is good for its own sake. Yet people are frequently +advised to guard their health for strictly economic reasons, and +practical people have the habit of showing us the cost of disease, +presenting statistics of labor-time lost, estimating the loss to the +community as so many thousands of dollars annually. + +I have known people to take a like utilitarian view of human +relationships, making friends for the sake of commercial and social +advancement, furnishing their houses, selecting their motor cars and +even their clothes with the view to keeping up their credit at the +bank. Many a man openly says that he belongs to certain clubs, and +sometimes one even joins a church, for business reasons. 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 things. + +Practical men love to philosophize about the value of education. 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 town. He informed me in no +uncertain terms that he had no use for that institution. It irritated +him to see all those “young loafers” wasting their time learning Latin +and Greek and lawn tennis. Not one of them, not even the faculty, knew +how to do anything; he had recently tested them out. 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 long, and the professor +did not know. + +The farmer’s point of view is now that of many modern institutions of +learning. Educators are determined to give people the knowledge they +need for success in life and work. Courses are offered in scenario +writing, millinery, salesmanship. Whether courses are anywhere offered +in paper hanging--with credit toward the bachelor’s degree, I do not +know. But it is held that as thinking is really part of acting, only +that knowledge is real which can be put in operation. There is a truth +in this statement if one takes a sufficiently broad view of activity. +But the tendency is to make an easy and crude distinction between +knowledge which is useful, and that which is merely “ornamental.” This +distinction does not always hold. Knowledge may be like art, it may +have values which are more than use or ornamentation. Dr. Horace Kallen +divides values into economic values and æsthetic values. Economic goods +are those which are valuable because they are the means of getting some +good other than themselves. Aesthetic goods are those which have value +in themselves. Art is excellence. Education is the art of making living +itself an art. It is the achievement of human excellence; it transcends +both the useful and the ornamental. It is a way of life, just as truly +as the religious life is a way of life, or the moral life, or the +single life. + +People motivated by a narrow utilitarianism do not really desire +education. They are quite content with a vulgar substitute--if it +pays. Education does not transform them; they tend to transform it +after their own likeness. That many are seeking “education” from +such motives is evident. 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 schools. The +prospective student is given the promise that if he will subscribe for +certain courses he may some day sit in the boss’s chair, and associate +with the big men at the top who do real things. Usually there is an +alluring picture of these big men at their desks, thinking great +ideas; a picture which gives about the same notion of the lives of the +successful as one sees in the motion pictures. Sometimes the picture +is of two men one on either side of the manager’s desk. One stands +meekly, hat in hand, dressed as a laborer. On his face are the marks of +sorrow, humility, hunger. The other man has the look of the typical +“go-getter.” The latter is seated; he is evidently giving an order. +Such a picture is not intended to be a comment upon the inequalities +of our industrial system. The reader is informed that both men started +at the bottom, that one improved his mind and his opportunities, the +other’s is a wasted life. + +Such advertisements are typical, and are worthy of note because they +indicate something of the nature of the prevailing American interest in +education. Here is an illustration of a domestic scene: The man stands +at the door dejected. He has just been discharged from his position, +and has come home to tell his wife. She sympathetically replies that he +ought long ago to have bought that course of lessons. Or she consoles +him with the question, “Why is it that all the others have gone ahead +and you have not?” + +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 shoulder. He holds a pay envelope in his hand and says, +“I am making real money now.” It is well, when telling people of the +advantages of education, to give them an idea of the conversation which +takes place in the homes of the cultured. + +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 +knowledge, appear genteel, make himself attractive to women or gain +entrance to an exclusive social set, is, I believe, a distinctly +modern contribution to educational theory. There recently came into +my possession half a shelf of little old books bound in leather. +They contain a translation of the Iliad and the Odyssey, some novels +of Fielding and Smollet, and a book or two of seventeenth century +religious meditations. The volumes are discolored with age and are worn +with much reading, broken bindings are carefully repaired with hand +stitching and torn pages pasted together by someone who prized and +reverenced their content. They are part of the small library of a New +England farmer of the early years of the Republic, who read his books +by his kitchen fireside when the day’s work was done, who lived with +them for years, and found in them a perpetual source of interest and +wisdom and a refuge in an existence of loneliness and toil. 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 was. + +Today a much advertised and in fact admirable selection of classic +literature is offered with precisely this appeal. A full page display +appears in the Sunday papers depicting a gaudy dining-room with three +people conventionally dressed for dinner seated at the table. There are +two men and a beautiful woman. She is talking to the man on her right, +and is evidently fascinated with his brilliant conversation. The man +on the left sits dumb and miserable and unnoticed; he can not join in +such sophisticated and scintillating discussion. We are informed that +the poor man has neglected to read his fifteen minutes a day. It is to +this sort of thing that popular utilitarianism, aided and appealed to +by commercialism, would divert a hesitating interest in education. + +Even in the best of educational institutions the utilitarian point of +view with its emphasis upon a narrow efficiency has its dangers. It is +the source of that specialization which crams the student’s head full +of information concerning one subject, leaving him in ignorance of all +else and hence unable to gain a proper perspective of the knowledge +that he does possess. + +In “Science and the Modern World,” Whitehead says + + “The modern chemist is likely to be weak in zoölogy, weaker still + in his general knowledge of the Elizabethan drama, and completely + ignorant of the principles of rhythm in English versification. It + is probably safe to ignore his knowledge of ancient history. Of + course I am speaking of general tendencies; for chemists are no worse + than engineers, or mathematicians, or classical scholars. Effective + knowledge is professionalised knowledge, supported by a restricted + acquaintance with useful subjects subservient to it. + + This situation has its dangers. It produces minds in a groove. Each + profession makes progress, but it is progress in its own groove. Now + to be mentally in a groove is to live in contemplating a given set of + abstractions. The groove prevents straying across country, and the + abstraction abstracts from something to which no further attention is + paid. But there is no groove of abstraction which is adequate for the + comprehension of human life.... + + The dangers arising from this aspect of professionalism are great, + particularly in our democratic societies. The directive force of + reason is weakened. The leading intellects lack balance. They see + this set of circumstances, or that set; but not both sets together. + The task of coordination is left to those who lack either the force + or the character to succeed in some definite career.... The point is + that the discoveries of the nineteenth century were in the direction + of professionalism, so that we are left with no expansion of wisdom + and with greater need of it. Wisdom is the fruit of a balanced + development. It is this balanced growth of individuality which it + should be the aim of education to secure.” + +A philosophy which reduces learning to mere efficiency, makes of +education only a means to something other than personal development. +It sees each good as an economic good, a means only, making everything +exist only for the sake of something else to be obtained. But there +are goods which exist for their own sakes and one such good is human +excellence. + +In the words of Dr. L. P. Jacks, “The civilization of power aims at +the _exploitation of the world_, which is thought of as a dead or +mechanical thing, existing that men may exploit it. That of culture +aims at the _development of man_, thought of as a citizen of a universe +which can be loved, enjoyed and reverenced: education being the name of +the process which leads him to love, enjoy and reverence it.” + +Another and even more serious danger is our passion for shortcuts. +Business prospers by rapid turnover. Practical men demand quick +results. We are an impatient people, always in a hurry. We have not +time for the tedious labor processes necessary to produce well-made +articles of handicraft. 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 being. Why should +we not buy cheap furniture, when we expect to move every first day of +October? Why not wear garments made of shoddy, when everyone knows +the fashions will change even before shoddy can be worn threadbare? +Why erect buildings that will stand for centuries in cities where +everything is torn-down and rebuilt in a decade, and even churches +move about following the shifting elements of the population which +constitute their membership? Just why we are all moving about in such +a hurry no one knows. Some people think that this restless haste is +progress. Whether it is or not, it is certainly modern. + +But something of the shoddiness enters into the minds and hearts of +men, when shortcuts are sought in matters of mental growth which are +essentially processes of slow maturing. Education requires time. The +only time wasted is that spent trying to save time. There should be no +haste or crowding or cramming. Mastery of any subject requires years of +familiarity with it. The formal training one receives in an institution +is but the introduction. Most people never get beyond a mere bowing +acquaintance with knowledge. + +A prominent American manufacturer, so we are told, once made the +statement that if he wished to know anything he would employ an expert +to tell him about it in five minutes. Among workers in adult education +there is a demand for easy text books, primers which will give to +people in a few pages and in words of one syllable the essentials of +philosophy, psychology, literature and natural science. Simple and +clear statement is always desirable. No author really knows his subject +matter until he can “talk United States” in presenting it. But that +is another story. People who can read nothing more profound than the +tabloid papers are a menace to education. They only retard the progress +of any class they enter. + +Yet there is a wide demand for tabloid information. We like outlines +of history, psychology, philosophy; primers of relativity; ABC’s of +atoms. Such books have value only for the student who after reading +them consults the original sources. But what people want is education +without effort, ready-made education. I recently saw an advertisement +in which there was offered for sale “a whole library in one volume.” +Another advertisement offers “The Essentials of a Liberal Education; +Twenty Centuries of thought on your Library Shelf,”--one shelf is all +that is required! And in addition the publishers will provide you with +“easy reading courses.” + +The following example is typical of what happens to education when +wisdom lifteth up her voice in the street. A full page advertisement +appears in a Sunday newspaper. There is a picture of two successful +business men looking at a newspaper. The article which has caught their +attention reads, “R. P. Clark Made President of Big Mercantile Corp. +Began as Office Boy 21 years ago.” Here are a few lines quoted from +their comments, + + “That fellow amazes me! Do you remember when he first came to us as + an office boy?... and all the other fellows had a head start on him + with their college degrees. 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 society. Clark knew + how tremendously he was handicapped by his lack of schooling and he + determined to find _a shortcut to education_. And this he found in + Elbert Hubbard’s Famous Scrapbook.” + +There you have it. I have never seen a more complete statement of the +average man’s idea of education. Mastery of the tricks which bring +early success; belief that there is somewhere a secret magic, knowledge +of which will immediately transform one’s personality;--the shortcut. +No appreciation of the fact that it is never information which +transforms a person, but the persistent effort put forth to acquire +it. Education is on the air, in these enlightened times one can get +it anywhere--like bootleg whiskey. It is proposed now to give adult +education by radio. All you need do to achieve scholarship is to turn +it on, close your eyes, and go to sleep. You can get it without effort, +without knowing that you are getting it, or just who is educating you. + +I mentioned earlier that one of the dangers to education in America +is our weakness for propaganda. Few people know the difference +between education and advertising. The latter is commonly spoken +of as education by those engaged in it. I once knew an advertising +manager for a fruit grower’s organization. He conceived a brilliant +idea. Just as we have Health Week, Clean-Up Week, Fire Prevention +Week, he arranged in various localities an Orange Eating Week. He +told me that he could educate the public to eat as many oranges as he +chose. Press agents are everywhere busy “educating the public” for all +sorts of objects; to respect the rights of vested capital, to give +money to build cathedrals, to vote a straight party ticket. I once +attended a banquet given by an organization of manufacturers. There +I met a splendid-looking elderly gentleman and was told that he was +the attorney for the organization. As I had never before seen him, I +inquired if he had offices in New York. My informant said, “Oh, no, he +lives in Washington. His job is to educate Congress.” + +In spite of all this popular interest, or perhaps because of it, the +cause of education is in a bad way. It is dangerous to encourage +people to think they are educated when they are not, or to believe +they are acquiring it when they are in fact getting something else. +Much that passes for adult education serves only to make people more +superficial and opinionated than they were before. It is very doubtful +if the general level of our intellectual life has been raised by such +knowledge as the public has gained. The public can read and we have +with us the Hearst papers and the tabloids. Literacy has placed the +bulk of the population daily at the mercy of the propagandist and the +press agent. With libraries and colleges and high schools everywhere, +and after a century of science, vast sections of the population can be +swept by such movements as the Ku Klux Klan and Fundamentalism. State +after state prohibits the teaching in its schools of such scientific +knowledge as will lead to a belief in evolution. Crazy reform, +fantastic religious innovation, political foolishness and unbalanced +partisanship may at any time sweep over the country. Intelligence in +this country makes a poor showing in competition with quackery and +complacent ignorance for popular leadership. + +It is common to lay the blame for the present state of affairs at the +door of the schools and colleges. Without doubt they must accept some +measure of responsibility in the matter. In many instances the only +alternative to a general slump in standards of scholarship has been a +narrow academic pedantry. There has been much yielding to the pressure +of popular prejudice, much display of conventional morality as a +cover for second-rate educational activity. Faculties are well aware +how little a student may know and get through college. The colleges +themselves seem to have participated in the general cheapening of +education by their generosity in granting honorary degrees. Almost any +one who is successful in business or prominent in politics becomes a +“Doctor.” Erasmus in the fifteenth century, even though he had already +become probably the leading classical scholar of his times, studied +and taught at Paris for nine years before he was granted his doctor’s +degree. When the late Mr. Bryan threatened to print all his college +degrees on his card, in answer to the repeated statement that he was an +ignoramus, the joke was really on the colleges. + +But too much is demanded of institutions of learning. Large numbers +of students come to them with no background of cultural tradition, +and they return to an environment which is distinctly hostile to +intellectual pursuits. The public clamor that some one educate us in +spite of ourselves is only another way of shouting, “We have piped +unto you and ye have not danced.” The ultimate responsibility for the +condition of education rests upon the average members of society, +and it is reducible to a moral factor. Carlyle once said that people +could only be taken in by quacks when they had a certain element of +quackery in their own souls. When multitudes regard education merely +as a shortcut to financial success, or as a device for appearing to be +something they are not, or as an instrument for converting others to +their own partisan beliefs, they will of course get the “education” +they desire. + +Once I thought that ignorance was an innocent thing, a sort of +spiritual vacuum passively waiting to be filled with precious truths. +Except in children ignorance is by no means an innocent thing. It is a +very active element in human life. We must overcome strong resistances +before we may begin to learn some things. We keep ourselves in +ignorance because there are facts and truths whose existence we prefer +not to admit. The man who strives to educate himself--and no one else +can educate him--must win a certain victory over his own nature. He +must learn to smile at his dear idols, analyze his every prejudice, +scrap if necessary his fondest and most consoling belief, question his +presuppositions, and take his chances with the truth. The greater the +need of education, the stronger the resistance to it. + +Whether the present increase of interest in education is to be an empty +gesture depends upon whether the thing demanded is really education. +There is no one right way, and certainly each age with its special +needs and peculiar industrial and cultural environment should make its +own contribution to educational achievement. But there is something +which belongs to no special time and to all times, a way of approaching +our tasks or valuing experiences. No one who is merely a creature of +his own times is really educated. There is conceivable a world in +which,--great as are the historical accidents that separate them--a +Socrates, or a Plato, or a Cicero, or an Erasmus, a Voltaire, a Goethe, +a Huxley would be at home. Much as they differ, there is yet something, +which the educated have in common, a quality of spirit, something that +may not be defined, but that right-minded people recognize. We shall +strive from various avenues of approach to envisage it, for to miss it +is to miss all. It is the meaning of a liberal education. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +LIBERAL EDUCATION VS. ANIMAL TRAINING + + +In a sense no living person is yet educated, for the learning process +is never completed. But there must come a time when the process results +in some differences in behavior. Often these differences seem to be +small and irrelevant, amounting merely to added social grace or more +correct use of language. 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 education. + +When we inquire what the difference is, we find there is much +confusion. In the process of education knowledge is acquired. Many a +person’s education consists of what he has learned. May one possess +much knowledge or information and remain uneducated? I know a physician +who has great skill and wide professional information, yet he is +essentially vulgar in his tastes and enjoyments and bigoted in his +human relationships, and his judgments concerning most things are +narrow and hasty and are determined largely by passion and prejudice. +You feel that his learning has never become integrated with his +personality. It is a property annexed to his estate over which he is +an absentee landlord. It has made no changes in his general habits of +thought and behavior. + +There are people whom no one would think educated, who yet have an +astounding amount of information. They know all about race horses, or +bridge, or baseball scores, or stocks and bonds. 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 subjects. + +Shall we say then that some kinds of knowledge have educational value +and that others have not? But why should not all knowledge be equally +education? Is there a psychological reason for the alleged difference +or is the exclusion of some kinds of knowledge the result merely of a +conventional attitude? Our discussion of education resolves itself into +a philosophical problem. + +The issue of practical education versus the so-called cultural comes +up whenever people are interested in the subject. Partisans of the +latter type of learning are inclined to look down upon the former. They +say it is not education but only skill and efficiency. They hold that +education is scholarship and properly has to do with such subjects as +the classics, the humanities, philosophy, etc., which discipline the +mind and ennoble the spirit. This is the traditional view. + +Those who take the opposite view ask what earthly purpose can useless +and sequestered learning serve? They are suspicious of education for +“refinement” or the “genteel tradition.” Is it not the aim of the +pursuit of knowledge to enable one to do something, to attain mastery, +to equip the mind to function well in an environment which demands +activity of us all? Is not anything well learned culture? An excellent +statement of this point of view can be found in Huxley’s lectures on +education. + +There has been much discussion of this question in the universities +and colleges. There are those who deplore the decline of interest in +the classics and philosophy. They say that institutions of higher +learning are becoming mere “intellectual cafeterias,” that the change +from classical education to an elective system embracing all sorts of +vocational courses is a distinct loss, inasmuch as the knowledge so +acquired lacks coordination and balance, while specialization crowds +out the general and cultural subjects that form the foundation of +education. + +On the other hand, why should not a University teach anything +that people wish to know? There was once resistance to including +the sciences, chemistry and physics and biology. The liberalizing +effect and cultural value of these subjects is now recognized, and +their usefulness is a social gain. Then why not domestic science, +agriculture, mechanics, business methods? What is wrong with the +schools of business at Harvard and Columbia? + +A similar issue exists in secondary education. It is often said that +high schools pay too much regard to college entrance requirements, +since only a small portion of graduates expect to continue their +education. The students have gained only a most superficial +introduction to the classics and have learned nothing practical. +Schools of trade, commerce, 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 tradition. + +Those of us who are interested in adult education meet the same +problem. Writing of worker’s education Dr. Horace M. Kallen says, + + “... The complexity of the tasks of any union official has grown so + great, their variety so considerable, 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 duties.... Schools + would have to be provided analogous to the schools of business + administration maintained in the colleges.... Out of the instruction + there would in the course of time emerge a communicable permanent + record, on which the necessary accessories of books could be built. + Such a school of officials would be a nucleus from which the + educational process could ultimately radiate into every shop. + + “Labor education would finally thus become conversant with control + rather than escape. In such a conversancy more and more of the + energies now seeking relief in the vapors of the social mechanisms + of escape, would find satisfactory enchannelment in the technique of + control. + + “It is the essential function of labor education to envisage, to + forecast and to enable this transition. The various arts would then + develop no longer as compensations against, but as expressions + and prophetic fulfillments, as criticisms and mitigations of, + the processes of this movement; they too would more largely be + coterminous with industrial life.” + +Dr. 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 system. But there are those who hold +such a view, just as there are those who hold that the worker should +receive only such education as will make him a more competent workman. +Both views, one held by extreme radicals, the other by conservative +capitalists, have in common the belief that education for workers is +purely practical training. “Cultural” subjects are sometimes studied, +and there is a lively demand for them, but the tendency is to regard +this interest as an “escape” from reality into a world of fanciful +contemplation and mere verbal exercise. It is an intellectual luxury, +a form of entertainment or inspiration to which a worker is entitled, +but it is an interest which is a little under suspicion of being +“bourgeois.” + +Hence in all phases of education, this issue is debated. The issue +is inevitable in a time like the present, with a classical tradition +surviving in an industrial civilization. Have we any need in the modern +world of cultural traditions which have their origin in antiquity? +Should we or could we dispense with all educational values except those +which are coterminous with the present industrial situation? + +Wherever such an issue arises, I have learned to suspect both sides. As +a rule both are based upon a common presupposition which is an error. +Here the presupposition is that the important factor in education is +the question what is to be taught, rather than the spirit of learning +itself. Education is conceived of as knowledge acquired. Attention is +fixed not on the learning process through which an individual becomes +reoriented to his world, but upon the end result, something fixed +and done, a certain amount of information stored up. Is this what we +mean by learning? Is it receiving and memorizing a given something +either cultural or practical? 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 wisely, 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 life? If this last is correct, the real question is not what +shall be learned but how and why and to what end. Is learning a venture +in spiritual freedom that is humanism, or is it a routine process of +animal training? Both cultural and practical knowledge may be reduced +to animal training--and they generally are. It is there that the issue +between them arises. + +To my mind, an educated person is not merely one who can do something, +whether it is giving a lecture on the poetry of Horace, running a +train, trying a lawsuit, or repairing the plumbing. He is also one who +knows the significance of what he does, and he is one who cannot and +will not do certain things. He has acquired a set of values. He has a +“yes” and a “no,” and they are his own. He knows why he behaves as he +does. He has learned what to prefer, for he has lived in the presence +of things that are preferable. I do not mean that he is merely trained +in the conventions of polite society or the conformities of crowd +morality. He will doubtless depart from both in many things. Whether +he conforms or not, 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 whole. Such a person is +acquiring a liberal education and it makes little difference whether he +has been trained in philosophy or mechanics. He is being transformed +from an automaton into a thinking being. + +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 “Politics.” In this book there is set forth the +philosopher’s theory of education. He is seeking for his times just +what our practical educators seek for ours--to train youth to deal +masterfully with existing conditions. Unlike many moderns he sees +that such training applies to the whole personality. This is evident +for example in his discussion of music where he considers the general +psychological effects of various kinds of rhythm. + +There were three important facts in the environment of the Greek youth +to which the educator had to assist the student to adapt himself. +The way in which the intelligent person faced these facts was the +meaning of liberal education in Aristotle’s time. There was first +a psychological fact. Popular myth was ceasing to function as an +explanation of the processes of nature and as a basis for the control +of behavior. Fortunately for the Greeks, no priestly class had gained +control of their spiritual life. Stories of the doings of the gods +were coming to be regarded as mere poetry, in the modern sense of the +term. Philosophers did not hesitate to subject religious beliefs to +the judgment of reason. The assertion had been made that “Man is the +measure of all things.” A spirit of intellectual freedom prevailed +that was unique in ancient times, I might say in any time. There was a +disposition to investigate, to classify natural phenomena, to speculate +upon their nature and causes. Men were faced with the necessity of +thinking their experience through to find meanings which elsewhere were +a matter of myth and folkway. Thought must be clarified and made exact +if behavior was to be guided by reason. Philosophy, which included the +beginnings of science, and education were almost the same thing,--the +search for the good life. I will discuss this point further in a later +lecture. + +The second fact concerning which the Greek youth must learn to behave +intelligently was political in its nature. It was the existence of an +aristocratic democracy in which as a citizen he must participate with +important results for both himself and the state. The free citizen must +have learned to judge what is good. + +The third fact which challenged the educator was sociological; it was +the existence of slavery. This institution, which in the end was one +of the causes of the breakdown of ancient civilization, seemed to be +perfectly natural to the philosopher. Aristotle thinks that some people +are slavish by nature. He has no thought of educating such persons, +though they may be trained to perform their tasks well. All should be +so trained that they may live happily and well in the stations in life +where they are. As most mechanical labor was performed by slaves, and +by hirelings whose social status was not very different from that of +the slave, the Greeks candidly despised mechanic arts. Knowledge of +them was thought to be a slavish kind of skill. Aristotle likewise +looked down upon trade and commerce as debasing the mind, just as hard +labor was thought to demean the body. The free man must be so trained +that his privileges, his leisure and authority over others would make +for general human happiness. This education of the free man was called +“Liberal Education.” It was the education of a leisure class. It was +a training for leadership and responsibility: not a mere initiation +into the idealogy of an exploiting class, together with the passwords +current in exclusive circles. 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 erudition. In ages +that followed, the study of the classics tended to become something of +this sort. But this tendency marked a decline, a loss of the spirit of +liberal education as it had once existed. Athenian education, in spite +of the institution of slavery, 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 beauty. + +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 time. It is one of the things that cause people +to believe that there are different types of education proper to +different social strata. Education becomes a mark of distinction. It is +for the privileged few. It is itself a privilege and a kind of vested +interest. There is a higher knowledge and a lower knowledge. In part +this distinction goes back to primitive times. In early civilization, +everyone learned to do everything which the people of the tribe could +do. There was no specialization; all alike learned to fish, to hunt, +to fight, to dance. The primitive magic was associated with every +human interest and every form of activity, and for every type of +performance there was a magic formula. In time it became the special +function of the elders and medicine men to remember the formulae and +pass them on to their successors. Knowledge of the formulae became the +special privilege of the priestly class. Knowledge of labor processes +remained with the mass. The former was higher knowledge and developed +into ancient wisdom. In certain religions it led to an esoteric +intellectualism. The distinction gains emphasis among peoples like the +Hebrews, Moslems and Christians whose religion is the “Religion of the +Book.” The “Higher Knowledge” is now a divine revelation preserved +in the Sacred Book. With each of the peoples mentioned religious +scholarship becomes the basis of all learning, and dominates education. +Any accretions of general culture which are acquired and added to +theology, become tinctured by it. A priestly tradition is mingled with +the classic culture as the philosophy of Aristotle becomes elaborated +first by the Arabs, and then by the Rabbis and Christian scholars of +the Middle Ages. What Aristotle meant simply as the training of the +free man in self-mastery, in time became a professionalized “higher +learning,” a sequestered scholarship largely unrelated to the existing +environment. + +Mediæval education became scholasticism. It was still a higher +knowledge set apart from other interests: it did not include +proficiency in the arts of industry, but rather in book learning and +in disputation. Liberal it was not, though it still in a sense had to +do with leisure. The good life had become one of pious contemplation. +Aristotle’s free citizen was displaced by the cenobite and the +candidate for holy orders. The life of Reason became one of skill +in the formal logic with which a given system of life and thought +was elaborated. Scholastic education made possible a high type of +scholarship; it carried very far its training in the subtleties of +argument. But it exhausted itself in a world of abstractions which it +mistook for realities. It was a discipline, not a voyage of discovery. +It was a matter of routine learning by memorizing. Its aim was to +mold the mind of the student to a fixed type. It placed him in an +environment so manipulated as to determine his habits of thinking once +for all, to give support to required beliefs. It was education by +indoctrination. It developed a type of mind which could be depended +on to do and say the expected thing on the expected occasion, one +which would hold certain desired convictions and no others. For such +an educational system, learning was accepting and retaining something +provided in advance. In this sense it was passive. Mentality was the +product of environment. Scholastic education though it dealt with +“things of the spirit” was from one point of view “animal training.” + +In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the scholars of the +Renaissance turned from theological education to human letters. A +revival of interest in the literature of antiquity became a sort of +passion. Those who sought through the study of Greek and Latin poets, +essayists, and philosophers to revive the spirit of the lost pagan +civilization were called Humanists. They had a philosophy of education +very different from that of scholasticism which was at that time on +the decline. There was the promise that education might again become +liberal, in the sense I use the term. Wherever the “New Learning” +was carried it had a liberalizing influence. It roused the hostility +of “obscurantists” and created a jolly row in many institutions of +learning. It awakened pagan ideas throughout Italy, even in high +ecclesiastical circles. It was bringing “refinement” to France. It +was receiving something of a triumph in Northern Europe under the +leadership of Erasmus, when the Reformation again turned general +interest to theology. What the result of this humanistic movement in +education might have been had it gone on unchecked no one can say. No +one now believes it could have been what its leaders expected. 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 +environment. Such an attempt of course is futile. 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 philosophy. 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 +efficiency. + +What chiefly survived from the Renaissance--at least in Protestant +countries--is the traditional education, in which the ancient classics +are taught as tedious drill in language with the aim of improving the +student’s literary style, also of disciplining his soul by compelling +him to do something disagreeable, and finally so that he may be able +to repeat a few Latin or Greek phrases, remember the names of a few +ancient writers and perhaps if he has been very diligent, retain a +sufficient number of vague memory traces to enjoy a book like Professor +Erskine’s “Private Life of Helen of Troy.” + +But to call this liberal education requires both humor and imagination. +Little attempt is made to get behind the language into literary +appreciation, or back of the literature to the ways and values of +ancient life and the wisdom of the ages, or to see the relation of +such wisdom to the problems of living in the modern world. Traditional +education has again become an artificial thing, aloof from reality, +a higher knowledge set apart by itself. That is, if one may call it +knowledge at all. Most college graduates after a few years do not +remember enough Latin to enable them to translate their own diplomas, +so badly are the classics taught, even as mere language drill. + +Much of the spirit of scholasticism, though little of its thoroughness +and subtlety, persisted in the later Protestantism. Its influence +necessarily tended to make this teaching of the humanities formal and +innocuous. After the Renaissance, members of the nobility and gentry, +and later an increasing number of the middle class, sought higher +education for its refining influence, as an adornment rather than as a +way of life. The result is a culture that is for the most part external +to the sphere of our activities and interests, something borrowed, not +won; seldom an expression or valuation or glorification of modern life. +This also is a routine and a moulding to type. It is again a form of +animal training. + + * * * * * + +The development of science in the nineteenth century led to a demand +for the education requisite for modern life. The application of science +to industry created a new environment. New knowledge was required and +new mental habits must be formed if there was to be effective control. +Natural science gave men a new intellectual discipline and a new +world-view. With it came a new hope for the race. Mankind need only +learn the laws of nature and obey them to become wise and happy and +good. The new knowledge dispelled ignorance and superstition and set +the mind free. There was much criticism of traditional education, and +much faith in the liberalizing effects of scientific training as well +as in its practical results. Today scientific research occupies a most +important place in education. In many colleges and universities it has +almost supplanted the classical studies. No modern person can be really +educated without some training in scientific methods. + +But science also may become mere animal training. Each science is a +profession, acquired as a technical training like learning a trade. Of +things outside his own trade the scientist may be quite ignorant and +lacking in curiosity. He is often unable to see the significance of his +specialty for knowledge as a whole. Within his chosen field of study +he may come to resent new discovery--especially if it fails to confirm +some favorite theory. In some of the sciences, notably psychology, +biology, medicine and the social sciences, there are intense partisan +divisions, often rivalling in dogmatism and bitterness, those of +theology. Each “school” develops its cult ideas, its jargon credo, and +ritual. Herd opinion holds sway over scientists as over other men. +Certain phrases and mannerisms are adopted, just as among Rotarians, +because they show that one belongs to the crowd. The psychologist +today, for instance, must boast his ignorance of philosophy and make a +noise like a biologist. The advancement of knowledge is by no means the +sole motive in scientific training; there is also much molding to type +even though this latter objective is in conflict with the spirit of +science itself. + +Much contemporary educational philosophy is openly and avowedly a +technique of animal training; so much so that it quite properly +borrows its pedagogical principles from animal psychology. It would be +difficult to over estimate the importance of animal experimentation +for modern theories of education. Schools of education are deeply +interested in the psychology of the learning process. Education is +learning, and learning is habit formulation. Habits are the acquired +modes of response of men and animals. They may be organized in the +nervous tissue by any environmental factors which “condition” certain +reflexes; that is, chain certain responses to given stimuli. 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 given. A simple and well-known experiment +which will serve to explain what we mean by the conditioned reflex is +that of Pavlov. A hungry dog when shown meat secretes saliva. At the +time the dog sees the meat a bell is rung. This is repeated a number +of times until the dog will secrete saliva at the sound of the bell, +without the presence of the meat stimulus. The saliva response, induced +by the bell stimulus, is the conditioned reflex. + +It is said that all learning takes place after this fashion. An animal, +a cat, may be placed in a cage, the door being so arranged that escape +is possible only when the cat strikes a certain latch. After a period +during which the cat makes all sorts of frantic random movements, the +successful movement finally occurs and the cat escapes. The experiment +is repeated and perhaps the period of futile activity will not be so +long as at first. After a number of trials the cat will give up the +random movements and at once unlock the door. The gradual shortening of +the interval of time required for the desired response may be plotted. +It is then called the animal’s “learning curve.” + +Such curves may also be made of human learning processes. It is said +that there is no essential difference between this animal learning and +our own learning whether it be to swim or play tennis, or to memorize +a poem, or solve a problem in algebra, or to master the technique of +a profession. One’s education thus consists wholly of one’s organized +systems of responses, or habit patterns. We speak of education +as the development of personality. But from this point of view +personality is nothing but the sum total of an individual’s conditioned +reflexes:--that is, it is merely the manner in which the organism has +been taught to work. One eminent Behaviorist among the psychologists +compares personality to the running of a gas engine. + +I will not enter upon a psychological discussion of this view of +education, except to say that the method of animal training which is +taken for granted is open to serious criticism. The theory proceeds +on the assumption that _insight into the situation_ is not necessary +to learning. The cat in the cage hits upon the successful gesture as +a matter of pure chance. After a number of experiments, each said to +place the animal in an identical situation, the successful action +becomes “over determined,” and fixed as a habit. It is doubtful whether +such training is learning at all. The animal--and conceivably the human +being--need never take in the situation. The successful art, the more +this learning process is perfected, degenerates into a mere gesture, +related to the event in a purely external and arbitrary manner. It is +difficult to see how educational methods guided by such a theory could +do much to train the student in habits of independent judgment. + +Professor Wolfgang Köhler spent four years studying the intelligence +of apes at the anthropoid station in Tenerife. His experiments with +these animals followed a procedure quite the reverse of that we have +been discussing. He arranged his experiments so that there could be +no chance and no routine, so that the situation as a whole implied a +definite action on the part of the animal, an action which would be +natural to it once it gained insight into the situation. From simple +tasks he moved to more complex ones, always keeping the moment of +insight as the crucial factor in the experiment. An ape is placed in a +cage and fruit is put outside beyond the animal’s reach. A stick has +also been placed within reach. After vain attempts to reach the fruit +with its hand, the ape suddenly sits quietly looking the situation +over: it looks from the fruit to the stick, then seizes the latter and +pulls in the fruit. Later the animal is required to choose between a +long stick and a shorter one, then two sticks are put within reach +which must be joined before success may be attained. + +From such tasks the animal is led on to those which finally test the +limitations of its insight. So far as I know no use has yet been made +of such psychological study of animal learning by our educators. But +if we must resort to animal psychology in order to understand the +processes of human learning it would seem that Köhler’s methods would +be more suggestive to the educator than those which assume that the +learner is throughout an automaton without understanding. + +The so-called “new psychology” has filled modern education with +confusion. Fads and fancies of all sorts prevail, each with its +psychological jargon. “Progressive” experimental schools everywhere +give voice to “modern ideas.” In many such schools there is a minimum +of discipline, pupils are encouraged to take the initiative in all +things, to study what they like, and when they choose. Everything +is made as easy and as interesting as possible, and there is much +talk about permitting the student to express himself and develop +his personality. So long as we confine our attention merely to the +methods of teaching we have the impression that this “new” education +is anything but standardized. We get a different impression when we +turn to examine the ideals of scholarship, the valuations, and general +outlook on life which the newer philosophy of education accepts +uncritically. In fact very little thought is given to these matters. +The prevailing interests and trends of a democratic, industrial age are +taken as the ultimate criteria. It might almost be said that education +has come to be regarded merely as a function of the environment. + +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 environment. It is a different thing to hold that mind +is the product of the environment. A well-known psychologist says that +the aim of his science is to predict and control behavior. He offers +us the conditioned reflex as the means to any desired result, and says +that if he could have full control of the environment of a given number +of children, he would permit some one to select by lot the future life +and career of each child, and he would form the mind of each according +to the chosen pattern. Our modern environmentalists have more in common +with mediæval scholasticism than they think. The aim of both is to +produce an individual who will react under all circumstances according +to a prearranged pattern. + +Scholasticism, as we have seen, consisted chiefly of memory drill and +training in logic and disputation. Law and theology were sometimes +studied, but proficiency in such subjects does not in itself mean +that a man has acquired a liberal education. He may only have learned +to do the conventional trick when the expected signal is given, +much like a trained dog in a circus. The same must be said of much +modern professional training. The scholastic spirit haunts the legal +mind to this day. Also it is possible--perhaps usual--for one to +study medicine, and never once get an idea of what medicine means to +the scientist. Most people educated by school teachers and college +professors are in fact trained in this way. Think of what passes for +moral and religious training. With respect to the most important +questions in life, people have been so “conditioned” that they do not +try to solve problems as they arise, but to say and do the expected +thing on occasion. I once heard a professor in a theological seminary +instruct his class in the art of visiting the sick. The students were +busy copying in their note books the speeches which it is correct for +a pastor to make on such occasions. The following is typical of such +instruction. “As you enter the sick-room it is well to say When God +puts a man down on his back, it is so that he may look up into Heaven.” + +In such habit formation, learning is mere repetition. There is nothing +of independence of judgment, no reflection on ends, no development of +the capacity to deal with new situations. The better one is trained the +more automatic one’s behavior becomes. And here we see the limitations +to much so-called practical education,--“education for work and for +life.” + +Yes, but do we live simply to do things and to serve, to perform, +however well, the tasks required by our times? Is all the world a +stage, and are men merely actors who have learned well or poorly the +lines written for them by someone else or dictated by necessity? And +is there to be no understanding of the meaning of the part we play, or +of the drama as a whole? Is no one through his education to contribute +something original to the drama of life? + +It seems to me that the animal training theory rests upon two +presuppositions, both of which are wrong. The first is that the mind +consists of what it has learned, that is, that it is the product +of environment. This is really not a psychological doctrine, but a +metaphysical assumption. It is the mechanist theory; an idea which +works well as scientific method, but which leads to false conclusions +when taken as a description of ultimate reality. + +The second presupposition is a by-product of present-day industrial +democracy. It is that education is a means to efficient service, with +its rewards, getting on, general prosperity, etc. But is industry +the end and aim of our existence? It is said that man if he is to +be happy must be able to express himself in his work. I would not +dispute this statement, but it is important to consider what it is +that finds expression in one’s work. If work, in addition to being the +means to some material end or bodily good, is also to be a form of +self-expression, then the point of interest is the kind of selfhood, or +quality of experience expressed. Then work exists for education, not +education for work. + +Something is possible to mankind, which transcends work and by which +work itself is valued. 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 labor. I +do not mean merely that we learn by doing. That is the way animals +learn and it is all they learn. By repeated performance an individual +learns how to do a task, but he does not thereby learn what to do, nor +why it is done. Education has to do with insight, with valuing, with +understanding, with the development of the power of discrimination, +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 lower. The ancients thought of education as the attainment of +the virtues, wisdom, courage, temperance, justice. It is the pursuit +of that knowledge which gives self-mastery. It is an interest which +is never exhausted, but grows always broader and richer. It consists +not in learning tricks but in developing ourselves. 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 act. It is a spiritual awakening; and if this awakening +does not come, a person is not being educated however much he knows. +I think it is the inability to win this psychological victory, or the +disinclination to make the effort necessary to it, that accounts for +the fact that some people cannot be educated. Though the change in +the quality of the personality is indefinable, it is a very concrete +fact in human life. Its presence is evident in the work of writers as +different otherwise as Sir Thomas More, Galsworthy, Anatole France, +Jonathan Edwards, Henry Adams, etc. There is a quality of the educated +mind which may best be described as a kind of sincerity, and conversely +the outstanding trait of ignorance is that of clever insincerity. The +pathetic thing about the wrongly educated,--those who are trained +merely to produce an effect, or get results, is that in the deeper +human relationships they seldom know what sincerity is. Education is +the antithesis of vulgarity. + +Directly and immediately, it is useless. It is a kind of living which +is of value for its own sake, a personal achievement which possesses +intrinsic worth. It is not _for_ anything. To subject it to an ulterior +end--citizenship, efficiency, the economic emancipation of the working +class, increased income; or to educate people for “character,” or to +perpetuate a religious faith, or any other purpose however good, is to +make education a means to something quite irrelevant. Such misuse shows +that people are not interested in their education but in something +else. Education, the development of people, is not a means, it is +itself the true end of civilization. + +While education is not _for_ anything, indirectly it improves +everything that people do. Make education the aim and meaning of +living, and all becomes different. Experience has a new center of +gravity. Facts fall into new and more significant perspective. Objects, +distinctions, relationships, qualities, are seen which before passed +unnoticed. And as personality does not exist in a vacuum but in +the relationships established between organism and environment, no +improvement of it can fail to make itself felt in the quality of one’s +work. Animal training may give one the means to make a living; liberal +education gives living a meaning. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +LIBERAL EDUCATION VS. PROPAGANDA + + +Whoever is concerned about his education should be on his guard against +propaganda. He who assists in the education of another should be doubly +cautious. The temptation to convert people to our own particular +cause, movement or belief is almost irresistible. An epidemic itch for +manipulating the public has infected the whole population. Perhaps +never was the business of “selling” ideas and interests of all sorts so +common a practice or so cleverly done. Press agents, publicity experts, +advertisers and propagandists have become a pest. Much of the news is +“treated” for interests which may or may not be disclosed. Militarists, +pacifists, prohibitionists, birth controlists, social workers, business +interests, anti-vivisectionists, radicals, reactionaries and all kinds +of reformers insinuate themselves everywhere like crawling insects. +Every legislative body is over-run with lobbyists. Every government, +our own included, fights with propaganda as deadly as poison gas. +Churches have reduced even the spreading of the gospel to the level of +advertising. And to judge by the popularity of one of the vulgarest +books ever written about the founder of Christianity, a large number +of churchmen are happy to believe that Jesus Christ was the world’s +greatest salesman and business executive! + +It ought not to be necessary to say that propaganda is not education. +But the confusion of the two is common. It is often very difficult +to enlist the interest of people even in their own education if the +propagandist motive is left out of it. I find that our students are +often at first perplexed. They ask me, “What party or creed or social +movement do you represent? What are you trying to convert us to?” I +have even been asked why I lecture at all, if it is not my purpose to +tell students what they should think and do. The idea of a course of +study as an adventure in truth-seeking, an investigation deliberately +planned without made-in-advance conclusions or ulterior aims, is +difficult for many minds. If no partisan motive is apparent, students +often suspect that there must be some dark and secret conspiracy. +People like to have their instructors labeled and tagged. Otherwise +they feel that they are not being given anything. They prefer to be +told what to think. + +And of course everyone wishes to tell his fellows what to think. The +general interest in our neighbor’s “education” rather than our own +is responsible for much of the present confusion of education with +propaganda. This is especially true in the education of children. +Scarcely one person in ten believes children should be told the truth. +Children are credulous and easily acquire habits which become fixed for +life: hence the tendency to take advantage of their innocence and while +giving them the instruction which it is now recognized that society +owes them, to add something which certain people wish them to believe +when they grow up. Consequently there has hardly ever been a time when +education was not to some extent diverted into propagandist channels. +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 interests. The tendency is +universal. Radicals denounce the Fundamentalists, the capitalists and +the Catholic Church for doing this sort of thing, and then do the same +thing themselves; as for example, in the revolutionary propaganda that +sometimes passes as “worker’s education,” the socialist Sunday School, +the system of public education in Soviet Russia. + +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 opinion. Anyone with anything to sell +“educates” the public to buy his product. The word is so commonly +used for advertising that few question the legitimacy of such use. In +fact the popularity of this use of the word education has a definite +psychological cause. Many people would like to get their education +by the easy method of reading subway advertisements. 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 Post. + +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 bulk. A recent well-written book on the psychology of +advertising by a gentleman who styles himself a “Public Relations +Counsel” explains the technique of making propaganda. The author refers +to such propagandist efforts as education, and says that the difference +between education and propaganda is this: when your side of the case is +given publicity, that is education; when your opponent publishes his +side, that is propaganda. + +It is doubtful, however, if members of the advertising profession +are the worst sinners in this respect. Nearly everyone with a cause +to promote does the same. We often hear single-taxers, socialists, +patriotic societies, or vegetarians, speak of their propaganda as +education. In the report on the prohibition situation issued by the +Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, the suggestion is +made that there be a campaign of “education” in the interest of the +enforcement of the Volstead Act. + +Although the educator and the propagandist are both concerned with +the dissemination of information, they have nothing else in common. +They use contrary methods and they strive for opposite goals. The +propagandist is interested in _what_ people think; the educator in +_how_ they think. The propagandist has a definite aim. He strives to +convert, to sell, to secure assent, to prove a case, to support one +side of an issue. He is striving for an _effect_. He wishes people +to come to a conclusion; to accept his case and close their minds +and act. The educator strives for the open mind. He has no case to +prove, which may not later be reversed. He is willing to reconsider, +to be experimental, to hold his conclusions tentatively. 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 catchwords. +To the one “learning” is passively accepting something; criticism of +the matter offered is not encouraged. To the other, learning comes by +examining. The propagandist need have no respect for the personalities +of those he manipulates. The educator must respect his student, since +the development of personality is his aim. In the end the question is +whether people are to be _used_ for purposes other than their own. This +is the sole object of the propagandist; its successful achievement is +the defeat of the educator. + +Even in the service of a good cause, propaganda makes for +superficiality in both him who gives and him who receives it. The +convert has seen the light. He is on the right side. He need have +no more doubts or hesitation. Curiosity and further speculation +are no longer necessary. Reasoning henceforth can become special +pleading--mere rationalization, an array of clever plausibilities +designed to strengthen the faith and protect the devotee against the +danger that he may change his mind. He now becomes a propagandist +himself, a lay preacher as it were, whose mission in life is to convert +and uplift others. He begins to harp on one string. In his eagerness to +convince he resorts to the obvious, the thing said for effect. He is +more concerned with the force of his arguments than with the accuracy +of his statements. He is so busy with the general good that he neglects +to purify himself. With unwashed hands he breaks his bread and serves +it to his neighbors. I have seldom seen a person who has spent years +making converts, who has not lost in intellectual integrity. Emerson +noted this trait in the abolitionists of his day. It is a quality which +world menders of all types have in common. Sooner or later the passion +to convert, like any other passion over-indulged, warps the whole +personality. The propagandist becomes intemperate. He loses something +in delicacy and sense of humor. There is in his manner a mixture +of emotion and coercion and a kind of slyness. Finally from much +repetition of stock phrases the great cause itself becomes hackneyed +and professionalized. Most of the messages which men would carry to the +masses slip through the propagandists’ fingers and dribble out before +they arrive at their destination. + +I have tried to make clear the differences between propaganda and +education. If I am correct, it follows that whenever the educator +becomes a propagandist he gives up his proper function. I do not mean +that a school teacher should not advocate political change or any other +reform he chooses. He is a citizen as well as a teacher, and has the +right to express his convictions, however unpopular they may be. But it +is not as a teacher that he does so. Ordinarily the public insists that +there are certain views that he may not express either in or outside +his class-room. At the same time he is required to be the advocate of +popular moral, religious and political prejudices, however erroneous +he knows them to be. Public education suffers much from this lack of +freedom, for it operates to keep independent minds out of the teaching +profession. Unless any subject may be presented and every relevant fact +discussed without fear or favor, the instruction offered students is a +cheat. + +It is however in the process of teaching itself that the spirit of +the propagandist may supplant that of the educator. It is much easier +to appeal to authority than to experiment, to command assent than to +awaken curiosity, to tell the student what he must believe than to +wait for the maturing of his judgment. There are five devices commonly +in use among propagandists which may defeat the effort for a liberal +education. They are the fixation of ideas by repetition, the trick of +over-simplification, insinuation by appeal to prejudice, distortion of +fact, and coercion. + +Psychology has taught the advertising profession the selling power of +mere monotonous repetition. At one of the stations of the Hudson Tube I +counted five posters all displaying the same advertisement of a certain +shaving cream. The advertiser had not leased so much space because of +extravagance, nor was he afraid that people would fail to notice his +advertisement if he displayed it on only one board. It was so large and +vivid that the passerby could easily see it. His aim was to deepen the +impression by repetition. 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 light. Another example of +this method is the poster containing the name of a popular cigarette +together with the command, “Read this out loud.” + +Advertisement of this nature makes no attempt to argue or explain or +persuade, or to call attention to the merit of the article for sale. +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 repetition. + +A similar method is often used in selling ideas and movements. +Santayana says, “A confused competition of propaganda is carried on +by the most expert psychological methods--for instance, by always +repeating a lie instead of retracting when it is exposed. A formula of +this nature may not be a conscious lie, it need only be so fixed in +the mind by long repetition that it becomes compulsive. The person who +continues repeating it becomes unable to consider the facts which would +contradict it.” + +Thus the religious propagandist will continue repeating an obsolete +dogma long after its untruth is a matter of common knowledge. The use +which propagandists make of rumor is another example of this principle. +During the war we saw much of this sort of thing. The wildest +fabrications were accepted uncritically; when everyone was repeating +them it seemed disloyal to question their bases of fact. In any +political campaign the editorials and speeches are made up largely of +repetitions. Popular moral ideas are psychologically similar; we call +them platitudes. In fact public discussion which is mostly propaganda +of one sort or another consists almost wholly of monotonous repetition. +Anyone who has had experience with an open forum will, I think, agree +with me that the discussion from the floor--and not unfrequently the +platform also--shows an amazing monotony of repetition. I have known +men for years to gain the recognition of the chair and repeat the +same phrases night after night, no matter what was the subject under +discussion. We love routine. + +There is I believe less routine learning, less mere memory drill, in +our schools now than in former years. 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 subjects. However, it is +not in these subjects, which are at best the mere scaffolding of +knowledge, that humdrum does the greatest harm. It is in its failure +to stimulate genuine thinking about the important human interests that +education commonly falls short of its liberalizing function. There is +a dullness about sing-song repetition of the multiplication table or +the recital of the names of the rivers of China, but it does not equal +in monotony the uniformity with which college graduates will say the +same things about politics, the protective tariff, the labor problem, +the constitution of the United States, or the relation of commerce to +culture. I recently heard a professor, 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 man. +No doubt he had in mind a desirable type of man, but any attempt to +mould a group to a single form can succeed only at the expense of the +individuality of the student. Moreover, such a goal naturally causes +the authorities to adopt methods of drill and standardization. Whenever +the aim of education is fixed in advance, it tends to propaganda and +illiberalism. + +The habit of repetition develops a credulous and incurious mind. It +produces a type of person who not only accepts his beliefs second-hand, +but also tends to over-simplify any subject under consideration, and +so never get to the bottom of it as an educated mind should strive +to do. It is very convenient to stop speculation with a half-true +generalization stated as the conclusion of the whole matter. We love +big words; catch phrases are easy to remember and to repeat. Moral and +religious teachers know this, hence their use of aphorisms. One does +not stop to analyze an aphorism; it is self-evident, final. + +Propagandists and advertisers are also aware of this human trait, and +they delight in making slogans for us. “I’d walk a mile for a Camel,” +“Children cry for it,” “Four out of five now lose,” are examples of a +type of advertising familiar to all. Recently an effort was made in New +York to check the “crime wave” with a slogan. A poster addressed to +potential robbers was displayed in various parts of the city containing +the words, “You can’t win.” 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 others. + +Slogans used in commercial advertising are for the most part innocent +enough. But there are slogans used in types of propaganda which are +not innocent. I will discuss the distortion of fact later; my point +is that the type of phrase-making we are discussing tends at best to +close the mind. 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 truth. The thinking of most men consists of +little more than the repetition of the phrases which characterize the +group to which they belong. There are groups which regularly assemble +to listen to their familiar verbal formulas repeated again and again, +deriving much satisfaction from the time-worn phrases. 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 sinful. 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 socialism, one address on the principles +of the single tax, one revival sermon, one type of campaign speech for +each party. At least I find that most members of any movement all say +the same thing. If one knows what kind of an “_ist_” a man happens to +be and is familiar with the ritual of that “_ism_,” one can ordinarily +predict what the man will say on any subject. Frequently propagandists +do not recognize their own principles when they hear them stated in +ordinary English. + +And once the cult phrases are thoroughly learned it is very difficult +for an individual to learn anything more. This is why the teaching +of any subject should never be permitted to take on a set form, for +cult ideas reduce an issue or situation to a statement so simple that +it is a mere caricature. Subjects that require exhaustive analysis +and deep meditation or much more information than anyone possesses +are settled with amazing finality by oracular-minded people. How many +matters of vital importance are met with such phrases as “One hundred +percent American,” “My country right or wrong,” “Every Bolshevik +should be stood up against a wall and shot,” “Plenty of room at the +top,” “Reward of Merit,” “Progressive,” “Reactionary,” “The cure +for democracy is more democracy,” “Let the people rule,” “Down with +capitalist exploitation,” “Labor produces all wealth,” “The demon rum,” +“Godless evolution.” + +The habit which politicians, professional reformers and other +propagandists have of appealing to popular prejudice in order to gain +adherents is a well-known phenomenon of social psychology. Every +political campaign is an orgy of this sort of thing. Mayor Hylan of +New York, when his incompetence was exposed, diverted attention by +denouncing the “interests.” 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 “Gary School” was +a Steel Trust school. 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 socialists. A +“friend of the people” attacks Wall Street as a matter of course. Any +man who questions the wisdom of the prohibition laws is immediately +said to be in league with the “liquor interests.” In prohibition +propaganda effective use was made of the fact that many brewers were +of German descent. In the South the Ku Klux Klan is mainly anti-Negro, +in the Middle West it is anti-Catholic. In the East it takes on an +anti-Semitic coloring. It is by such appeals that multitudes are +marshalled and led first in one direction and then in another, always +to the temporary advantage of a group of leaders. Into all this an +ulterior purpose, a quite personal interest is often insinuated. 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 war. + +It is obvious that whenever a crowd movement is created its propaganda +has a marked illiberal influence upon institutions of learning. During +the war public education in this country suffered seriously. A spirit +of intolerance often wholly irrelevant to the winning of the war took +possession of many educators. Eminent scientists lost their heads and +ceased to behave with that good judgment which people expect of a +scholar in a critical situation. + +Such results of propaganda are not limited to times of warfare. I know +a college where the work of every department was seriously disorganized +for a semester by a religious revival in the town. The pressure of +religious prejudices upon institutions of learning in this country is +one of the most serious forces with which education has to contend. +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 +Genesis, is not new. It is merely the giving of legislative support to +religious dogma which strikes us as new. And that has also happened +many times in history. Popular religion has always watched education +with jealous eyes. However, there is one factor in the present +Fundamentalist attack upon the theory of evolution which seems to have +escaped general notice. 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 Fundamentalists. 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 species, they could not understand that science could +be taught in any other spirit than that of theology. They still thought +of teaching as imposing upon the uncritical student mind a system of +belief, a rival creed but still something alleged to be a final truth, +which must be accepted on authority. Persons who speak in this manner +of teaching simply do not know what education is. How could a scientist +go about teaching evolution in this way? Nobody but a propagandist +ever teaches a theory. The scientific laboratory itself is a witness +against such a philosophy of education. Here the student is exposed to +the phenomena to be studied, and to the sources of information and is +aided to discover the facts for himself and draw his own conclusions. +Science learned by any other process is a mere pretense to knowledge. 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 dogma. Yet few people saw the +issue in this light. At the Dayton trial of the instructor who broke +the statute passed by the legislature of Tennessee, chief emphasis +seems to have been laid on the issue whether after all evolution is +contrary to Genesis. Most people seem to have accepted without comment +the Fundamentalist notion of what teaching is. The whole meaning of +education is involved in this issue. Education is not the substitution +of new creeds for old. Appeals to popular prejudice will continue +to do harm to education so long as it is conceived of as “teaching” +any beliefs whatsoever. As long as students are to be indoctrinated, +naturally every group will wish its own propaganda taught. + +In this connection I should say a word about adult education. Those +engaged in this branch of instruction are loud in their criticism +of the propaganda which passes for education in school and college. +Many of them have turned to adult education in order to spread some +propaganda of their own. Teachers in this field are constantly +tempted to yield to the prejudices of their students in order to +gain popularity and keep up attendance. 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 beliefs. Where churches maintain classes, adult +education will tend to take on a certain color. It will assume another +in the trade union, still another when the appeal is to radicals. We +have already seen that a school of adult education may be in fact a +socialist theological seminary. Many others merely provide continued +employment for people who had been professional Americanization +propagandists in the hectic years that followed the war. + +A favorite method among propagandists is distortion of fact. It +is difficult for anyone who takes an intensely partisan view of a +situation to be honest with himself or careful about matters of +fact. Respect for the truth is, I think, an acquired taste. And the +propagandist is a special pleader. There is always the tendency to +load the dice, to over-emphasize anything that lends support and to +gloss over and explain away any fact that might weaken the case. Rumor, +allegation, mere surmise, will, if it happens to be useful, to put +out as fact established beyond the possibility of doubt. 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 York. On the occasion of the +latter’s visit to the South I quote a sentence or two. + + “The South will be interested to know Mr. 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 + morality.... 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 activities.... + 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 party, an atrocious thing to do in a + country where all religions stand on the same basis.” + +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 morals. The reference to Governor Smith is typical of much +propaganda. + +This method of championing causes is so common that it is almost +impossible to get at the truth about any public question. I have very +little interest in what is happening in Russia. If I had, I should not +know what to believe. Spokesmen for both the Bolshevists and their +enemies seem to be about equally unable to tell the truth. + +The pursuit of knowledge is the pursuit of the truth about something, +and since propaganda is not the pursuit of truth, its influence upon +educational institutions is illustrated by many of the text books on +American History in common use in the Public Schools. When attempts +were made to write the account of the American Revolution with +fairness to both sides and, in the light of established fact, 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 monarchy. + +Subject matter which is even remotely associated with popular +dogmas of religion, morals, patriotism, is likely to be modified so +as to appear to be in harmony with such dogmas when presented to +students. Each religious sect has its own version of Church history. +Radicals who wish to hold the environment--hence the present social +system--responsible for human failure, are always inclined to accept +uncritically the biological doctrine of the inheritance of acquired +characters. Patriotism makes it almost impossible for students anywhere +to gain a correct knowledge of the history of their own country. The +moral interest inevitably influences the study of literature. We have +already discussed the teaching of the classics. Their educational value +consists chiefly in opening windows upon a way of life very different +from our own. 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 parish. Yet it is just this educational +value which is commonly lost in the teaching of the classics, +especially in Puritanical communities. The least significant books of +antiquity, writings like Caesar’s Commentaries and Cicero’s political +orations, are often selected as required studies. It is not an accident +that the works most commonly studied are those least shocking to +conventionally minded people, not those which give the student the +best account of ancient civilization. Likewise in the teaching of +modern literature, there is so much expurgation, censorship, evasion, +that most students get the impression that literature is produced by +Sunday School teachers for the edification of very nice people. If, as +many believe, it is best to protect younger students in this manner, +I think they should at least be led to understand what is happening. +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 art, +designed to impose their own limitations upon everyone. + +Finally when opportunity is favorable or occasion requires it, most +propagandists will resort to coercion. History has revealed this fact +again and again. It has often been said that the martyrs of today are +the persecutors of tomorrow. With the possibility of the seizure of +power in sight, methods of moral suasion become irksome; they are too +slow. Men must be forced to do what is good for them. Propaganda is +designed to gather a crowd to the support of an idea. I have shown +elsewhere that when the crowd mind appears any group will practice +coercion if it can. Hardly a generation passed after the Edict of +Milan, setting Christians free from persecution, before the Christians +themselves practiced persecution. The French Revolution set up a +guillotine in the name of liberty, equality and fraternity. New England +pilgrims of religious liberty persecuted Quakers and other “heretics.” +Radicals proclaim their faith in industrial democracy, free speech, the +brotherhood of man, and the Bolsheviks gain power by a coup d’etat, and +hold it by means of a policy of terror. 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 liberalism. When physical +force is not in actual use, it hides just around the corner. In much +moral suasion there is a note of intolerance and of invasion. The man +who knows he is right puts you always on the defensive. + +Even commercial advertising frequently reveals this spirit. Perhaps +advertisers got the idea from the posters used by the government +during the war. We all remember the commanding figure of Uncle Sam, +finger pointed at our faces and beneath the figure the words, “_You_ +buy Liberty Bonds.” Many advertisements now seek to command in such +a manner. We are ordered to buy this and that--not asked if we want +it. Or our privacy is otherwise invaded. I recently saw on a subway +platform an advertisement of soap which contained these words, “Are you +clean or only nearly clean?” + +When a crowd of world reformers becomes a crusade, men do not confine +themselves to asking impertinent questions. They are not even deterred +by constitutional guaranties of personal rights. The storm rages +until it blows itself out and leaves behind only the debris of what +before had been good feeling among men. 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 service, and are +forced to take sides, or at best maintain a precarious middle of the +road policy. This is not the task of those interested in education. +They are not “in the middle of the road.” They are not on the trampled +highway at all. Their task, while others are wrangling over unreal +issues that today take their toll of life and tomorrow are forgotten, +is to keep the lights of civilization burning, to humanize their own +behavior with reasonableness and good taste. + +As Emerson said, history has been mean: all nations have been mobs. +The populace runs after this passing cause and that popular hero. To +the populace your rejection of popular standards is a rejection of +all standards. But there is a time in each man’s education when he +arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance, that imitation is +suicide, that he must take himself for better or for worse. All men +preen themselves on the improvement of society and no man improves. +Society never advances, it recedes as fast on one side as it gains on +the other. Society is a wave; the wave moves forward, but the water +of which it is composed does not. Whoso would be a man must be a +non-conformist. + +Such a suggestion as this at once meets serious objection. It is +contrary to the habits of this busybody age. Many will ask, how +can we have done with propaganda? We live in the age of publicity +and organization, of causes and needed reforms. Great movements +challenge our complacency and invite our support. What, without these +interests, could we live for? How could we accomplish anything for the +common good? Is not the educated person as you depict him aloof and +ineffective, a monastic sort of person who disdains the common ways +and devotes his days to idle contemplation? And have you not yourself +said again and again that intellect does not exist as a sequestered, +inactive thing or end in itself, but that thinking is a part of doing? +How then can intellect be trained in indifference to the affairs of men? + +But I have not argued that one seclude himself. Is there nothing to +occupy the modern man except to stuff himself with half-truths and +regulate society? Does existence lose its value at the mere suggestion +that man mind his own business? What I have said is that a person +cannot educate himself by filling his head with propaganda. + +I do think people of our age are too much devoted to causes and not +enough to their own education. Perhaps I should say that people’s +devotion to causes is too narrow, too impatient, too uncritical. +Doubtless we should serve our cause better if we stopped to look before +we leap. I am not sure that ignorance, however devoted and active, ever +accomplishes much good for mankind. + +I might ask in turn, do our propagandas often get the results expected? +Look at pacifist propaganda, or the slogan about the war to end war, +look at socialist propaganda today after a half century and more of +it, consider prohibition. The intellectuals of our generation have +exhausted themselves running after this and that new sociological +magic. And there is a general feeling of frustration and futility. +Where progress has been made in our times, it has been in matters +that do not lend themselves easily to propaganda; success had been +achieved in the arts and sciences. Intellect has failed when playing at +leadership of social movements. + +The ends sought by propaganda may be and often are good. But education +is also an end. We are not required to occupy ourselves with any cause +to the extent that we fail to educate ourselves. The first social +obligation of any man is his own education. 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 evil. Social service should be a by-product of education. I do +not imagine that Socrates or Erasmus sought education in order that +they could be more useful to society. Social obligation or no social +obligation, you and I have the right to such education as we have the +native intelligence to acquire. We have that right because we are +the kind of animals we are. No cause is more important than this. Let +us serve where and when we can, but let us not surrender our mental +integrity for any man’s sake. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +LIBERAL EDUCATION VS. BOOK LEARNING + + +Is education something one can “get” in an institution? We are seeking +to discover what an educated person is like,--as Plato would say, to +“find” the educated man. Whether the learning process takes place +in an institution or out of it is from this point of view a matter +of small interest. I should like to picture the liberally educated +individual as a mellow amateur, competent and well-informed, but with +all natural and human, wholly at ease with his knowledge and master +of his technique; one whose thinking is play and whose mind does not +squeak as it runs along. But there frequently appears in educational +circles a professionalism that is rather formidable and terrifying. +I do not mean the specialized knowledge requisite for the so-called +learned professions. One may be highly trained professionally, and like +William James and Mr. Justice Holmes, retain the spirit of the amateur +always. By professionalism I mean a certain artificiality of manner, +bookishness, over-strictness in regard to petty rules, a disposition +to identify education with the display of just that knowledge which +the educated are conventionally supposed to possess. Many people think +of education as something “high-brow,” a fastidiousness which belongs +to the élite. There are those who give the impression that education +is a thing of books and schools and formalities; and that there is a +recognized fraternity of the finished products of the system. 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 reading. We have seen that people may seek education +because they hope it will give them a certain prestige. I once heard +a man say, “I’d give ten thousand dollars if I only knew Greek.” I +wondered why Greek had such value in his eyes. I learned that he had +been in the company of two elderly men, one a clergyman and the other a +physician. He was humiliated because of his ignorance when the two fell +to discussing some Greek text reminiscent of college days. 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 so. + +People persist in thinking that education comes to a man by virtue +of his attendance at some place where it may be “got.” We frequently +hear someone say, “I _had_ so many years of Latin,” or “I _took_ +mathematics,” or “I did not _get_ much history.” Formal education, +which is book knowledge acquired in a school,--this possession which +men measure and grade and standardize,--may or may not be an aid to +general culture. The thing I mean by liberal education is too elusive +for the man with the yard stick. + +With the modern theories of learning there has come some difference +of opinion regarding the educational value of books. Traditional +education consisted almost wholly of book knowledge. Knowledge of the +books written about a subject was rated as familiarity with the subject +itself. + +There is a recent tendency, both within and without institutions of +learning, to skim over as many as possible of the latest books. This +leaves little or no time for the great books, knowledge of which is +essential to a liberal education. In the library of a very up-to-date +writer on sociological and economic subjects, I did not find a single +book, except a few school texts, written before nineteen hundred. +Modern writers all seem to desire to express the movements of the day. +But it is difficult to see how one’s judgment of the present can be +very sound, if one has no background of the cultural traditions of the +race. Ideas of life gained from an exclusive study of the present are +necessarily second-rate. Professor John Erskine says, “To live only +in the moment, to imagine only one’s own place was once thought to be +the fate of the stupid. We have made it the ideal of education.... No +college is liberal which trains its students to identify the excellent +or the important exclusively with the contemporary.” He says that +education should prejudice us in favor of authors who are wise, and +that there have not been many great men nor many great ideas. One may +acquire a liberal education from the reading of relatively few books. +“The Student ... ought to know Hobbes; he ought to know Pascal, and +Plato and Bacon and Homer, and Spinoza and Galileo, and Leonardo da +Vinci.” + +And I would add that anyone pursuing his education ought to know +Erasmus and Montaigne, Butler’s “Hudibras,” and something of Hume, +Voltaire, Anatole France, and the best of the classic poets. This is +not a great deal of reading. It can moreover be done in a leisurely +manner, and this is important. Our modern habit of cluttering up the +mind with all sorts of second-rate, up-to-date printed matter accounts +in part for the jumpiness and hectic quality of the modern spirit. No +one seems to take time for quiet reflection any more. Everyone is too +busy keeping up-to-date, gaining a superficial knowledge of the latest +thing, and before we can pause to separate the true from the false in +it, it is already out of date and something still more “modern” is the +fashion. + +There is a tendency among very modern educators to reduce book learning +to a minimum. It is said that book knowledge is only hear-say, +second-hand information. The student does not make a fact his own +so long as he must take someone’s word for it. What books tell you +prevents your finding out for yourself. You know an emotion only when +you feel it, a fact when you deal with it, a truth when you discover +it. “We learn by doing.” A leading progressive educator says, “The +school of tomorrow is going to get away from mere reciting what has +been got from books. That is, 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 required.... In the school of the future, +the child is going to live, really live. This means what he learns he +learns because he needs it then and there.” + +This rather extreme form of protest against formal book learning is +really an attempt to correct the opposite extreme. We all know persons, +conventionally educated, who substitute reading for living, and the +book for reality. There are those who never talk about events or ideas, +but always quote what some book says about them, as if they believed +that work, love, joy, pain, became fit subjects of contemplation +only in print. The world of actions and things gives way to a world +of words only. Human existence becomes a sort of grown-up children’s +game of authors. Education becomes an evasion of the challenge of +real situations. Emotion and fancy are exhausted in doing nothing. It +becomes preferable to read about things than to experience them. The +individual thinks he has acquired wisdom; he merely has a taste for +reading and a good memory. + +In these days when educators are frantically striving to find some new +method of teaching which will save democracy from mediocrity, it is +the habit to blame the older education for any and all intellectual +futility. I believe, however, that futile persons would be ineffective +no matter what the method of instruction. 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 “here and now,” is a little like the platitude that one can learn +more out of life than out of books, a saying which always flatters the +illiterate. It seems to be thoroughly modern to believe that the best +way to get an education is to stop studying and just _live_,--whatever +that is. + +I am of the opinion, however, that anyone who can learn from life can +also learn from books without spoiling his mind. There is a difference +between learning from books and merely learning to repeat passages +from them, and I had thought that in really learning from books one +was learning from life. Whether one can get more information from +books than from things depends somewhat on the books, also what it is +one wishes to learn, as well as one’s capacity to learn. Manipulation +of objects--doing--has no more educational value than repeating +words. Either may become a mere routine exercise. Education is the +organization of knowledge into human excellence. It is not the mere +possession of knowledge, but the ability to reflect upon it and grow in +wisdom. It would seem that as few people acquire wisdom from practical +experience as from books. + +The high-school educated multitude, which prefers the radio to reading, +finds the tales of classic literature tedious except when presented in +the “movies,” reads history only in outline, and natural science only +when popularized in a series of ABC books, is probably correct in its +feeling that books cannot teach it much; and what it is learning from +life is manifest in the sort of life it lives. The habit of reading +good books, ability to know the good ones from the inferior, capacity +to enjoy books for the beauty and wisdom that may be found in them, are +essential parts of a liberal education. A school that implants good +habits of discriminating reading in its students is a good school. One +that fails to do this is a bad school. The modern educational system +has taught the public to read,--and the public reads mostly trash. + +That education in a so-called democracy may be official and +professionalized and at the same time superficial and illiberal is +manifest. Thomas Davidson, a pioneer teacher of adults in this country, +expressed great hope in the promise of public education in America. +But there is one fact about such intellectual life as there is in +this country which seems to have escaped Davidson’s attention, I +suppose because his own case was an exception. 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 people. +Thousands of people say that their education is of no use to them in +later years. It is an interest which they do not keep up but leave +behind at the school-house door. They think that education belongs +properly in the school, and except for some practical advantage most +people seldom think of making any cultural achievement of their own +outside the school. Most advance in scholarship in this country is the +work of professionals, members of university faculties. Outside the +institutions of learning, there is very little independent creative +thought. Exception must be made of our literary men, but these too are +professionals. There are almost no men of leisure who carry on the +progress of civilization as educated amateurs. In this respect we are +much like Germany before the war, where advance in scholarship was +almost confined to the universities and the attempt was made to create +knowledge by the machinery of organized research. + +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 Ph.D. and a teacher of philosophy in a degree-granting institution. +It might almost be said that philosophy, beyond the merest introduction +to the subject, is studied in order that students may become teachers +of still other teachers. I suspect that a similar situation exists +in other learned societies. This confinement of scholarship to the +professional student leaves the public without guidance and at the +mercy of quacks. It causes a break between education and other +interests which the public school strives in vain to bridge over, +because in such a situation the school itself becomes official and +sequestered. Thus education is constantly being done up in little +packages and sent out from the places where it is grown, like the +garden seeds which Congressmen used to send to their constituents and +which nobody planted. Education does not take root because nobody +plants it. People think that culture is the special function of the +professional gardeners, and there are even educators who would be +astonished and jealous if they saw anything but elementary scholarship +growing at large outside their walls. + +In this respect, it seems to me, Great Britain has had the advantage. +Many of her greatest contributions to science and philosophy came +from outside the regular university faculties. Such men as Hobbes, +Milton, Bacon, Locke, Hume, Spencer, Mill and Darwin may have received +conventional training, but they went out and did something with it +afterwards. They helped create an ideal of the educated man which we +have yet to gain. Hence Great Britain has had many amateur scholars who +were also men of affairs, men like Mr. Balfour and the Haldanes, whose +influence has helped keep education from being over-professionalized. + +Some of the highest educational attainments in history have been +reached without the setting up of any institution at all, in our sense +of the term. Protagoras, Socrates, and Abelard simply gathered groups +of fellow students about them who lived for years in their company, +first as disciples then as assistants. Such education to be sure was +for the selected few, but after a man had spent some time with his +teacher, he acquired a philosophy which changed his way of life. The +modern attempt to educate everyone really educates hardly anyone. 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 it. In matters of taste and standards +of value, public school education makes little difference; or in +developing thirst for knowledge, tolerance, independence of judgment. +The task of giving instruction to the youth of an entire community is +so great that thoroughness is almost impossible. The task falls to the +state, and the state is a vested interest and the protector of other +vested interests, interests which are not always consistent with the +desire for knowledge. There are factions in the community which the +public authorities must conciliate. 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 state. 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 practices. What the state desires of +education is soldiers, reliable voters, law-abiding citizens, contented +working men, prosperous traders. Hence a spirit of docility and +credulity, often of timidity, prevails in the school. + +Where there are large numbers in attendance, the individual student +receives little personal attention. The education of backward students +is sometimes given more consideration than that of the normally +intelligent. The chief aim is to get the student through and pass him +along to the next grade, and the pace at which the instructor moves is +set by the mediocre. Whether this state of affairs will be remedied by +the use of intelligence tests remains to be seen. At present mental +measurement is a sort of fad. The system requires that all shall learn +the same lesson in the same manner at the same time. + +Standardization develops a kind of mass mind, which in mature years +renders men very susceptible to crowd appeal. Learning imposed upon +the student by the system is put on the outside like a mental uniform. +Habits become stereotyped in the elementary, non-reflective aspects of +behavior and knowledge. There is little in this to guide the student +to the spiritual values of a liberal education. Most of those who pass +through the system never know that such values exist. + +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 superintendents, principals, and instructors, to the students. +The administrator holds dominion over the teacher. Little is left to +personal initiative. 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 irksome. Serious +scholarship is rare. The teacher is not encouraged to independence +of judgment concerning the subject which for years it is his work +to teach. Teaching becomes a trade and is practised with as little +intellectual interest as most trades. Other than idealizing the +existing situation together with whatever persons or interests control +the school system, little attention is given to the social setting into +which the school sends its students when they leave. + +Dr. Kallen says, “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 unchanged. They provide a +grammar of assent, not a logic of inquiry. The mental posture they +habituate the youth in is not the posture of reflection. The mental +posture they habituate the youth in is the posture of conformity. +They require belief, not investigation. They impose reverence for +the past and idealization of the present. They envision the future +as a perpetuation of the past, not as a new creation of it. They are +Main Street’s most powerful instrument of self-reproduction without +variation.... They enable government both visible and invisible to +continue by consent, 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 liberty.” + +Here and there, in spite of the system, someone gets his feet on the +path which leads to liberal education. 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 truth. It was believed that the +curse of ignorance would be removed; that humbug and insolence would +be driven from the control of affairs; that labor would be ennobled by +understanding, and freedom secured by the attainment of self-mastery. +All were now to have access to scholarship; the precious wisdom of the +great minds of all times, no longer the possession of the favored few, +should be made to live in the daily experience of the nations. + +We are not so utopian in our hopes for the future of society as were +the Humanitarian idealists of the nineteenth century. Perhaps people +have expected too much of public education and have required too +little. We need not be astonished that the education of the public is +committed to a system which becomes an end in itself; that is human. +Nor need we be astonished that public education is administered and +carried on by persons most of whom do not know what education is; that +is the democratic way of dealing with public affairs. If you are to get +your education, whoever you are you must not be content to let it be a +public affair. You must make it your private affair. + +Severe criticism of both the public school and the university is +common. There is much talk about capitalistic influence, and the +denial of academic freedom by prominent business men who contribute +to endowments and constitute boards of trustees. In so far as this +criticism comes from professional radical propagandists it need not be +taken very seriously. Such persons merely want their own propaganda +included in the curriculum. University presidents no doubt often play +politics and do other things common to professional money-raisers. +Faculties are often little more than pedantic trade unions, 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 country, we may well question +whether higher education in America succeeds any better than the public +school. + +But I wonder why so much criticism is directed at trustees and +faculties and so little at the students. The habit of constantly +denouncing someone because we are not better educated is rather +ludicrous. If our people really desire education they can have it. If +I am dissatisfied with my ignorance, I may seek knowledge at any time, +and no one else, in or out of college, can ever gain wisdom for me. +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 education. 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 education, should apologize to his college, not +criticize it. Granted that there is much bad teaching, there is more +bad studying,--or I should say, hardly any studying at all. Professor +James Harvey Robinson used to say, “A college is a place where there is +much teaching and no learning.” + +Is it not possible that a large portion of the population cannot be +educated? Such persons are not all necessarily dull, they may be +naturally uninterested in education, and it is likely that many enter +institutions of learning with the mistaken notion that it is education +they desire, when what they really want is success, a good time, and a +little training in what they think are the manners and ways of speech +of polite society. The finishing school once supplied this need; now +the colleges have to do it. + +The motives which lead people to seek college education divide the +students into three types. First there are the few who love learning. +The spirit which once caused groups of young men to follow Abelard or +Erasmus still brings an occasional youth to college. Such students may +need guidance, advice and the fellowship of mature scholars. It is not +necessary to force them to study, or offer them “snap courses,” or +cram them for examination. Much of the procedure and regulation--the +regimentation common in institutions of learning--is unnecessary and +sometimes harmful to them. Most of them would become educated persons +even if they never saw a college class-room. + +A second type of student attends college and university in large +numbers. The motive is preparation for a professional career. Many of +the best students belong to this type. 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 degrees. If they then have an +interest in educating themselves, their technical training ought to be +an advantage, for most of them have learned how to study. But so much +purely technical knowledge must be drilled into a man’s head that the +student who is preparing for a degree in engineering, law, medicine +or scientific research has very little time for anything else. Many of +the most successful physicians, engineers and scientists need adult +education quite as much as do ordinary working men. + +The third type, the majority of undergraduate students, are for the +most part pleasant young men and women of the upper middle class. Their +parents are “putting them through college” because it is the expected +thing to do. A man wishes to give his children every advantage. While +a bachelor’s degree is not exactly a social necessity, there are many +who would have something like an inferiority complex without it. I knew +one family in New York City who almost went into mourning when the only +son failed in his Harvard entrance examinations. Students of this type +enjoy four happy years, largely at public expense, with other young +people of their own age in an environment designed to keep them out of +mischief. I have no doubt this grown-up kindergarten life is good for +them; most of them seem to appreciate it. In later years they remain +enthusiastically loyal to Alma Mater, coming back to football games +and class reunions and contributing to the support of the college. +As alumni their influence is not always on the side of progress in +education, but perhaps they make up for this failure in other ways. + +I am prepared, moreover, to say that the existence of hundreds of +centers filled with such care-free young people may be a good thing +for the country. They keep alive a tradition of good cheer and of +man’s right to happiness in a country that is otherwise sordidly +commercial. A leisure class is a social necessity for it serves as an +example to other people showing them how to enjoy their idle hours. 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 country, and its example has been followed by people in +other lands. Now about the only leisure class we have in America is the +undergraduate student body. A privileged class is always popular with +the rest of the population in a normally constituted state. And so the +whole country enjoys vicariously the amusements of its undergraduate +boys and girls. The college youth with his automobile, his pipe, and +his big fur coat is a favorite hero in the motion pictures. Moreover, +the fact that the period of loafing is limited to four years is a +blessing, for by taking turns a greater number may enjoy the privilege +than the industry of the country could possibly support in permanent +idleness. + +But while all this may be good for the country, it is not very good for +the colleges. It is bad for the morale of any institution to sail under +false colors, and colleges are popularly supposed to be educational +institutions. The college faculties themselves must to some extent +share this popular delusion, or else they would not permit the public +to go on believing it. The attempt to live up to this erroneous idea +puts everybody under a strain, students and faculty alike, and is +the one unpleasant thing about college life. Instructors are forever +annoying the students, trying to get some work out of them. Attendance +on classes is required, and a series of examinations is arranged which +nobody enjoys and which do no good anyway. They only make it necessary +to send an occasional student home, and then there are tears, other +students are frightened and sometimes lose sleep cramming for the next +examination, and the instructor loses popularity, especially if his +course is an elective one. + +It is among this type of undergraduates that “campus opinion” has +its origin. Campus opinion is distinctly hostile to learning, and it +holds sway over students with the same tenacity as other crowd ideas +among the uneducated elements of the population. The student who takes +his education seriously loses caste and is regarded as a joke. Few +young people are sufficiently non-gregarious to stand out against the +scornful laughter of their fellows. + +What the average student gets from college, then, is an opportunity to +complete his adolescence in an interesting and healthy environment, the +experience of being away from home and on his own, 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 +years. There is also athletics, through which the student may develop +his muscles, gain the desirable moral quality of good sportsmanship, +and satisfy any ambition he may have to become a college hero. One +always becomes famous in college outside the class-room, never in it. +Incidentally, if a student is naturally clever at picking up bits of +information with a minimum of reading, he gains a bowing acquaintance +with about as much knowledge as should be the possession of one with a +fair secondary education. Finally, he forms certain habits and acquires +certain manners and tastes which mould him to the type of the average +college graduate, and goes out in the world to take his place in the +social and business circles of his home town, where, if he should ever +mention Aristotle, people would think he was crazy. + +The college graduate can play a good game of tennis, wear his clothes +well, talk about the latest novel, walk across a room with grace and +dignity, and share the club opinions of his set, and there is nothing +offensive in his table manners. I do not mean to underrate these +accomplishments. The person who does not have them, however great his +achievement in scholarship, is a boor, too lacking in sensitiveness +to assimilate the knowledge he has stored in his head. But these are +accomplishments that should be learned at home, as a matter of course; +colleges ought not to be necessary for training of this sort. + +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 +spirit. No profound intellectual passion has been awakened, no habit +of independent judgment formed. The college man shares the usual +popular prejudices of his community. He runs with the crowd after the +hero of the hour, and shows the same lack of discrimination as do +the uneducated. He votes the same party ticket, is intolerant along +with his neighbors, and puts the same value on material success as do +the illiterate. His education has made very little difference in his +religious beliefs, his social philosophy, his ethical values, or his +general outlook on the world. Like all opinionated and half-educated +people, he jumps to hasty conclusions, believes what others believe, +does things because others do them, worships the past, idealizes the +present. + +In contrast with this, let me quote a passage from John Stuart Mill. +The author meant it to be a description of the scientist. It stands as +a suggestion of what a liberally educated mind should be. + + “To question all things;--never to turn away from any difficulty; + to accept no doctrine either from ourselves or from other people + without a rigid scrutiny by negative criticism; letting no fallacy, + or incoherence, or confusion of thought, step by unperceived; above + all, to insist upon having the meaning of a word clearly understood + before using it, and the meaning of a proposition before assenting to + it;--these are the lessons we learn ‘from workers in Science.’ With + all this vigorous management of the negative element, they inspire no + scepticism about the reality of truth or indifference to its pursuit. + The noblest enthusiasm, both for the search after truth and for + applying it to its highest uses, pervades those writers.” + +When all is said, the ignorance and folly of men are things that +institutions cannot cure. Each must discover the path of wisdom +for himself. One does not “get” an education anywhere. One becomes +an educated person by virtue of patient study, quiet meditation, +intellectual courage, and a life devoted to the discovery and service +of truth. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF DOUBT + + +The seventh book of Plato’s Republic begins with the Parable of the +Cave. To show “how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened” the +philosopher draws a picture of human beings living in an underground +den, 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 +wall. This world of shadows is the system of popular beliefs. To +these people “the truth would be literally nothing but the shadow of +images.” Plato tells us to imagine what would happen if the prisoners +were released and disabused of their error. If any one of them is +suddenly compelled to turn and face the light, the glare blinds him +and he suffers a sharp pain. If he is reluctantly dragged up into +the outside world of sunlight he is at first dazzled. After he is +accustomed to the new vision, all reality will appear different. He +will see the difference between shadow and substance. He will know that +popular belief is error. If now he should return, what a difference +there would be between his new wisdom and that which in the den passed +for wisdom! “And if they were in the habit of conferring honors among +themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows, +and to remark which of them went before and which followed after, +and which were together, and who were therefore best able to draw +conclusions as to the future, do you think he would care for such +honors and glories?--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 weak,” we are told that he would +fumble and be ridiculous, and men would say, “Up he went and down he +came without his eyes,” and they would pass a law that no one should +even think of ascending any more or try to release another and lead him +up. + +I will not discuss the metaphysical implications of this parable about +which there is dispute. Plato says we shall not misapprehend him if +we interpret this upward journey as education. Whoever would face the +light must turn his back on the crowd and its shadows. He must climb +into another world of values. The educated man thinks differently. His +beliefs are different from those of the herd. He is being set free from +its delusions, even from what it holds to be important. This is not +because he wishes to be aloof or superior, but because he is gaining a +different conception of what believing itself is. He has a new approach +to things in general, new habits of judging. He is beginning to form +his own judgments, and to judge is to weigh, to consider, to question, +to seek evidence, to doubt. + +Common men cherish their naïve faiths and ask no questions. They +imagine that education is simply greater information of the same sort +which they also possess in some measure, and that it is the part of +wisdom to establish the reality of their shadows. They resent a wisdom +which is different from their own and unsettles belief. He who acquires +information without the will to doubt is a common man and his kind +understand him. Hence men tend to display their information and conceal +their education. However much a man may know, so long as he does not +become _re-oriented_, the crowd does not suspect him, but admires +his learning. He is like a former Mayor of New York in his high hat +at the head of the Policeman’s Parade. The multitude used to stand +with their mouths open gazing at him. Each in imagination saw in the +exalted figure himself risen to a place of honor and success. So it +is with the “brainy man.” The “lightening calculator” or the man who +can recite from memory the population statistics of the cities of the +United States is a museum wonder. But when it was announced in a New +York theater that only twelve men could understand Einstein’s theory of +relativity, I am told that the crowd hissed. + +Information is a kind of skill. Everyone can possess this skill to the +extent he chooses, and people do not resent an exhibition of unusual +skill of such a nature. In America most men and boys have some measure +of skill at the game of baseball, so this game is the popular national +form of sport. The skillful professional ball-player is simply one of +the common boyhood ideals realized. He differs from the spectators of +the game in degree, but not in kind. He plays the same game they all +played, and is the same sort of person they all were as boys--only more +so. So with most kinds of information, the amount one may acquire makes +only a quantitative difference, not a difference in kind. But as a man +becomes educated he discovers that he is playing a new game; he is +becoming a different kind of person, with different likes and dislikes, +different interests, different ideals and faiths, and such beliefs as +he has he holds differently. + +What the multitude most fears in education is the danger that the +crowd faith will be lost in the process. This fear is often justified. +Old beliefs will be lost and they should be. The fear appears in +consciousness as solicitude for the spiritual welfare of the person +being educated. It is really anxiety over the menace of education to +herd living and thinking. It is the function of education to lure the +individual out of the pack and give him opportunity to know his own +mind, a thing he can never do so long as he runs and barks and bites +along with all the rest. To return to Plato’s figure, 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 behind. Cave men +make strenuous efforts to resist education. 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 wall. + +Again, education has been likened to leaven. When it is honest it is +very much like yeast. Before the culture is introduced the solution +of ideas is in equilibrium. The mind has simply accepted what was +poured into it by parents, teachers, priests, and politicians. In the +solution there is reflected a compact, “still,” neatly ordered little +system of knowledge. “God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world.” +Duty is clear, all is conventionally arranged, truth is eternal and +logic can prove it. Human rights are decreed by the founders of the +republic. The course of destiny is disclosed to reason and faith and +the promise sealed in divine revelation. At this stage, most minds +are carefully sealed up or a prophylactic is stirred in, for if those +sugary solutions are exposed to a live spiritual culture they begin +to “work.” Then they are spoiled for certain purposes. With the +fermentation there is sometimes foam and gas; but a chemical change is +taking place, brewing a mind with a “kick” in it. It is interesting +that bread and wine and education are all made by a similar process; +hence an educational Volsteadism has often been enforced so that many +of the best minds have had to be “home brewed.” + +Professor Dewey somewhere speaks of education as freeing the mind of +“bunk.” It is a large task. No one wholly succeeds. I never saw a +completely “debunked” individual. Strive as we may to eradicate it, +there is always in our thinking an amount of error, of wish-fancy +accepted as objective fact, of exaggeration, special pleading, +self-justification. Many of our beliefs are not founded in reason at +all, but are demanded by some unconscious and repressed impulse in +our nature. Men make a virtue of their faith when in fact they are +_victims_ of it; they can no more help believing certain things than a +neurotic can stop a compulsive habit. + +It is said that it is easy to doubt and that to believe is an +accomplishment. It is not so. It is easier to believe than to doubt. +The things we must train ourselves to doubt are as a rule just +the things we wish to believe. It is children and savages and the +illiterate who have the most implicit faith. It is said that unbelief +is sin. This is not so; it is nobler to doubt than to believe, for to +doubt is often to take sides with fact against oneself. Nietzsche said +that this trait is characteristic of “higher men.” It was Huxley, as I +remember it, who considered that man could in nothing fall so low as +when he deliberately took refuge in the absurd. Even with a rationalist +like Huxley doubt is not merely a function of the intellect. Under +certain circumstances it is a moral necessity. + +The pursuit of knowledge is not the same, however, as scrupulous +avoidance of error. He who strives to do his own thinking must accept +responsibility for himself. He must expect that he will make mistakes. +He may end in total failure. He must take his chances and be willing +to pay the cost of his adventure. 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 statement. Such equivocation +and qualifying--playing safe--is not what I mean by doubt. I do not +mean merely that one should be always on guard against the possibility +of error, but that one should learn to hold all one’s beliefs with +a half-amused light-heartedness. Most minds are loaded down with +the seriousness of their convictions. Solemnity in the presence of +our eternal verities is awkwardness, and makes us always a little +ridiculous, giving us the appearance of one about to shake hands with +the President. Why not enjoy the humor of the situation? Our great +truths may all the while be “spoofing” us. It will do no harm to give +them a sly wink now and then. + +Crowd men have no sense of humor. It is very difficult to educate +solemn and opinionated people. Like Omar, they always come out by that +same door wherein they went. I have known students to complete a course +of study having learned nothing, because of their disinclination to +consider any fact which might cause them to surrender some belief about +religion or economic theory with which they entered. 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 otherwise. +He is not a student; he is a church-member. + +A well-known reformer says in his autobiography that his education, +to the present time, has been a long process of “un-learning.” The +progressive disillusionment began in college when he was forced to +abandon the religious dogmas of his childhood. It continued through a +series of hard experiences and misdirected efforts to improve the world +from each of which he reaped a harvest of doubt, leaving behind the +exposure of one economic or sociological fallacy after another, until +in the end he had left only his faith in Woodrow Wilson and in the +proletariat. Then he lost Wilson. + +Perhaps one who still has the proletariat is not utterly disillusioned. +If the education continues that too may go the way of earlier beliefs. +It is one thing to despair of a society only one section of which can +stand the test of our idealism. It is quite another matter if one is +led to re-examine one’s idealism. It is this latter kind of doubt which +has the greater importance. 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 believe. Change the latter and you change a basic +habit pattern; you change the man. + +Not all scepticism has educational value. There is a kind of doubting +which is merely the negative response of the unteachable, the +suspiciousness of the wilfully ignorant, the refusal of the incurious +to examine disturbing and challenging evidence. There are, as an +eighteenth century philosopher said, minds that are moulded to the form +of one idea. Many people, after they have accepted one idea, tame it +and keep it as a sort of watchdog to frighten all other ideas away. +This refusal to be convinced may appear to be scepticism; it is only +stubbornness. The late Mr. Bryan and his followers were very sceptical +of evolution. 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 confirmed. The scepticism of +ignorance is motivated by the desire to save an old faith. Savages have +been known to exhibit this incredulity toward certain aspects of our +more advanced knowledge. If you were to tell the natives of Borneo that +there is no dragon in the sky which eats up the moon during an eclipse, +that there are no spirits and no magic, I imagine they would laugh in +your face and think you a fool. Many a discovery and invention has been +greeted by a grinning and incredulous public even in civilized society. +The scepticism which has value is that which leads one on to further +study and investigation. And it is characterized by intellectual +modesty. + +Philosophic doubt is not the pitiable condition of the soul that timid +spirits imagine. It is not pessimism or cynicism, but a healthy and +cheerful habit. It gives peace of mind. Men who stop pretending can +sleep o’ nights. There is a certain scepticism which is in no sense the +spirit that denies. It is a frank recognition of things as they come. +It is almost a test of a man’s honesty, among those who have stopped +to think about the nature and limitations of our knowledge. Certainly +cultivated people do not exhibit the same degree of cock-sureness +as do the ignorant. People think the old saying about “doubting the +intelligence that doubts” is funny. Popular audiences will always +laugh at it. But why not? It is a platitude that the more a man learns +the more he realizes how little he knows. Existence is filled with +inscrutable mystery. To none of the profound questions that we ask of +it is there any final answer. We must be satisfied ultimately with +surmise, with symbol and poetic fancy. Speculations about the soul, +God, the ultimate nature of reality and the course of destiny, and as +to whether existence has any meaning or purpose beyond our own, or +whether our life itself is worthwhile--all these speculations and many +others of similar nature lead to no conclusions in fact, and we return +always to the point from which we started. The very terms in which we +put such questions are often meaningless when closely examined by the +intellect, and the answer to them is determined by our own moods. + +There is a general belief that science can answer the riddle. But +science is only one possible view of things, the one best adapted to +the needs of creatures like ourselves. It cannot deal with questions +of value. It can tell us how things operate, their relative mass and +positions in space and time, but it cannot tell us what they are in +themselves, nor why they exist nor anything about their goodness +or beauty. The more exact scientific knowledge becomes, the more +closely it approaches mathematics. Pure mathematics deals only with +abstractions and logical relations and can dismiss the whole world of +objects. Science presupposes the data of experience and the validity +of its own logical principles. It substitutes its mechanized order of +things for things as we experience them. + +Human reasoning is partial in all its processes. We think successfully +about things when we ignore all the aspects or qualities of them except +those which are relevant to the purpose at hand. The H₂O-ness of water +is no more the ultimate nature of water than is its wetness, or its +thirst quenching quality. That it is H₂O is only one of the things that +may be said about water. Now if we add together bits of one-sided and +partial scientific knowledge, we do not thereby gain a sum total which +is the equivalent of reality as a whole. We have a useful instrument +for dealing with our environment, because in thought we have greatly +simplified it by ignoring in each instance all that is irrelevant. But +what we now have is a universe of discourse, a human construction which +is what it is because we are always more interested in some aspects of +things than in others. + +All our ideas are views--they have been likened to snapshots. The +world of which we are part is in flux. It comes to us as process, +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 +photographs. The movement always takes place between the pictures. +Intellect is an instrument, not a mirror. Our world is not reducible +to a form of thought, and when men speak of truth, reality, cause, +substance, they are really only saying what they mean by certain words. +The world, as James said, has its meanings for us because we are +interested spectators, and so far as we can see none of these meanings +are final. 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 revision. Santayana says that knowledge +is faith--animal faith. It would be strange if it were otherwise, if +hairy little creatures such we are, whose ancestors lived in trees and +made queer guttural noises, should so organize human discourse as to +be able to say the last word about reality as a whole. It is well that +we should marvel at our achievements of knowledge, for they are man’s +noblest work; but let us remember that human reason, itself a phase and +part of the process of nature, can only view the whole process from +its own partial standpoint, and that is enough unless we aspire to +infallibility. + +Man is a disputatious animal who loves to speak like Sir Oracle. +Uneducated people, ashamed of their ignorance, commit themselves +hastily and cling to their commitments, for to change one’s mind is an +admission that one was mistaken. We wish to be vindicated as having +all along been in the right. Hence it is more natural to contend for +a principle than to test a hypothesis. The ego becomes identified +with certain convictions. We feel ourselves personally injured if our +convictions are subjected to criticism. We are not ordinarily grateful +to the person who points out our errors and sets us right. But if our +education is to proceed, we must get over our delusion of infallibility. + +This fiction of infallibility is very common, and those who have not +learned to doubt this fiction, 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 population. It is no accident that +Fundamentalism, prohibition, and other forms of moral regulation exist +in inverse ratio to urbanity and have their strongholds in rural +communities. People to whom it never occurs to ask how they know so +clearly they are right when better informed people have doubts on the +subject, are the ones who naturally strive to coerce their neighbors. +To many minds there are no social or moral problems. The answer is +always known by the crusader. It is very simple. To him there can be +no two opinions. The standards which prevail in his own parish, the +self-expression of his own type, are the will of God. Principles of +right and wrong are known immediately without reflection or regard +to the situations where they are to be applied; they are revealed to +conscience. “Right is right and wrong is wrong everywhere and forever +the same!” + +Men who hold such a view learn little from experience, and this is why +crowds never change their minds. They have first to be disintegrated +and a new crowd formed about new standards, because each crowd +represents its will as a divine command, a matter of eternal principle. + +To learn anything from experience it is necessary to take into account +the results of our behavior. But when you do a thing merely because +it is demanded by a universal principle which must be vindicated at +all costs, or because it is a divine command to be carried out with +unquestioning obedience, you need not consider the results. Hence you +cannot be shown that you were mistaken. In this sense men’s gods and +their _a priori_ ideas have the function of preserving their fiction +of infallibility. There always appears what Professor Overstreet calls +the proclamation of “the One Right Way.” Differences of opinion are +held to be not mere differences of point of view, but the difference +between Right and Wrong, Good and Evil. Those who think differently +are the wicked, the ungodly, the _enemy_. They must be convinced by +being vanquished, silenced. Every knee must bow and every tongue +confess. There is no longer a meeting of minds in the search for +truth. The triumph of the Right is in the belief of the average man a +knockout. There must be no compromise; any attitude other than intense +partisanship is disloyalty. One in a discussion must line up for or +against a proposition, take sides, have a ready answer for anything +that the other side says, and be sure that nothing will cause one to +modify one’s views. Is any one ever convinced by public debate? Or does +one emerge from a church quarrel, a political campaign, a session of +the legislature, a convention of a trade union with a broader outlook +or better understanding? + +The egotism of the ignorant keeps them in ignorance. There is an +amusing notion that the masses are kept in ignorance by clever +conspirators against freedom and progress. The average man’s reasoning +consists chiefly of the repetition of cant phrases in support of +preconceived ideas. He wishes to hear only what he can applaud, and he +applauds what saves his face and puts his enemies to shame. Theological +disputation has always been carried on in this spirit, and so have most +popular discussions of morals, politics and economic problems. + +Professor Overstreet says that this “One Right Way” attitude is +essentially adolescent. This does not mean that it is essentially +youthful. Adolescence is the period when there is normally an +exaggerated emotional interest in the ego. A delayed adolescent type +of mentality is common. Psychologists speak of it as narcissism,--a +fixation of interest upon the idea of self. Among psychopathic +individuals and also among crowds this _narcissism_ is very dominant +and leads to exaggerated notions of self-importance and to other fixed +ideas. Inability to entertain any doubt of self becomes inability to +question any idea which one would like to believe true. Hence the +delusion of infallibility. 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 hold. Crowd +appeal at once entrenches prejudice and flatters the ego, compensating +it perhaps for any half-conscious feeling of inferiority it may have +because for instance a man over-rates school education and “did not get +it.” + +It is interesting to note how this delusion of infallibility may often +lead men to believe and assert the most incredible fabrications. I +quote from a recent New York newspaper an exaggerated example which +will illustrate what I mean. + + “The League of Nations has been asked to do a lot of strange things + by people all over the world, but it remained for a New York business + man to request action on the most unusual topic of all. Announcement + is made by the league secretariat that it has received a letter + from the New Yorker declaring his opinion that ‘brain enslavement,’ + otherwise known as spirit writing or receiving messages from the + dead, is the cause of many evils. He said he wanted the league to + stop this system all over the world, making the specific charge that + the American courts of ‘so-called justice’ are controlled by the + spirit movement.” + +Note the last sentence; the “specific charge” is very typical. There is +not the least notion that so sweeping an indictment should be supported +by evidence. It _must be_ so, for how can the alleged tolerant attitude +of the courts be explained otherwise? An explanatory idea is asserted +as an established fact. Here we have a mind incapable of entertaining +doubt. As usual in unhealthy reasoning, the thinking in this case is +a syllogism. Spiritualism is a form of brain enslavement which is the +cause of wide-spread evil. All who do not sufficiently oppose it are +controlled by it. The courts do not sufficiently resist it. Therefore +the courts are controlled by the spirit movement. If the premises are +true the conclusion of course follows logically. The trouble with +diseased thinking is not its logic, but its inability to examine +its premises in the light of fact. A healthy mind would doubt these +premises before reaching such a ridiculous conclusion. Doubt makes for +sanity. + +I do not wish the force of this example to be lost. Most people will +see it so long as we are talking about spirits, for there is much +wholesome doubt about the doings of spirits. But let us substitute for +spirits something else concerning which surmise commonly passes as +established fact, and we have something very familiar. “The American +courts are controlled by Wall Street,” or by the Catholic Church, or +by British propagandists, or the attempt is being made by labor unions +or by Communists. So it is with popular thinking on most subjects. +Acquaintance with facts does not seem to be necessary for the formation +of opinion. I can easily assert alleged facts on my own authority; +it hurts my pride when I am asked for evidence. 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 sin. Such +statements must be true; they are so logical, moreover they justify a +man in his fixed beliefs and put doubters always in the wrong. Many +people even in their reading do little more than seek confirmation +for notions founded on such thinking. The censorship of books is +hardly necessary to keep people’s minds in the beaten path. Many +people cannot read a book with which they do not agree. We disguise +our infallibility under the infallibility of our favorite author. He +becomes an authority. We read our own meanings into his text when +necessary. We pick out the passages which support us and quote them on +all occasions. For instance, 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 Marx. It is always so with +the sectarian mind, whether in religion or in politics. + +The sort of logic which we have just been considering leads men to +assume extreme positions of all sorts. Opinionated and undisciplined +minds always tend to carry an idea to extremes, to jump to a +conclusion, to let enthusiasm carry belief beyond the limits of good +judgment. This all or none attitude is supposed to be zeal in the +service of principle. It is merely intemperance. Education strives for +the virtue of temperance, and temperance--which among the uneducated +becomes merely abstinence from the use of alcoholic beverages--is the +avoidance of rash assertion, and of ill-considered and hasty inference. +The temperate man stops to think. Careful thought seldom leads one +wild. An educated mind is not so likely to “go off half-cocked.” It +has fewer enthusiasms and so accumulates a reserve; a sense of the +ridiculous helps it keep its balance. + +Most men feel uncomfortable when they must hold their minds open +and judgment in abeyance. Judgment suspended gives a feeling of +unstable equilibrium, of tension; it is irksome like resistance to +temptation. In addition to this discomfort in being unsettled, there +is a disturbing feeling of insecurity in the thought that we live in +a world in which certitude is rare and difficult. In many situations +it is necessary to act before all the evidence is at hand. We must act +on faith and take our chances. All men cherish their faiths, but few +have the courage to act on faith. We naturally wish to feel ourselves +more secure than we really are in a world where much is left to chance. +A formula generally believed gives such a delusion of security. The +greater the number of those who believe, the more convinced is the +average man of the truth of the formula and the more safe he feels. + +I think this wish to feel at home in the universe has inspired much of +religion. It is also one of the reasons why, as older religions wane, +each man must have his “cause,” his social gospel, his movement. These +things afford a sense of comradeship in which there is safety. They +give one “something to tie to,” something enduring to believe in. And +as each cause or movement claims the future and looks forward to sure +vindication and triumph, the future becomes predictable and congenial. + +This search for an ideal security has had its influence on philosophy. +Many philosophers, from the time of the ancient Greeks till now, +have sought to construct systems of ideas, verbal forms in which in +contemplation they could find refuge from the universal change in +which all things come and pass away. 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 present, a system of abstract and unusual +universal ideas is set up and thought of as existing in itself, outside +the process of time and change. The system of thought so conceived +is held to be more enduring than the world of changing objects. The +ideal world is then the real world. In it alone is knowledge of the +Truth which abides forever. 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 thought. From the +point of view of education it should be said that such philosophies +require much learning before one can understand them, but they tend to +dogmatism and the closed mind. + +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 science. It is known as mechanism. +As scientific _method_, mechanism is indispensable. It is found by +exact measurement and careful scrutiny that given two identical +material situations, the same result will follow. There is a certain +orderliness about the processes of nature, which if we ignore all else +but the movement and masses and temporal and spatial relationships of +particles of matter, lends itself to statement in mathematical terms. +In this manner events are predictable with great accuracy. And now +because it becomes possible for human reason to interpret facts of +nature when they are thought of only with respect to mass, movement, +position, it is held that nature itself is really nothing but mass, +motion, position, etc. The laws and methods of interpretation are +thought to constitute the nature of that which is interpreted. 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 reality. The reason which measures masses and +distances believes it has discovered itself as the true nature of the +thing measured. The universe is held to be at once like a machine, and +at the same time essentially rational. Security is again grounded in +forms of thought. + +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 terms. Of course +no one professes to be able to calculate the curve of the whole, or to +have worked out a quantitative statement of many of the phenomena of +life. But it is a scientific faith that it might conceivably be done. +This seems to me to be merely saying that we could reduce the universe +to reason if we only could do it, which is tautology. 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 universe. But scepticism here is +as distasteful to many scientists as the scientists’ own scepticism is +distasteful to theologians. + +I am not asserting dogmatically that we cannot know truth or the +nature of reality. I am not suggesting that we cannot be educated +without ending in universal scepticism or agnostic negation. It seems +to me that we have, or can have, such knowledge as will make our +intellects fairly adequate instruments in the performance of their +proper functions. But I do not see what such functioning has to do +with ascribing finality to our beliefs or trying to legislate for +all possible worlds. I am not suggesting an attitude of despair in +the pursuit of truth, but am trying to state the very reason for any +learning at all, for what is the use of it if we know it all before we +start? + +Education may not end in doubt, but it ends when a man stops doubting. +But why speak of the end of a process that should continue through +life? As I see it, the process is more often discontinued at the point +of some fictitious certainty than in any moment of doubt. Doubt, the +willingness to admit that conjecture is subject to revision, is a spur +to learning. The recognition that our truths are not copies of eternal +realities but are human creations designed to meet human needs, puts +one in a teachable frame of mind. And the discovery that thinking +may be creative makes intellectual activity interesting. Much has +been written by indoctrinators about the wretchedness of the dogmatic +sceptic. I wonder how these writers, themselves so innocent of doubt, +know so much about him. I have never found such a man. I do not believe +he ever existed. There are writers who question things that most men +do not even know exist, compared with whom professional “freethinkers” +are often naïve. But such writers are often gentle and cheerful spirits +whose minds are not at all paralyzed by doubt, but are active, subtle, +stimulating. + +Humanity during the course of civilization has fixed certain habits, +made certain discoveries, constructed certain systems of ordered +knowledge by emphasizing the relevant and significant. There is little +likelihood that the whole structure will come tumbling about our +heads because somebody examines into its nature. In fact the highest +achievement of civilization would appear to be a mind capable of +understanding our human ways of thinking for what they are. But if +our learning should cause us to abandon all our consoling beliefs and +ideals and pet theories; if it should reveal human folly in our every +great cause, and futility in our every scheme of social reconstruction, +even then we cannot for such reasons shirk the task of educating +ourselves. There would remain for each of us the ideal of what an +educated mind might become; no knowledge could take from us the ideals +of courage, of preserving our integrity, of standing undaunted before +the challenge to our spirit. + +Again a question arises similar to that we discussed at the close +of the chapter on propaganda. Does not education, then, 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 times? Is it not the mass of “common people” therefore, and +not the scholars, which accomplishes the overthrow of tyrannies and +achieves progress? 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 movement, it is natural +that this question should present itself as we consider what education +means. + +History should aid us to an answer here. The author of “Our Times,” +Mark Sullivan, after giving an account of the partisan strife and +popular movements of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, +suggests that perhaps all this expenditure of energy and intensity +of enthusiasm was but part of the passing show and came to nothing, +while the so-called leaders who seemed to be creating history were but +the puppets of deeper and silent forces. He suggests that the enduring +changes are those of science and the arts. I believe we have here one +of the important lessons of history. Progress in civilization has been +the work almost wholly of scientists, philosophers, artists, engineers, +and unique individuals. The rest has been froth and foam, a struggle +to liberate mankind from the clutches of its most recent liberators, +crowd devouring crowd, mass movements marching to Utopia down blind +alleys. Unfortunately there is some truth in the statement that the +intelligence of the race has little influence upon mass movements. +This is not because scholarship is aloof, however, so much as because +the multitude in its enthusiasms does not heed the counsels of wisdom. +When I become a zealot for a movement I lose my critical faculties. +In exalting my cause I would persuade myself that my existence is of +more importance to the world than it really is. No one so devoted and +earnest could possibly be in the wrong, and in the righteousness of my +cause, I have infallibility. What need have I of the wisdom that comes +by taking thought when I have the truth by intuition and intensity of +feeling? + +If it is true that men can only be made to act under the lash of blind +faith and enthusiasm, then the estate of man is a sorry one indeed. +For most of the things done will end in tragic failure. 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 doing. Moreover, to say +that ignorance is necessary to the accomplishment of good is to say, +that ignorance is desirable and better for man than knowledge. There +have been those who held such a view. Obscurantists always hold it. It +is the philosophy of pessimism, and it is interesting to note that it +is the believer and the devotee, the man of action and not the gentle +doubter who finally ends in pessimism. + +For want of intelligence the devotees of causes have been the mischief +makers in all times. We cannot always know who does the most good +in the world, but the evil that men do lives after them and it is +sometimes possible to estimate the amount of harm done. Who has done +the most harm in human history, the sceptics or the believers, the +devotees of causes or the devotees of culture and urbanity? St. Bernard +with his crusade, or Abelard with his doubts? The men who conducted the +Inquisition, or the men who doubted the doctrine of the Trinity? Calvin +and the obscurantists on both sides of the Reformation, or Erasmus and +the Humanists? Cromwell and his Puritans or Voltaire and the Deists? +Robespierre or Goethe? + +The devotees to causes have kept human life in turmoil. If the +immorality they would cure has slain its thousands, their “morality” +has slain its tens of thousands. In most cases the strife has been +useless and for causes that might have been won in other ways, really +won. The devotee of a cause requires little provocation to practice +persecution, and only the opportunity to play the tyrant. + +Doubt not only has educational value: it preserves social sanity. I +would suggest as part of everyone’s education the reading of such +authors as Lucian, Epicurus, Abelard, Hobbes, Montaigne, Rabelais, +Erasmus, Lessing, Voltaire, Hume and Anatole France. There is no blood +on these men’s hands. They have quietly smiled in the face of bigotry +and superstition. In their words there is laughter and there is light. +Perhaps no one of them ever intended to be a liberator of mankind. They +merely thought and spoke as free spirits, and their very presence puts +sham and cant and unction and coercion and mistaken zeal to shame. They +have done more for freedom and truth than all the armies of crusading +devotees. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A MAN IS KNOWN BY THE DILEMMAS HE KEEPS + + +William James said that wherever there is selection among alternatives +there is mental life. Man is a choosing animal, and his choices +determine both the ends sought and the means to be employed. We +will not discuss the question whether our choices are spontaneous +or are determined wholly or in part by environmental and hereditary +factors. Whatever determines them, our habits of choosing,--the +general character of the things we prefer,--reveal the kind of people +we are. And as learning is not merely the acquiring of more and more +information but is accompanied by a gradual transformation of habit +systems, its progress is manifest not merely by what a man knows at +any stage in his education, but also by the kind of issue that is real +to him, the questions which he permits life to put to him, the sort of +temptations he has to struggle to avoid, the kind of goods that are +vital to him. When I was a boy my parents used to tell me, “A man is +known by the company he keeps.” The saying, while designed to protect +youth from the dangerous influence of evil companionship, is not wholly +true. Many persons, from ambition or other motives, seek the society of +persons unlike themselves. Those who are more gregarious than selective +may exercise little choice among their associates. But ordinarily +people like to be with their own kind. Criminals keep company with +other criminals, golfers with other golfers, stamp collectors with +others who have the same interest. We wish our friends to be interested +in the things that interest us. Groups long associated tend to become +homogeneous. When marked differences of taste and opinion develop, +companions drift apart. Hence it is obvious that the company one keeps +is determined in part by the dilemmas he keeps. + +We do not normally keep the same set of dilemmas through life. Each +stage of development presents new challenges, problems, alternatives; +as we mature our habits of judgment change. We see things in a +different light. What was once a matter of vital concern becomes a dead +issue. Our interest is caught and our choice determined by aspects of +situations to which we did not react at all at an earlier stage. We do +not solve all the problems of any stage, but we outgrow them,--get over +them. + +Psychopathology today has much to say about the nature and sequence of +the dilemmas which at any period haunt the mind of an individual. The +matter is so important that I wonder more has not been made of it by +those interested in education. The public, it seems, 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 before. We speak of rising to a higher mental plane; this is +little else than learning to wrestle with more and more significant +problems. A little girl in her third summer says, “I’m a nice girl; +I don’t bite sister now.” To bite or not to bite, to keep one’s self +clean, to refrain from crying, are normally the dilemmas of early +childhood. If they are not dead issues to a person twenty years old, +they may be regarded as psychopathic symptoms. When a mature individual +is found wrestling with impulses which should have been reduced to +habit and dismissed from consciousness in earlier years, we have a +phenomenon which psychologists call “regression,” or “fixation” of +emotional interest in mental habits that are normally outgrown. Toward +the tasks and situations of adult life, the individual strives to +maintain an infantile attitude and hence fails to adjust himself. +Sometimes the regression shows a preoccupation with infantile wishes, +and sometimes with those of early adolescence; in any case there is +struggle to maintain the inhibitions or the defenses which veil the +inadequately repressed impulses. + +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 development. When a very young child is beginning to +discover himself and his little world, he finds his own body and its +functions tremendously interesting. Soon he discovers that certain +of his performances command attention. He learns to make use of such +performances in order to get what he wants. 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 up. Long before he condescends to +talk, he notices when people admire him and say complimentary things +about him. A very young child will do little stunts by way of showing +off, and will exhibit irritation if ignored or left alone. He cries out +at any restraint upon his movements or resistance to his wishes. + +The egoism of everyone retains something of the infantile quality. But +family discipline, social experience, and the awakening of powers of +observation and thought result in new forms of expression. This ego +interest becomes associated with an ideal of self and its importance +which the individual guards as his honor, his reputation. Every man +is intent upon keeping up his feeling of self-importance; each feels +that one so important deserves special consideration. Egoism in normal +people becomes to some extent liberated from its infantile interests +and is sublimated, that is, attached to ends that are socially +permissible. The original impulse remains, but it wrestles with new +problems. The wish to be admired is a factor in all ambition, also in +romantic love. A love affair is even more a mutual admiration society +than a phenomenon of sex interest. The impulse to command which in the +nursery led the child to throw toys on the floor for others to pick up, +later becomes a desire for leadership, a struggle for political power, +a passion for manipulating or reforming others. + +We also find the infantile egoism transferred to religion, where +it plays an important part in adult life. Many of the very images +and emotional attitudes of infancy may thus be kept alive. The +believer may still feel that he is loved as the infant is loved by +the parent,--loved now by the Heavenly Father. He may again feel +that he can have what he desires by asking the father in prayer. +Self-importance survives as belief in the immortality of the soul and +as assurance of salvation. Thus with development and experience, the +same ego interest becomes transformed in the tasks it progressively +sets itself, and in widening the range of the ends for which it +strives. Each stage of development presents its peculiar problems, its +peculiar goods and evils, its possible alternative attitudes toward +the values of experience. 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 interest, as by any other device of mental measurement. +In common practice this is the way in which we judge people. + +A man stands revealed both by the things he strives to gain and by +those he seeks to avoid. The thing that most easily shocks him is +usually that which he himself is struggling to overcome. It represents +something to which in his secret heart he can say neither yes nor +no. His dilemma troubles him. He seeks to avoid the inner gnawing by +carrying the fight into the open. He turns his personal conflict into +the appearance of a public issue, and you then have the moral reformer. +People who repeat scandal, demand laws for the censorship of books and +plays, and search through literature intent upon deleting passages they +think are obscene, are too much preoccupied with vice and obscenity. +They are like those compulsion neurotics who spend their time writing +alibis to prove their innocence of the crime they are constantly +tempted to commit. + +The thing a man must make an effort to conceal always betrays him. +We all know the type of person who strives in all things to appear +refined, who makes painful efforts for correct speech and proper +manners. There are those who are seriously concerned about being in +what they call society, 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 yours. And there is the man who +signs his name with ornate flourish and tries to impress waiters and +hotel servants with his importance, and there are the people who are +much exercised over the forgiveness of their sins. All in one way or +another place themselves on their own level. + +The correlation between people’s material desires and their general +intellectual interests is so universal that it is used as a guide +in placing advertisements. There are “class” papers, each designed +to appeal to readers who occupy a certain cultural stratum. The +advertising appeals which such papers carry vary with the reading +matter. The older, more literary magazines present a sharp contrast +both in reading matter and in advertising to the newer fiction +magazines. In the first group the essay predominates, with poetry +and literary criticism, and only an occasional work of fiction. In +the second group there is hardly anything but fiction, with possibly +a brief hortatory editorial. Both types are evidently published to +interest readers of average wealth. The number of advertisements of +automobiles, real estate, and securities and other investments is +in about the same proportion in both. But the former group, which +is obviously designed to appeal to more thoughtful and intelligent +readers, contains a larger number of pages given over to advertisements +of books, schools, colleges, places of travel, works of art. + +We need not discuss the cheaper fiction magazines. They are obviously +prepared for a still different reading public. The public to which +the better ones appeal is indicated by the dominant character of +the advertising, which consists largely of aids to beauty and +correspondence courses in self-improvement. The stories in such +periodicals are as typical as the advertisements. Thus it is that in +their daily preferences, as truly as in the greater issues of their +lives, people select themselves and are segregated into classes, +or spiritual types--types which may live in daily contact with one +another, yet worlds apart. + +Democracy strives to ignore the cultural differences among people. +Education intensifies them. The attempt to place everyone on the +same mediocre plane, even though it be a level considerably above +the lowest, is not education; it is a kind of social work. Education +means finding one’s own level. Like all progress it is qualitative +and differentiating. 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 ones, so with +education. It brings out distinctions of human worth, places people +on the rounds of a ladder, the gradations of which are discernible in +the kind of interests they have, in the quality of their choices, the +perplexities they wrestle with and overcome, the tasks and issues they +set themselves. + +The general advance of civilization is in some respects like that of +the individual. 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 them. There are all sorts of “cultural lags” +in the course of progress, 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 +question, “What is the evil omen of a comet which suddenly appears +in the zenith?”--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 sky, which it did much +to everybody’s peace of mind. Again, we can form something of an +opinion of the mentality of an age in which there is general interest +in such a question as “Shall a person accused of witchcraft be put to +torture to compel him to testify against himself?” or, “How far may one +walk on the Sabbath day without committing sin?” or “Does the doctrine +of the rights of man apply to negro slaves?” or “Who amongst us has +committed the unpardonable sin,” or “Will a child that dies without +baptism go to Hell,” or, by way of illustrating something of the spirit +of contemporary America, “Who’s your bootlegger?” + +I have said that many of our dilemmas are not resolved, but are +outgrown. This leads us to a further observation of their educational +significance. 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 minds. +When one goes back of the issue and sees the premises to be false, +the whole wrangle becomes meaningless. 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 devil. +Get rid of belief in devils and witch trials themselves cease. So the +nightmare about the “damnation of babes” ceases to be a live issue for +a mind that has become sufficiently civilized to have passed beyond the +primitive man’s terror of Hell. And so I think it is with most popular +beliefs and public issues and partisan conflicts, as well as with many +of our private dilemmas. As stated they presuppose a disguised error, +or are the fruit of factors that remain unconscious. So long as we +accept the fatal assumption the issue is real to us. We are caught and +held in the dilemma and our educational progress stops. + +Progress in thinking, without which learning is mere repeating, comes +by examining foundations. The educated mind differs from the uneducated +in the insight which enables it to file a demurrer, dismiss the case, +or restate it in terms that lead somewhere. It is in getting us over +our dilemmas that education frees our minds. + +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 life. +Yes, but principles are _leading ideas_. Their function is to lead +us to correct conclusion and right action. They are instruments, not +ends in themselves, and they must occasionally be re-tested. They are +not final statements of the issues of living. Much misunderstanding +and mental suffering--most of our false dilemmas--grow out of popular +confusion about principles. Men feel that if they change their beliefs +or arrive at unexpected conclusions or resolve their dilemmas away they +are losing or compromising their principles. There is no sacrifice of +principle in re-stating an issue as a result of better knowledge and +insight. There is no defense of principle in a controversial spirit +which cares more for partisan victory than for truthfulness. The level +on which a controversy is waged is often a matter of greater importance +than the victory of either side. If the victory of either means the +triumph of the same irrational type of man, it makes little difference +who wins. In most partisan and sectarian struggles the principle at +stake--if any--is lost sight of in a mass of confusion. It frequently +happens that both sides contend for the same “ideal” and base their +contentions upon the same mistaken premises. In most cases men’s +principles are little more than phrases which justify in their own +minds their contentiousness and will to power. + +An examination of its presuppositions may transform an issue into a +very different sort of problem. There is, for instance, the controversy +now raging in parts of America between religion and science. Many +educated persons say there is no conflict between religion and science. +In their own thought there may be none, because they do not mean by +either of these terms what the man on the street means by them. To him +religion is a system of dogma based upon divine revelation. He cannot +conceive of religion without belief in the stories related in the +Bible or belief in the teachings of his church. By belief he means the +firm conviction that alleged historical events and miracles happened +just as related. He conceives of science also as a body of doctrine +according to which the specific teachings of religion are held to be +untrue. Stated in these terms conflict is inevitable, a person who has +scientific knowledge cannot be religious, and the issue must be fought +to the end. + +For the thinking mind the problem becomes a quite different one. +Science is a method, not primarily a system of doctrine. It is a way +of discovering truth which must be followed wherever it leads, and it +presents us with the problem of how we are to value and interpret its +discoveries. The problem presents itself differently from an ascending +series of points of view. + +A student who has grown up under traditional religious influences +and has probably given the matter little thought, begins the study +of natural science, biology or geology, let us say, and learns +something of the evidence for the theory of evolution. He begins to +speculate upon its implications. He may, as many do, strive in some +manner to reconcile evolution with the account of creation set forth +in the Bible. After further thought and study this simple device for +reconciling science and religion may not satisfy him. He sees that +something more than the reinterpretation of a text is necessary. +He finds himself striving to reconcile two entirely different +world-views. As a rational explanation of the world and its origin, +religion is wholly incompatible with science. The student, considering +that this is the function of religion, and finding that as a method +of giving an account of natural processes religion fails, may discard +it, and become an apostle of science, and an opponent of religion, +save as a system of ethics. Persons who hold this rationalistic view +of religion commonly try in turn to make a gospel of science. Religion +is darkness; science is light. Religion enslaves; science liberates. +Religion holds progress in check; science is the Religion of Humanity, +and the triumph of Reason is the promise of the salvation of the +world. This view was widely prevalent in the nineteenth century. It is +the stage at which the average person with some knowledge of science +breaks off and considers the problem settled. It is an honestly taken +position, which often requires no small courage. 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 problem. It assumes +that it is the proper function of religion to explain nature and +improve the life of humanity. What a simple and straightforward affair +the human spirit appears to be from this point of view. No subtle +twistings and turnings, no hidden pitfalls, no twilight regions, no +dark secrets. + +Suppose now one were to cease expecting religion to do the explanatory +task of science, and were also to cease trying to make a new religion +of science, is it not likely that the conflict, or contrast, between +the two might appear in altered perspective? It is possible to regard +both scientific and religious concepts as symbols--figures of speech, +each expressive of its exclusive values. In another study, 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 flag. The former is the scientific symbol; it has to do +with position, movement, measurement of distance. Maps exist for the +intellectual and practical interest. The flag stands for the emotional +interest; it has to do with certain historical associations, but is +itself no guarantee of the accuracy of any historical tradition. It is +poetry. + +Once we grant that religion is poetry, a new set of problems emerges. +Is the poetry good or bad? What valuations of the possibilities--or +impossibilities--of experience are here expressed in these symbols? +Which of my ideas about the world are maps and which are flags? Much +of the popular conflict of religion and science arises out of general +confusion on this point. 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 attitudes. Doubtless many Americans have an +exaggerated and emotionally determined idea of the history if not of +the geography of their country, yet it is unthinkable that they should +confuse the flag with the map. But existence as a whole is not so +easily surveyed, and such maps as we have of it often extend beyond +the comprehension of the average man. In all lower approaches to the +problem of religion, the flags which symbolize certain emotional +appreciations of the universe are confused with maps of it. In his +religion the average man is still an idolator, psychologically similiar +to the poor heathen who cannot distinguish between his god and his +wooden image. On the popular level, 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 +attitudes. While the consideration of the problem remains on this +level, nothing is gained for education. There is mental grasp of the +situation when the problem is re-stated in terms of the inwardness of +religion and the objectivity of science. And it then becomes possible +to form hypotheses which inspire further pursuit of knowledge. New +knowledge leads to the better organization of knowledge previously +acquired. + +We have another familiar example of the educational value of displacing +lower dilemmas by higher ones by examination of the presuppositions. +For a generation and more many minds have been preoccupied with +some aspect or other of the controversy between conservatism and +radicalism. 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 side. From the standpoint of the majority of the United States +Senate, the followers of Mr. La Follette were dangerous radicals. +From the standpoint of the communists these same La Follette men +were conservatives, counter-revolutionaries. In general the conflict +has been between those who are interested in preserving the present +order of things intact together with its traditions, established +institutions, privileges and inequalities, and those who favor some +basic changes which they believe will remedy the situation. We will not +discuss the merits of either side to this conflict. In some form or +other it comes up repeatedly. It is a real issue, but the discussion +of it may proceed on various levels of thought, and this fact has +something to do with education. Intellectuals believe that their +radicalism is the result of enlightenment, 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 makers. The present controversy is not conducive to education +in any of its forms, or on either side. It tends to divert education +from its true aims into partisan service, and to produce in both +parties a fixed and unteachable type of mind. As the case is ordinarily +presented, a stupid and panicky conservatism is faced by a superficial +and equally intemperate radicalism. + +The problem cannot be discussed intelligently, nor can the +consideration of it lead to increase of knowledge, until its +presuppositions are critically examined, and the whole matter is +re-stated in more intelligible terms. It is these presuppositions to +which I wish to call attention, for without them the controversy could +not have arisen in its present forms. Although there is a great variety +of these forms, the same presuppositions are common to all and are +usually accepted without question by both sides. The disposition to +go back and question the presuppositions is evidence that education +is going on. We have some such evidence in recent years for many have +modified their positions in regard to various aspects of the social +problem. + +More attention has been given to the changes of view among radicals +than to those which have taken place among conservatives. Since events +of recent years have greatly encouraged self-expression on the part of +misinformed noisy extremists who appoint themselves spokesmen of the +latter group, we sometimes get the impression that conservatives learn +nothing. 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 controversy. + +Among radicals modification of views has occurred sufficiently to +arouse general interest in the questions “What has become of the +pre-war liberals?” “What has happened to radicalism?” A former +member of the radical group some years ago wrote a book entitled +“Tired Radicals,” 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 age. But if radicalism were merely +a form of youthful enthusiasm, I believe the movement would be more +wide-spread than it has ever been in America. The suggestion is worth +considering that in some cases the change of views might indicate that +the individual has learned something. By learning I mean the better +grasp of the subject which comes when one examines the presuppositions +of both sides. Conversely, those who have not examined their +presuppositions during the last twenty years have learned nothing. +They continue talking, but they are addressing a generation that is +past and gone. Anachronisms of this sort are common occurrences among +conservatives. They occur with equal frequency among radicals. And when +a man whose education has stopped leaves the radical movement and joins +the opposition, he frequently shows himself to be not an aging prophet +who has lost his enthusiasms, but the same intensely opinionated and +militant person he was before. + +When, therefore, I suggest that a change of attitude toward the social +question may be indicative of learning, I do not mean to imply that +it is the function of education to turn radicals into conservatives. +Rather its function is to give the men on each side a different mental +outlook. Back of the controversy as it has existed in our times there +is a certain presupposed philosophy which is passing away as education +increases, and its passing modifies the thinking of persons on both +sides. Humanism in education is supplanting the older Humanitarianism. +Interest in cultural values is supplanting the earlier naturalism. +Rousseau and Bentham and Comte and D. F. Strauss and William Morris +are making way for the coming social psychologists. Social philosophy +becomes analytical. The sweeping generalizations of Marx and the day +dreams of Bellamy begin to have interest chiefly for the historical +student. Democratic dogma, little questioned in the nineteenth century, +is now subjected to criticism. A different intellectual spirit is +abroad which necessarily modifies the general outlook of those who +share in it. + +Let us note more specifically some of the presuppositions behind the +Radical-Conservative dilemma. There is the Humanitarian doctrine that +man is naturally good and daily growing better. All that is needed +for his perfection is freedom or opportunity. This assumption is +common to both parties, one holding that such opportunity is under +the present system granted to all who wish to take advantage of it, +the other that under the present system opportunity is granted only +to the privileged few and denied to the toiling masses, who are kept +down in wage slavery. All the evils of human life are attributed to +the present system. Remove the evil system and everybody will be good +and happy. There is much talk about “the emancipation of labor.” Both +sides assume that social justice is possible, each maintaining that +its own triumph is the triumph of justice. And both sides are disposed +to estimate the values of civilization and the meaning of personal +success in terms of material possession. The good life is the life of +the man with plenty of money. We hear much of the materialism and the +dominance of business interests today. Everyone is urged to get ahead. +A man measures his worth by the amount of his income. Conservatives can +see no ground for dissatisfaction with a system which makes for unusual +prosperity. Radicals deny that prosperity is universal, say that the +rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, interpret +all history in terms of the struggle for wealth, and spread before +the masses the promise of abundance with a minimum of toil. On both +sides we find that easy optimism which is said to be characteristic +of half-educated minds. It is assumed that the evils of the world are +only superficial, that they are contingent upon purely environmental +factors, and can be removed by legislation or by mass action. Progress +is assured. No one doubts that a prosperous and happy life is possible +to all if only wealth were properly distributed. 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 value, the +world is supposed to be getting better. + +This questionable assumption leads to distortion of fact by both +parties, and must continue to do so as long as the controversy is kept +on this level. I wonder what would happen if instead of merely drawing +hasty inferences from these naïve assumptions, it should become the +practice to examine them. Perhaps the issue might be re-stated in +more significant terms. But what concerns us at present is not the +social problem as such, but the fact that the attempt to clear up the +intellectual muddle about it means that education is going on. + +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 examined. +They flatter. Apart from their radical or conservative implications, +such ideas are congenial to the average man. They pat him on the +back. It is no small satisfaction to believe that the environment is +responsible for all human ills, that evil may easily be removed by +mass action; that given material abundance, the good life follows +automatically; that distinctions among men are reducible to economic +factors; that the supremacy of our own type is the goal of progress. I +believe that the level at which one’s education stops, the particular +set of dilemmas in which one’s mind becomes fixed is usually determined +by some self-satisfying assumption. If my ego can remain elated over +the possession of an automobile, or the right to vote, or the belief +that I and my kind are or ought to be socially superior, or because I +can play the saxophone, or am able to resist the temptation to pick +pockets, the problems which have live interest for me will be the +problems which lie on these levels. I recently talked with a man who +was quite pleased with himself because for some years he had not been +in jail. He frequently compared the advantages and disadvantages of +life “on the inside” and “on the outside.” To his mind all days and all +people were thought of as “inside” or “outside,” a point of view which +I imagine few people linger over or find personally gratifying. But the +virtues men pride themselves on are as a rule those which compensate +them for the particular vices to which they are tempted. + +The house I live in had for a number of years been rented to an elderly +Scotch woman who kept it as a “rooming house.” When she moved out she +said to me, “I hear you are going to do this house over and make it +your own home. Some day you may be sitting here and thinking, ‘What use +to go on in this house of mine?’ It’ll be a satisfaction to you to +know that you are in a respectable place. Never once in all the years +that I rented out furnished rooms did the patrol wagon have to back up +to this door at midnight.” + +The things which people find consoling both reveal and determine +the plane on which their thinking takes place. I have heard a young +man say with a note of defiance, “Yes, sir, I’m a single-taxer and +I’m proud of it.” So involved is the ego in our dilemmas that we +often require the assistance of a specialist in getting over them. +Psychoanalysts whose task is chiefly that of helping people face +certain facts about themselves, speak of their work as re-education. +In a sense all education is re-education, the untying of the knots in +which our self esteem in its defense has entangled itself. Perhaps +nothing is so effective a bar to education as intellectual immodesty. +A man’s education stops at the point where he becomes incapable of +self-criticism. And because egotism is always a bit ridiculous, the +conceited mind protects itself from criticism by making its interests +sublime. In the presence of the sublime, laughter is taboo. The subject +concerning which man has lost his sense of humor is just the subject +concerning which criticism leads to self-criticism. There are persons +who cannot take a joke about “The Grand Old Party,” or the Government +at Washington, or the teachings of Karl Marx. Recently a group of +church men publicly denounced the New York newspapers because of +their humorous remarks about prohibition. 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 +work. + +Lack of humor is always evidence of unteachableness. Ignorance is +pompous. The holy tone with which people proclaim their convictions is +uncivilized. When the American people are better educated, there will +be less solemn pantomime in the land. We could not with straight faces +indulge ourselves in the hysterical reforms, the bitter partisanships, +religious fanaticism and race prejudice which at present show how +seriously we take ourselves. Education should help people make an art +of living, and the art of living, like all arts, is play. Learn to play +with your ideals, even with your sublimities, and you will break the +hold upon you of many a crude and hampering dilemma. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE FREE SPIRIT + + +Freedom is not as precious to the members of this postwar generation +as it was to some of their ancestors. The nation which once followed +the leadership of Mazzini and Garibaldi now suffers a dictatorship with +apparently little protest. In England, the stronghold of liberalism, +a conservative government places a censorship upon the words of the +man who is probably that country’s best-known writer. 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 omitted. In America +we now see that democracy does not guarantee liberty. The government +shows decreasing respect for the immunities of the individual. Crowd +movements spread intolerance and are ever demanding more strict +regulation in matters of personal conduct and private judgment. One +frequently hears the remark, “The talk about personal liberty is +disgusting nonsense.” + +There are various reasons for this change of spirit. 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 numbers. 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 privilege. Other privileges are lost +sight of in a standardized world. Moreover, as people begin to see that +freedom is not something with which all men are equally endowed by +their creator, but is achieved in varying degree, there is a tendency +to minimize its importance. We are naturally somewhat suspicious of +the freedom of others. Those who themselves have little capacity for +it would impose their own limitations upon all others. From childhood +onward we wish to be able to do what we see others doing. When this +is impossible, there is a tendency to restrain them from doing what +we cannot do. Masterful spirits grant themselves privileges which may +appear wicked to the crowd. The free mind allows too much. When on +the other hand a person who has not attained some degree of mastery +declares his independence, we do not speak of him as free, we say that +he “takes liberties.” + +Thus where the ideals of the educated mind prevail there is a general +gain in freedom through increase in mastery. Where the ideals of the +ignorant and wrongly educated predominate, there is a decline in +freedom and an increase in the disposition to take liberties. It is the +custom today to rule out of the consideration of values any reference +to the things of the mind, and to try to ground all values, freedom +included, on a strictly economic and legal foundation, as if they were +produced by and existed only for a brainless and impersonal equilibrium +of social forces. We are beginning to see that for a people which loses +sight of the inwardness of the sources of freedom, constitutional +guarantees do not long guarantee, and each power-seeking group begins +to take liberties with the organized life of the community. 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 education. It +is rather the plebeianization of scholarship. 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 democracy. + +It is the ideal of the educated man, not the demands of the crowd which +is the best guarantee of freedom. I believe we are chiefly indebted to +this ideal for such freedom as we enjoy. Education when it is genuine +must for its own sake move in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom. +It must wander where truth leads the way. It must attain independence +of judgment and a certain decent privacy for contemplation. It is in +itself freedom from servitude and from routine. It broadens one’s +interests and hence one’s sympathetic understanding of others. Nothing +human is alien to it. The educated mind, having business of its own, +minds its own business. Hence it grows in tolerance. Freedom is always +freedom for something,--freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom +from meddlesome interference, freedom from the crushing weight of +authority and tradition, freedom in matters of religious belief. Every +such freedom is largely the result of the influence of education, and +each exists in any community in inverse ratio to its ignorance and +provincialism. + +The classical tradition has its origin, as we saw, in the efforts of +Greek philosophers to teach free men the essentials of the good life. +It has by no means remained true to its ideal, but each rediscovery +of its meaning has had a liberalizing effect. 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 +Renaissance. The eighteenth century, stilted and formal as it was, +could with some justification call itself the age of the Enlightenment. +It was the age of Voltaire, the age of great educational advance. It +was also the age from which we derive most of our pronouncements about +liberty and the rights of man. I would almost go so far as to say that +when education is not liberalizing, it is not really education but is +a highly systematized species of propaganda. This liberalizing quality +is so essential to education, and is so clearly a way of the spiritual +life, that its presence determines the genuineness of any movement or +philosophy that may bear the name Liberalism. + +The term “free spirit” has been so frequently abused, that I hesitate +to use it. It suggests Rousseau’s Emile, educated to obey only the +benign laws of nature and his own impulses. “He follows no formula, +yields neither to authority nor to example, and neither acts nor speaks +save as it seems best to him.” One thinks of such phrases as Max +Stirner’s “Ego and His Own,” or Whitman’s “Spontaneous Me,” or “The +Beautiful Soul” of nineteenth century Romanticism. One is reminded of +the young woman from Nebraska who came to live in Greenwich Village, +New York City, and said her soul felt as if it had taken off its shoes +and stockings. The cult of spiritual freedom had quite a vogue in New +York a few years ago. I believe it originated in the Latin Quarter of +Paris. The devotee of it displayed his free spirit by wearing a flowing +tie and corduroy trousers, by his obvious disdain of barbershops and +laundries, by his talk which was mostly about sex, socialism and the +new art, and by his general air of lassitude and disillusionment. + +I believe that this pose, together with much of the sentimental +liberalism which passes for “emancipation” among intellectuals, may +be traced back to Jean Jacques Rousseau. Nearly all the basic ideas +of contemporary liberalism as well as those of the “newer education” +frequently associated with the liberal movement, may be found in the +writings of Rousseau. It is amusing to hear liberals proclaim these old +ideas as if they were the most advanced theories of life and education. +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 education. The +latter is tender-hearted and hard-headed. Rousseau is soft-headed and +hard-hearted. An emotional egoism feeds on dreams of social revolt +and of an idyllic return to nature. Rousseau hates civilization, with +its duties and responsibilities. He becomes romantic and sentimental +about Nature. His ideal of the free man is Robinson Crusoe. “We are +born sensible.” “The natural man is complete in himself; he is the +numerical unit, the absolute whole, who is related only to himself or +to his fellow-man. Civilized man is but a fractional unit.” “Civilized +man is born, lives and dies in a state of slavery. At his birth he +is stitched in swaddling clothes; at his death he is nailed in a +coffin, and as long as he preserves the human form he is fettered by +our institutions.” Hence if you would educate, “Observe nature and +follow the route which she traces for you.” “All wickedness comes from +weakness. A child is bad only because he is weak; make him strong and +he will be good.” “Keep the child dependent on things alone, and you +will have followed the order of nature in his education.” “Do not let +him know what obedience is when he acts, nor what control is when +others act for him. Equally in his actions and in yours let him feel +his liberty.” + +“O men, be humane; it is your foremost duty.... Why would you take from +those little innocents the enjoyment of a time so short and of a good +so precious which they cannot abuse? Why would you fill with bitterness +and sorrow those early years so rapidly passing, which will no more +return to them than to you? Fathers, do you know the moment when death +awaits your children? Do not prepare for yourselves regrets by taking +from them the few moments which nature has given them.” + +“The only habit which a child should be allowed to form is to contract +no habit whatsoever.” + +“It is absolutely certain that the learned societies of Europe are but +so many public schools of falsehood; and very surely there are more +errors in the Academy of Sciences than in the whole tribe of Hurons.” + +“Happy the people among whom one can be good without effort and just +without virtue.” + +I trust that these passages selected almost at random from Rousseau’s +treatise on education, “Emile,” do not give a wholly unfair impression +of this author’s philosophy of life. Man in the state of nature is wise +and good. Civilization has corrupted him by enslaving him. If he does +evil it is not because he is bad, but because he is weak. We should not +hang the criminal but blame the society which made him what he is. + +The proper function of education is to enable the individual--the +little innocent--to grow up naturally without discipline, without +forming any habits, never sacrificing present enjoyment to future +knowledge, inspired always by the ideal of that happy state in which +one may be good without effort. The ideal education therefore is the +life of the North American aborigine or what Rousseau imagined such a +life to be. Freedom here is the return to nature. + +From the times of Hobbes and of Montaigne onward there seems to have +been a growing interest in “Man in the state of nature.” But whereas +with most writers this interest was largely a matter of theory and +speculation, with Rousseau man in the state of nature becomes an ideal, +a norm. + +It would appear that in this dream of the return to nature, there +is symbolized an infantile wish to escape from the tasks and +responsibilities and restraints of adult life. Psychologists speak +of such an “infantile return” as _regression_. This regressive ideal +of freedom is a very different thing from the liberalizing influence +of education as I understand it. I have characterized education as a +victory won over one’s wish-fancies and childish egoism, as the lifting +of the problems of life to higher and more significant dilemmas, as +the attainment of mastery. A humanistic liberalism seeks freedom +as broadmindedness; it strives for a highly civilized, urbane and +sophisticated state of mind in which insight is deepened and interest +is widened. Rousseauian liberalism seeks freedom in relaxation of +effort, in denial of the claims of civilization, in the idealization of +nature and of primitive man. + +Many persons who today style themselves liberals are of the Rousseauian +type. There are those who proudly call themselves rebels. A certain +naturalism is carried to the point of hostility to form as such +and to orderliness of any sort. There is frequently a disdain of +“respectability,” and a tendency to play the intellectual vagabond. +I think this is one reason why certain liberals are much taken with +modern imitations of the primitive in art. The element of regression +which characterizes the paintings and sculpture of certain “rebels” is +patent to the psychologist. Many of these works of art closely resemble +the typical drawings of dementia praecox patients. In dementia, +regression, or infantile return, is complete and final. The patient +is free from a disturbing world, having returned to precisely the +“sensibility,” as Rousseau terms it, with which he was born. + +Utopian schemes of social reconstruction, and the notion that merely +changing the present system would put an end once for all to human +misery, are in many cases disguised forms of the wish to return to +childhood and thus escape the vicissitudes of adult life in civilized +society. The burden of our industrial civilization is so great that it +is no wonder many should take this path of escape. However, the utopian +fantasy is by no means confined to those who have the hardest struggle. +And there can be no objection to it when it inspires well-considered +efforts for social improvement. There is a type of “liberal” however, +who regards the attempt to solve any concrete problem of civilization +as a compromise of his idealism. + +Another aspect of the philosophy of Rousseau has influenced +contemporary liberalism with somewhat paradoxical results. The basis of +that happy state in which one may be just without virtue is elaborated +in “The Social Contract.” Rousseau was not the first to hold the +contract theory of organized society. Both Hobbes and Locke made use +of this idea. But with Rousseau it becomes a doctrine with distinctly +illiberal implications. The argument is somewhat as follows: + +Man finds it impossible to continue in the blissful state of nature. +In order to preserve their freedom, men voluntarily enter into a +mutual agreement, according to which each gives over his individual +sovereignty and receives back an equal portion of the common will, +leaving him as free as he was before. Thus there comes into being a +collective sovereign power. All others are of course usurpations and +are destructive of freedom. This new sovereign can do no wrong, there +is no need to protect the individual against it because it is made up +precisely of the wills of all individuals, and the people will not do +injury to themselves since each seeks happiness. Such sovereignty, +which is really the absolute dominion of the mass over its members, can +neither be delegated nor divided, and its exercise is _liberty_. + +But is it? This tree is known by the fruit it bears. Notice that for +purposes of this theory, 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 men. That is, +society is transformed from a plurality of individuals to the unity +of a mass. Man acting as a mass unit takes precedence in all things +over man acting as a private person. Privacy is gone. Liberty is not +personal independence, but the freedom of the group to do what it wills +unchecked. Mass action can do no wrong. According to the logic of this +view no proper bounds may be set to the rule of “the people,” except +such as the sovereign will itself chooses to set. Accordingly, liberty +becomes the rule of all over each in any matter whatsoever concerning +which neighbors choose to restrain or meddle with one another. 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 will. 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 group. And now since any check +or hindrance to the sovereignty of the mass is seen as an unjustifiable +restriction upon its liberty, there is a tendency to extend the tyranny +of the mass to every possible human concern. The demand for liberty +is no longer the assertion of the right of private judgment for those +capable of exercising it; it is “Let the people rule.” No wonder men +come to distinguish between personal liberty and the rights of The +People. The idolatry of the mass turns freedom inside out. + +So much for theory. In common practice each majority tends to regard +itself as the sovereign will and play the tyrant, all in the name of +liberty. 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 public, and in the effort to make its own group will the +sovereign will, the members of each group persuade themselves that in +thus resisting restraint upon their particular mass movement they are +fighting for liberty. A spirit of factiousness spreads through the +community, restriction and regulation increase and multiply, all in +the exercise of crowd-liberty. If your crowd is now in possession of +social power, you are called a conservative. If it is still struggling +to make its will supreme, you may call yourself a liberal. 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 +liberalism. Liberalism shades off into a form of radicalism which would +set up a dictatorship to accomplish its ends. Many people use the terms +interchangeably. Radicals in recent years, as the illiberal aims of the +movement unmask themselves, tend to repudiate the name liberal, and +to denounce the liberal as one who having started out along a certain +road, hesitates or turns back at the last minute. Such liberalism finds +itself in the difficult position of having proposed measures which it +hesitated to carry out. It is embarrassed by its own radical offspring. + +Such liberalism has little in common with that which is the aim of +liberal education. As it appears in contemporary America, 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 traditions. + +John Locke wrote his essay on Government at the close of the +seventeenth century. This book together with his “Essay on the Human +Understanding,” did much to shape the thinking of the eighteenth +century, and made a strong impression upon Samuel Adams, Thomas +Paine, Jefferson and other leaders of the American Revolution. The +“self-evident truths” set forth in our Declaration of Independence +clearly reveal this influence. I do not wish to imply that Locke +was the author of American liberalism. He merely has his place in a +tradition which goes back to Magna Charta and is essentially British. +The quarrel between the colonies and the ministers of King George was +a phase of the greater struggle between Parliament and the crown. +For centuries the Englishman has stood up for his individual rights, +has stubbornly resisted any attempt of the sovereign to invade his +privacy or to seize his property without his consent. The Englishman is +naturally jealous of his government. He looks upon it with suspicion +and seeks to limit its exercise of power. He gives it no peace until it +guarantees him security from interference with his personal freedom. +Jefferson’s remark that that government is best which governs least +is typical of the spirit of British liberalism. It was this spirit +which inspired the revolt of the Puritans against both the King and the +Church. 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 government. And it was in this same spirit that the founders of the +Republic framed the Constitution of the United States. They rather +grudgingly granted the government certain specific powers, and sought +by means of various checks and balances to limit the exercise of them. +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 Rights. + +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 Reformation, and the +insistence upon the right and duty of exercising private judgment which +came with the rationalism of the eighteenth century. The eighteenth +century, with its “appeal to reason” in opposition to the authority +of priest and Bible, was in fact an intellectual declaration of +independence which became for educated minds an essential part of the +liberal tradition. Liberalism owes much to the Deists and men like +Hume. It is not a mere coincidence that a large number of the leaders +of the American Revolution were “freethinkers.” Thus liberalism became +something more than a political movement. It became a philosophy of +personal liberty, of independence of authority, of tolerance. The +rights which the liberal claimed for himself he was--at least in +theory--willing to grant to others. He took the side of the “under +dog.” The tradition is best represented in England by such men as +Priestley, Martineau, Kingsley, Cobden, Bright, Morley, J. S. Mill, +Huxley, and in America by Paine, Jefferson, Channing, Emerson, Theodore +Parker, Lincoln, and Ingersoll. + +The decline of liberalism to the level of Bryanism, the betrayal by +“One Hundred Percent Americanism” of the spirit in which the Republic +was founded, the spread of bigotry among the masses, the prevailing +partisan spirit and the illiberalism of professed “liberals,” 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 responsible. They are, I regret to say, symptomatic +of tendencies which are most commonly manifest among Americans of +British descent. They show how far the spirit of a nation may drift +in one hundred and fifty years when it renounces its intellectual +leadership. + +Liberalism as a political movement was early divorced from liberalism +as an intellectual movement. The former became Andrew Jacksonism, +“shirt-sleeve democracy,” free-soil-ism, abolitionism, populism, the +Single Tax movement, opposition to big business, Progressiveism. +Ever since the time of the settlement of New England the pioneer and +frontiersman, the “debtor class,” the town laborer and the farmer, +have had to carry on a struggle against the “money powers” of the +large industrial centers. The conflict of “the poor against the +rich”--generally characterized by a demand for governmental regulation +of industry and cheap money--reached its culmination in the “Free +Silver” issue of 1896. Of this “battle for humanity,” the author of +“Our Times” quotes William Allen White. + + “It was a fanaticism like the Crusades. Indeed, the delusion that was + working on the people took the form of religious frenzy. Sacred hymns + were torn from their pious tunes to give place to words which deified + the cause and made gold--and all its symbols, capital, wealth, + plutocracy--diabolical. At night, from ten thousand little white + schoolhouse windows, lights twinkled back vain hope to the stars. + For the thousands who assembled under the schoolhouse lamps believed + that when their legislature met and their governor was elected, the + millennium would come by proclamation. They sang their barbaric + songs in unrhythmic jargon, with something of the same mad faith + that inspired the martyrs going to the stake. Far into the night the + voices rose--women’s voices, children’s voices, the voices of old + men, of youths and of maidens, rose on the ebbing prairie breezes, as + the crusaders of the revolution rode home, praising the people’s will + as though it were God’s will, and cursing wealth for its iniquity. It + was a season of shibboleths and fetiches and slogans. Reason slept; + and the passions--jealousy, covetousness, hatred--ran amuck; and + whoever would check them was crucified in public contumely.” + +The demand for governmental regulation has been on the increase since +1896 and has almost worked a revolution in our form of government. I +will not discuss the degree to which such an extension of the powers +of the central government is desirable. I am aware of the fact that +the motive is largely that of protecting the economic independence +of the average individual. The point I wish to make is that the +methods advocated reveal the change that has come over liberalism. +Notwithstanding Jefferson’s statement about the government which +governed least, the extensions of the powers of government have not +ever been limited to matters industrial, and we find men calling +themselves liberals accepting all sorts of restrictions upon their +liberty without complaint. Liberalism has taken on a partisan +spirit with all the intolerance, hysteria, and coerciveness that +usually characterizes crowd movements. The same elements that voted +“liberal” with Mr. Bryan thirty years ago, later supported Bryan the +fundamentalist, and today are staunch prohibitionists. I cannot help +feeling that something of the fundamentalist was lurking under the +skin of the American liberal all along. The tradition of personal +independence derived from our British ancestors had about reached this +stage of decline, when efforts were made to supplant it with a very +different type of liberalism from continental Europe. + +The “old liberalism” was in theory individualistic; the “new +liberalism” was socialistic. It brought with it such ideas as “the +class struggle,” “mass action,” the “cooperative commonwealth.” +Freedom was to be gained for all in the form of the “emancipation” +of the working class. Youthful intellectuals idealized the +proletariat, organized socialist locals, talked about the “materialist +interpretation of history,” denounced “the capitalists,” addressed +one another as “comrade,” closed their letters to one another with +the words, “Yours for the Revolution,” and a few took the trouble to +study the writings of Karl Marx. The old liberalism was seen as mere +“bourgeois idealogy,” mental slavery, a system of ideas fabricated by +the master class in order to keep the working class in perpetual wage +slavery. The new liberal felt himself intellectually emancipated. If +he was very, very liberal, he styled himself a radical. The movement +reached its maximum strength about the year 1910, and then began +to decline. It appealed to some who had been liberals of the older +American type, but the response of labor was negligible. Radicalism +professed to be a spontaneous revolt of oppressed working people. In +fact it was a cult, with its dogmas about labor, which existed chiefly +among middle-class intellectuals. Its leaders--and it consisted mostly +of leaders with very little rank and file--were seldom working men. + +Although its economic creed is the product of the nineteenth century, +a study of the history of this movement would show it to be in direct +line of descent from Rousseau. Many of the basic ideas are distinctly +Rousseauian. Civilization, which Rousseau hated, is now the wicked +capitalist system. There is the same emphasis on the collective will, +on mass action, on the idea of revolution, the same belief that The +People is the only rightful sovereign, that society exists by virtue +of a sort of covenant among men which can be altered at will, and that +universal happiness may be attained by changing the system which is +responsible for all misery and misbehavior. + +Radicalism, carried to its logical conclusion, is Communism, in which +there is no pretense of liberalism, no place for freedom. It has +greatest appeal for a type of mind which is by nature doctrinaire +and inelastic, and its propaganda tends to fixed opinion and to +illiberalism. A generation ago Nietzsche said of it, + + “In every country of Europe, and the same in America, there is at + present something which makes an abuse of this name: a very narrow, + prepossessed, enchained class of spirits, who desire almost the + opposite of what our intentions and instincts prompt.... Briefly and + regrettably, they belong to the _levellers_, these wrongly named free + spirits--as glib-tongued and scribe-fingered slaves of the democratic + taste and its modern ideas: all of them men without solitude, without + personal solitude, blunt honest fellows to whom neither courage nor + honorable conduct ought to be denied; only, they are not free, and + are ludicrously superficial, 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 entirely! What they would fain attain with + all their strength, is the universal, green-meadow happiness of the + herd, together with security, safety, comfort, and alleviation of + life for everyone.” + +The word liberal is commonly associated with that extension of +democracy which the crowd thinks is progress. If you favor this +progress, you are said to be a liberal. If you doubt that it is +progress you are thought to oppose progress as such and so are +a conservative. If the progress of democracy were accompanied +by a corresponding advance of culture and gain in wisdom and +broadmindedness, this use of the term liberal would be appropriate. + +Men become free only as they achieve self-government. I take it that a +man governs himself to the degree that he acts upon his own judgment. +Freedom thus presupposes first that people are capable of judging +things for themselves, and second, that they are permitted to do so. +If the progress of democracy resulted in fewer laws and wiser laws, +we should in time have self-government. But the reverse is the case: +the extension of democracy brings about an extension of the powers of +government and the multiplication of foolish laws. It does not follow +that people’s judgment is improved because they can vote about more +and more things. 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 judgment, which is the exercise of freedom. You +do not decide things for yourself when everything is submitted to a +referendum or regulated by the legislature. If the people or their +representatives should vote to establish a censorship of books, or to +prohibit smoking tobacco, or to compel church attendance on Sunday, +that would be democracy; but it would not be a gain for freedom. +Self-government is impossible when every private matter is turned into +a public question. 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 judgment, but are prepared and +eager to decide any matter whatsoever once it becomes a public issue. +They are, moreover, disinclined to allow a large measure of personal +freedom to one another or to any one. Self-government in a democracy +therefore means not private judgment but national independence, +universal franchise, and no constitutional restraints upon the will of +the majority. In common practice, “liberty” is the legally recognized +right of the crowd to tell the individual what he may not do in matters +which concern only himself. Any man has _liberty_ when he has a voice +in the government of the land. He has _freedom_ when he governs +himself. His freedom may be prevented either by lack of judgment or by +outside interference. The effect of education in the community is to +improve judgment and lessen outside interference with the exercise of +it. Properly defined, a liberal is a person who strives for precisely +these results. Liberalism, in this sense, and education are the same. + +I said that a man is free when he acts according to his own judgment. +This does not mean that the free man is able to choose anything he +wishes. Necessity constrains him just as it does the unfree. It means, +however, that his assent or dissent in any matter follows from his +personal insight into the implications of the situation. He does the +required thing even when he does not like it, because he has the +intelligence to see that it is required under the circumstances. He is +not compelled to take some other person’s word as to what is required. +He is free not only because he is independent of the will of another in +reaching his decision, but primarily because he knows what he is doing +and why he does it. + +There is a very old, extra-canonical legend according to which the Lord +Jesus, passing by, saw a man digging in the field on the Sabbath day, +and he said to the man, “If thou knowest what thou doest, blesséd art +thou; if thou knowest not, curséd art thou.” + + + + +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 college. What a nightmare it +is possible to make of education! 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 +grade. Students terrified, parents anxiously awaiting reports of work +done or not done, teachers tired out, one student fails in his Latin, +another in algebra, a third is sent home because of loss of interest in +study, and there are tears, family conferences, special tutors, reviews +and memory drills in vacation time, until finally the student “gets +through” and drops the subject, his interest in it dead. + +I am not one of those who believe that education may be achieved +without effort. But study is not work only, it is also a form a +enjoyment. There are many things which it is a delight to know, not +because such knowledge is useful or is required for a passing grade, +but because it is an aid to the appreciation of value. It is fun. + +There are people who attend concerts from a sense of duty, striving +thereby to improve their souls, but it is possible to listen to music +with no other motive than the wish to enjoy it. It is the person who +enjoys music who in the end becomes the discriminating listener. The +same is true of the reading of books. William James once said the +classics are necessary to education because knowledge of them makes us +“connoisseurs of human excellence.” Literature has a charm which is +often lost when it is made “required reading.” + +An intelligent boy of seventeen who was having difficulty with his +school work recently said to me, “I think it is because I really am +not interested, and the things I wish to know they do not teach in our +school because the colleges will not give credit for them.” When I +asked him what study would interest him, he replied that he thought he +would like to try philosophy and requested me to suggest a good book +for a beginner, declaring that he intended to take up this study in +addition to his school work. + +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 lessons. But I took a chance that his interest might be genuine, +and told him that I thought he would find Plato’s “Republic” a good +introduction to Philosophy, and suggested that he read the first +four books. During the previous semester he had been permitted to +drop one of his courses because reading was “too great a strain upon +his eyes.” When I next saw the boy I inquired how he had got on with +the “Republic.” He said, “Why, I found it so exciting that I did not +stop at the end of the first four books, but read all ten.” When I +asked him what he found interesting in the dialogues, he said, “I do +not understand many of the conclusions they reached, but I enjoyed +listening in on those conversations. They are so logical, and I liked +the way Socrates leads the others along, springs surprises on them, and +makes them see what they mean by what they say. I begin to see what the +difference is between thinking and just talking--and many passages +were beautiful also.” For the first time in his life, he had realized +that the pursuit of knowledge could be an interesting adventure. +Moreover, his parents told me that he had shown improvement in his +regular studies. + +When the ancients said that knowledge is knowledge of the good, +they meant in part that with the increase of knowledge comes better +discrimination. If education is _for_ anything it is that we learn to +choose the good. By the “good” I do not mean good in general, or good +as an abstraction of philosophical discourse, nor the conventionally +good. I mean any excellence whatsoever. In order to see and appreciate +excellence, you must yourself have struggled for it. He who has never +striven to surpass himself, surrounds himself with the shoddy, the +second-rate, the cheap. In matters of taste, of sentiment, of good +workmanship, he cannot distinguish between that which is genuine and +that which is imitation. In matters of taste there is much that is +purely arbitrary and conventional, so that what is good taste in one +age may be bad taste in another. Nevertheless, there is a psychological +soundness in our use of the word taste to designate certain judgments +of worth. It implies some degree of self-restraint, a sensitiveness to +subtle stimuli which comes with the habit of giving attention to minute +differences of quality. In contrast, animals which gulp down their food +hastily and in great quantities do not pause to taste it. Similarly, +the mind which has not disciplined itself “swallows things whole,” +as we say. It is not disturbed by the incongruous or the hideous. It +is sensitive only to coarser stimuli: it prefers the hackneyed, the +raucous, the loud and flashy. + +I once knew a church in a small town which worshipped in a plain +rectangular old building with colonial windows. When a rival +denomination erected a monstrous building with a huge circular +stained-glass window facing the street, the group which worshipped +in the old structure became dissatisfied. After much difficulty +in securing the money, 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 saloon. This +paper the congregation proudly pasted on its colonial window panes. + +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 profess. The general cultural +level of the population is revealed by the style of houses men build, +the kind of furniture with which they surround themselves, the type of +motion picture which becomes popular, the magazines on the news stands, +the character of the journals which have the largest circulation, +the “song hits” of the day, the programs which are broadcast for the +radio. These things all have spiritual significance, they indicate a +prevailing type of reaction toward all the values of experience. + +The public is curiously indifferent to the lack of genuineness of +sentiment; “hocum” and bathos; deliberate and obvious counterfeits +of emotional reactions characterize practically every appeal to +the general public. Think of the popularity of a play like “Abie’s +Irish Rose,” or of that, a generation ago, of a song like “After the +Ball,” or of a book like “The Man Nobody Knows.” Think of the typical +Chautauqua lecture or political address. Think of the notorious +insincerity of the motion pictures. People ask, “What is the matter +with the movies?” The answer is, the audience. Half-educated people do +not seem to be sensitive to the difference either between good and bad +workmanship or between artistic sincerity and insincerity. Standards +of value, in all the older forms of art, have been set by the knowing +ones. The artist was obliged to submit his creation to the criticism +of persons who had some background of tradition and general knowledge. +With the quantity production methods of the motion pictures, it becomes +possible for the first time to make the man on the street the critic, +on whose judgment depends survival, and as the New Testament says, +“By what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.” In selecting our +preferences we pass judgment on ourselves. + +The multitude dupes itself with its desire to get something for +nothing; hence its love of the miraculous. All appeals to it are thus +over-capitalized, and made to appear grand and glorious. Shirking +the effort necessary for real achievement leads to the preference of +quackery. 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 disease, received a call from a former friend and +colleague who disapproved of the practice. When the visitor sought to +persuade him that such methods would not pay, the other stepped to the +window and said, “Come now, look with me at the faces of the people +passing along the street; how many of them do you think would become +your patients and how many mine?” 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 profession. + +I have been somewhat interested in the popularization of psychology. +On the occasion of a visit to a great public library, I was assured +by the librarian that there was a tremendous popular demand for books +which deal with the subject of psychology. I was shown a section in +which these books were kept so that they would be easily accessible. +The greater number were written by persons who had no knowledge of +the subject. They were utterly misleading. Psychology was commonly +presented as a wonderful, easily practiced device for performing +miracles, a system of secret formulae for curing disease, for getting +into harmony with the divine source of all being, for manipulating the +“subconscious” in ways that assured peace, prosperity, self-mastery, +and power over others. I think it is a conservative statement to +say that nine-tenths of the stuff that bears the name “Psychology” +in popular magazines devoted to the subject, in widely advertised +books, in lectures and correspondence courses in self-improvement, is +pure charlatanism and sleight-of-hand arranged for those who wish to +indulge themselves in systematic self-deception. It is not mere lack of +information which causes people to prefer the cheap. With respect to +the things of the mind, people have various standards of living. + +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 them. +However much people may desire and strive for comfort and abundance, +from the standpoint of economics, those who marry and beget children +in poverty have a low standard of living. Hence the standard is +not directly a function of the amount of per capita wealth, but is +psychologically determined. And the standard often applies to other +things besides material possession. Persons who have a high standard +are often poor. They might easily turn their efforts to the acquiring +of wealth, but they will deprive themselves and postpone marriage for +the sake of some cultural interest, education, a scholarly or literary +career. They will go without a motor car in order to have money to +buy books. It would be interesting to make a comparative study of the +families of college professors and certain groups of artisans, who have +about the same income as that of the average professor, in order to +see which type had the greater number of children, and which sent the +greater number of their young people to college, also which possessed +the greater number of automobiles or radios. Thus the standard of +living applies not to what one wishes to possess, but to what one is +willing to pay for a certain kind of living. It has to do with quality, +not mere quantity. This principle applies to intellectual standards of +value. People are content with the second-rate because it is easier. + +With learning there comes a new reverence. Perhaps I might speak of +it as the educated man’s faith. Respect for the excellent is possible +only to a mind which has learned to recognize distinctions of worth. +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 mankind. People +seek something “given” to believe in, some universal formula of +salvation, because they are unable to distinguish the relative worth +of concrete experiences actual or possible. Those who shrink from the +responsibility of their own yes or no take refuge in an imaginary +_cosmic_ yes and no. But ground your faith in the difference between +the better and the worse, and you have a faith which grows stronger +with the increase of knowledge. All other “faiths” grow weaker because +they are substitutes and evasions, futile attempts to possess value +without the exercise of discrimination. + +If existence as a whole has a purpose or a universal meaning, I do +not see how our minds could know it, or what use it could ever be to +the mind that grasped it. I have tried to show that our thoughts and +beliefs are _human ways_, that our thinking is partial. As James said, +all meanings depend upon the fact that we are “interested spectators” +and prefer some things to others. Aside from our human interests and +preferences, everything being so far as we can see equally inevitable, +has the same degree of existence, or right to be, and all is equally +important. Nothing then has any special importance. And if nothing is +important, nothing has any meaning. It might be said that each thing +has meaning for the whole. But since the whole lies beyond our ken, +such a statement does not help us much. The world of meanings and of +truths therefore does not have an independent existence but is related +to our preferences and is a human creation. I am not, however, at +present concerned with the problem of the meaning of truth. Truth is +itself a value. 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 +reverence. It is, “I believe in the distinction of worth.” + +The loss of belief in distinction turns both society and the world of +values upside down. It is symptomatic of the dominance of mediocrity. +With the degradation of power there is a corresponding degradation of +value. The power which rules the modern world is the power of numbers. +Many will say it is the power of money. This too is a numerical force, +having nothing to do with quality or the discrimination of value: the +possession of money does not as such lift the possessor out of the +mass. There is much talk about the conflict of the masses with the +capitalists, but since on both sides the struggle is one for economic +advantage rather than for spiritual value, it may be regarded merely +as the conflict between successful and unsuccessful mass units over a +common interest. Money power and the power of numbers are not really +a confrontation of contrasting valuations of the possibilities of +experience. On both sides the conflict is waged on about the same +level and for identical ends. Capitalism is not really the foe of +democracy, it is democracy’s first-born child. The self-made successful +business man is the “success” in democratic society, its ideal. He is +what the mass as a whole strives to become. Some people think this is +individualism. Infrequently it is, usually it is not. Dollars still +are numbered, and money power is the power of numbers. Its power is +the same as concentrated mass power, since it is of this same order. +We speak of “amassing” money. The mass idea and the ideals of the mass +prevail all round. Capitalism holds sway by virtue of its mass appeal, +and by virtue of the fact that the capitalist is the realization of the +average man’s ambition. The mass because it is powerful and can grant +or withold favors, lords it over the realm of values. Emphasis is laid +upon that which produces an identical type of reaction in a maximum +number of people. The commonplace is rated high because it is the +average. + +The rare, the unique, the excellent, cannot be syndicated and +drops out of consideration. The standards which prevail are those +of undifferentiated men. Mass appeal asserts the equal importance +of all individuals, as if a man’s worth consisted in his mere +“number-oneness.” This is the democratic dogma of equality. Critics +of the dogma frequently say that it represents the foolish attempt to +declare all men equal in all respects. I doubt this. It seems to me +that this dogma is perfectly correct so far as it goes. It declares +all men to be equal _before the law_. And law is no respecter of +persons, hence all men are equal before that which does not respect +their personalities. 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 mass. It is not denied that men may be unequal in other +respects. The point is that these “other respects” do not get a +hearing. But the only recognition of the individual that amounts to +anything is that which recognizes the differences of one from another. + +When we emphasize excellence, good workmanship, sincerity, ability, +virtue, wisdom, we have in mind matters concerning which the +differences among men are the differences between superiority +and inferiority. Hence discrimination of value is recognition of +distinctions of worth among men. Lose sight of distinctions of +worth--of the very desirability of distinction as a social good--and +all values decline to the level of mediocrity. + +In the supremacy of man as mass the mediocre man, he who in all things +corresponds to type, and is most reducible to average, is King. For him +books and journals are published; clergymen and editors speak for him +and say what they think he believes; laws are made in his interest. +Programs for the radio and motion pictures are made to please him. His +dilemmas are held up as the dilemmas of every one. His goods become the +standards to which all are expected to conform. He has purchasing power +and he has votes. He can make and unmake heroes. He determines the +direction of the course of events in his day and generation. Society +moves in the direction of the type of man about whom there is most +general concern, the man whose preferences set the pace. + +The goal set by “modern ideas” would seem to be not the attainment of +a higher level of values, not greater personal worth among men, but +the more complete supremacy of man as mass. Recognition of personal +worth is discouraged, for it necessitates the admission that some +persons are by nature, or as a result of effort, superior to others. +Such an admission is contrary to the idealization of the mass, which is +the worship of the power of numbers. Personal distinction is frowned +upon and discounted. Differences of superiority or inferiority are, +if grudgingly admitted, said to be the result not of difference in +native endowment or of individual achievement, but mere products of +environment. Hence human excellence is an accident. + +There is a wide-spread tendency to minimize and deny the significance +of personality. An advanced school of psychology holds that belief +in the existence of personality is a superstition. Personality is +simply the way the nervous organization works and is similar to the +running of a gas engine. Any hereditary differences of capacity or of +teachableness are negligible. All individual traits are reducible to +conditioned reflexes which are what they are because of the coincidence +of certain stimuli. I am what I am because somebody co-operating with +the environment conditioned me in this way. I have absolutely nothing +to do with the matter. Consciousness, interest, attention, will, have +no place in this psychology. The same may be said of all attempts to +explain the phenomena of life in mechanistic terms. Historic movements +are explained as if individuals had nothing to do with them. Social +change is said to be the product of impersonal economic forces, and +progress the result of mass action. Thus the Great Man at best only +represents the mass tendencies of his times. Even for discoveries in +science and creative achievement in the arts, the mass is given credit +although it may have resisted these things when they were new. + +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 power. Whether distinctions of +worth are recognized or not, deny that they may exist, deny that men +may have greater or less worth in themselves, and human achievement +becomes merely the attainment of bodily comfort, or social power, or +satisfaction of egoistic desires. There are many who would hold that +such is the case. But our existence is not measured by what we can +get or what we can do, but by what with our getting and doing we may +_become_. Mankind differs from other animals not merely in getting and +doing, man is himself different, and is more than they. It is in this +that his evolution is seen. The same is true of the individuals in the +mass; some are more in themselves than others. So obvious a truth would +never require statement except in a standardized, crowd-manipulating +age in which there is much that encourages the inferior to abound. + +I am not suggesting that we devise some plan for picking out all the +superior individuals for preferment and honor, or that we weed out the +inferior ones by some process of elimination, or that the educated man +should or could pose as a superior person. He who must make an effort +to exhibit any excellence has attained little of it. If the world is +spiritually right side up, people will be selected by the standards +of value that prevail. When you buy a newspaper, vote a party ticket, +go to a theatre, listen to a lecture, read a book, express a moral +sentiment or show any preference whatever, you are doing more than just +that thing. Our daily choices determine what we ourselves become, and +they do something else also; the total of them has survival value for +some particular type of man. We are thus daily deciding whose dilemmas +shall determine the quality of living, and what kind of human life is +to be lived on this planet, and who shall thrive and who shall perish. + +Human progress is not something we achieve directly by joining a +movement and forcing our convictions upon others. It is something we +help determine every day in the choices we make. The elements of it +come like the variations which appear in the structure of plants and +animals. And as Darwin said it is the function of the environment, +in causing modifications of species, to select certain variants +for survival and to eliminate others; so also in the progress of +civilization do our daily preferences operate. Natural selection and +primitive custom operate blindly and automatically and without reason. +It is because education improves judgment and the appreciation of value +that Thomas Davidson spoke of it as “conscious evolution.” + +The education of a people at any time is its answer to the riddle of +life. This answer is more than giving an account of the processes of +nature; it is the opening and closing of doors upon the possibilities +of experience--and upon various human types. Thus education is +selective. It is the sifting out of the relative worth of men. It finds +the significance of living to be the struggle for excellence. Its goal +is a higher type of living man and woman. Its great task therefore, +in the modern world, is the reassertion of the _inequalities_ which +mass appeal ignores, the rediscovery for the modern spirit of the +distinction between superiority and inferiority. 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 level. Appreciation of distinctions of worth is an essential of a +liberal education, as it is of the whole spiritual life of man. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +EDUCATION AND WORK + + +In the closing sentence of the preceding chapter, I used the words +“spiritual life.” Perhaps it is unnecessary to say that I did not have +in mind anything vaguely metaphysical, supernatural or mystical. I +meant the phrase to designate a hierarchy of values which is possible +to an organism capable of exercising choice among its experiences. +It is in the sense that it deals with qualities and their relative +importance that education may be said to be spiritual, spiritual in a +purely naturalistic sense. 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 possess. + +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 things. It is possible +for a man to pursue his studies in complete isolation from the world +about him. But as mental life is possible only in response to some +environment, such pursuit of learning merely substitutes an artificial +and sequestered environment for the actual one. 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 relationships, such education is merely an elaborate escape +from reality. The educated mind responds to our common world. It +differs from the uneducated mind not in that it responds to a different +set of situations, but in that it responds with a different system of +values. Education is not so much a special interest separated from +other interests as it is a method of transforming all our interests. + +It ought to have something of importance to do with work, since most +people are engaged in some form of work most of their time. And when in +an industrial age like the present, the whole life of society revolves +about the system of production of wealth, it is impossible to precede +with education and ignore the challenge to it of our industrialism. It +may not be the task of education to provide a solution of the labor +problem. But education certainly fails of its function when men are +unable to retain its values while struggling with such problems. + +People rarely behave like educated human beings when they are +confronted by an economic issue. Liberality of outlook, tolerance, +temperance of judgment, self-control, ability to see when one is +making oneself ridiculous, respect for the truth, are not often found +on either side of an industrial conflict. Fantastic notions of the +relation of education to work abound because there is much confusion +about the meaning and value of work for human personality. Labor is at +the same time idealized and despised. + +Ruskin, Carlyle, and many humanitarians have held labor to be most +praiseworthy. Work is a blessing, in it are peace of mind and +self-respect. Work is noble, and it ennobles him who does it. A +contemporary writer on the subject of education warns us that the hand +may not be “dishonored with impunity.” By dishonored he means that hand +work may be considered inferior to brain work to the extent that there +is great disparity between the rewards. Distinction has been made +between work of hand and work of brain. The former is real work. Once +in a parade of working men in Pittsburgh, I saw on a banner carried +at the head of a column of metal workers, these words in very large +capitals, _We Work_. The implication was that some others, slightly to +their discredit, did not really work. From the idealization of work to +the idealization of the worker is a logical step. The working class, +a class which in earlier centuries was looked upon as the despised +“proletariat,” attained a new status in nineteenth century thought. +Men began to look to labor as the one class capable of righting the +age-long wrongs of humanity, and to believe the control of society by +organized labor to be the only means to the establishment of peace and +justice. Most of the writers who praised labor were themselves members +of the so-called leisure class. A few like Tolstoi vainly tried to +support themselves by manual toil. Many who wrote convincingly of the +blessings of labor did not personally avail themselves of its ennobling +advantages. In the earlier humanitarian sentiment of the nobility of +labor, the worker was envisaged as a free and independent person in +whose wholesome activity there was healthfulness. Good workmanship +commanded general respect and revealed the dignity of labor. There were +simplicity and grandeur in the primitive act of a man eating his bread +in the sweat of his brow. He who lived close to earth gained something +of the silent, calm majesty of nature. Able to cope with natural forces +and giving mankind as good as he received, he need ask favor of no man. + +Rousseau says, “Outside of society, an isolated man, owing nothing to +any one, has a right to live as he pleases; but in society, where he +necessarily lives at the expense of others, he owes them in labor the +price of his support; to this there is no exception. To work, then, is +a duty indispensable to social man. Rich or poor, powerful or weak, +every idle citizen is a knave. + +“Now of all the occupations which can furnish subsistence to man, that +which approaches nearest to the state of Nature is manual labor; of all +the conditions the most independent of fortune and of men, is that of +the artisan. The artisan depends only on his labor. He is free--as free +as the husbandman is a slave; for the latter is dependent on his field, +whose harvest is at the discretion of others. The enemy, the prince, +a powerful neighbor, may take away from him this field; on account +of it he may be harassed in a thousand ways; but wherever there is a +purpose to harass the artisan, his baggage is soon ready; he folds his +arms and walks off. Still, agriculture is the first employment of man; +it is the most honorable, the most useful, and consequently the most +noble that he can practice. I do not tell Emile to learn agriculture, +for he knows it. All rustic employments are familiar to him; it is +with them that he began, and to them he will ever be returning. I +say to him, then, Cultivate the heritage of your fathers. But if you +lose this heritage, or if you have none, what are you to do? Learn a +trade.... I wish to give him a rank which he cannot lose, a rank which +will honor him as long as he lives. I wish to raise him to the state of +manhood; and whatever you may say of it, he will have fewer equals by +this title than by all those which he will derive from you.... It is +important to learn a trade, less for the sake of knowing the trade than +for overcoming the prejudices which despise it. You say you will never +be compelled to work for a living. Ah, so much the worse--so much the +worse for you! But never mind; do not work from necessity, but work +for glory.... + +“You enter the first shop whose trade you have learned: ‘Foreman, I am +in need of employment.’ ‘Fellow-workman, stand there and go to work.’ +Before noon comes you have earned your dinner, and if you are diligent +and frugal, before the week has passed you will have the wherewithal +to live for another week; you will have lived a free, healthy, true, +industrious and just man. It is not to lose one’s time to gain it in +this way.” + +Here as always Rousseau is romantic. This is all very beautiful--until +you try it. I am inclined to think that most men who entertain this +view have never worked for a living. The happy few amongst the +toilers of earth may here and there have enjoyed this independence. +It is certainly not the experience of the rank and file in our +present industrial system. With the development of the system, and +the consequent organization of labor, the idealization of work is +supplanted by the idealization of the labor movement and its aims. +In the writings of Marx, labor as work is represented merely as so +much homogeneous effort-filled time which is measured and reckoned in +strictly numerical terms, as if its qualitative or personal elements +could be ignored or were non-existent. 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 up, as it were, not +something inherently superior in kind. 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 it. But it takes little +account of that pride in achievement without which those who assert the +dignity of labor are making a virtue of necessity. + +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 “wage slavery.” But this is to abandon the +older idealization of work and of workmanship. Labor is now viewed +_realistically_ as an irksome servitude. Marxians argue that labor +creates all wealth and is therefore justly entitled to it all. It is +beside our point to enter into a discussion of this proposition. I am +merely seeking to show that in this philosophy, emphasis is shifted +from the idealization of work to the idealization of the labor movement +itself. A Marxian could agree with Aristotle that mechanical toil is +debasing, only he would add “under the present system.” Emancipate +labor, give it its rights, reward it justly and force all to do their +share of it, and then work will be ennobling. Which is to say, work +will be ennobling only in an ideal society. This position is an attempt +to restore with one hand what is taken away with the other. Work is +robbed of its dignity when excellence in it is not thought worthy +of consideration, when superiority of workmanship is represented +merely as a greater quantity of abstract labor-time. Advocates of +the cause of labor do not say much about the distinction between +superior and inferior workmanship. And here we have an example of +the mass-psychology of which I spoke earlier. In the degree that you +consider men as mass, you ignore individual worth. + +There has been a slight tendency to regard labor as an instinct. The +impulse to work is of course a universal human trait. Work is normal, +natural, right, and those who have no desire for it are going contrary +to the demands of human nature. Some such position as this is taken by +Mr. Veblin in his delightful satire, “The Instinct of Workmanship.” +The author of this book holds with McDougall that man has an instinct +to work, but that unfortunately the instinct has been corrupted. This +corruption began in primitive times with elders, medicine men and +warriors. And throughout historic time, with each succeeding privileged +class, human nature has become steadily more perverted and abject, +until this instinct reaches its final stage of corruption in the +present capitalist system. Thus a last count is added to the indictment +of capitalism. It has corrupted labor’s instinct of workmanship. + +I have never known whether Mr. Veblin meant his humor to be taken +seriously, or intended his book to be a subtle thrust at the +theologians. His argument may be regarded as a clever parody of +the doctrine of the fall of man in Adam’s sin, with the consequent +curse upon all the descendants of our first parent. In any case, his +contention adds somewhat to the confusion as to the true significance +of labor. I have not found evidence to prove that man has an instinct +of workmanship. Hence the relation of education to work is not that of +the rational control of instinct, for if the knowledge of simple labor +processes were innate, men would not even need “practical” education in +them. + +Not all men have held a high opinion of labor. Nietzsche says work is a +disgrace. There are doubtless many people who secretly agree with him. +I have known working men who suffered from an “inferiority complex.” It +is possible that the protest of labor is not wholly against injustice, +but is in part a protest against the feeling of inferiority. It is +not uncommon to find young people who are ashamed to work. It is not +only among the rich and privileged that we find those who look down +on labor. The same attitude exists in all classes, for much the same +reason that the majority of people despise the poor and emulate the +rich. Work has in the past been the lot of the slave. Most men are at +present driven to labor by necessity, and many entertain the hope of +escaping from the necessity as soon as possible. + +We have even Biblical authority for this attitude. The punishment of +Adam for his act of disobedience is a life of labor. Henceforth he must +earn his living, tilling the ground and eating his bread in the sweat +of his brow--in other words, labor is a curse. And so it is regarded +by the law of the land. When a man is convicted of a crime the court +sentences him to prison and to “hard labor”--until such time as he is +pardoned and may return to his career of crime and life of leisure. + +It is interesting to note the place assigned to work by the Hebrew and +Christian religions which, having their origin in the folkways and the +daydreams of the masses, are very sympathetic to the poor toilers of +earth. Yet we are told that to keep the Sabbath holy, the day must not +be defiled with labor. There is no mention of the blessedness of labor +in the Beatitudes; 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 fed, reveals a spirit very remote from that of industry. +Heaven is thought of as a place of eternal rest. + +A similar popular valuation of labor is revealed in the myths of +antiquity. The gods do not work. Vulcan, the exception to this rule, +is always made to appear ridiculous among the gods; they are said to +laugh at his awkwardness. The “labors” of Hercules are not really +toil but exhibitions of miraculous strength. For the most part in the +legends which have expressed the wish-fancies of mankind, the hero +does everything but work; he fights, makes love, kills dragons, goes +on strange voyages, wins a kingdom, in fact, his adventures may be +interpreted as symbolic expressions of the wish of mankind to escape +the common burden of toil. + +I think, moreover, men belittle their work when they accept the +broad distinction between the “brain” worker and the “hand” worker. +Psychologists say that thinking is as truly bodily activity as is any +other form of labor, and there is very little so-called work that does +not require thought. There is every conceivable gradation from that +labor which is almost wholly routine, to that which consists of nothing +but solving problems. No one knows the point where labor ceases to be +brain work and becomes manual. The world’s work requires of men many +kinds of activity, some of great importance, some of little. There is +no use either of idealizing it or in despising it. Men do their work +because they have to and are neither noble nor ignoble because of it. + +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 effort, and has not permitted himself to become an +automaton or a fool. The labor problem however tends to become one +primarily not of the significance of work at all, but of improving the +material conditions of those who toil. This latter problem is wholly +justifiable. But because of the prevailing mental confusion about labor +itself, it is generally assumed that if a man works he should receive a +different sort of “education” from that of other educated people, and +that his training should be the means to ends that have little to do +with interest in education as such. + +There are those who always view the education of workers strictly from +the standpoint of its value for social security. Just as a well-known +statistician not long ago advised the American investor to support +the Church, whether or not he agreed with its doctrines, because +the influence of the Church upon the masses, he said, was on the +side of invested capital, 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 insurance. + +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 sane. There is a wide-spread belief that education +like religion is a conservative influence. If working men were only +better informed they would have a more sympathetic understanding of the +intentions of their employers; they would show some appreciation of +their economic opportunities under our free institutions; they would +know better than to go on strike, or listen to their union leaders, +or dally with socialistic ideas. Perhaps so, but I have yet to see an +educational effort which was consciously directed to these ends that +was either sincere or intellectually respectable. + +From a wholly different point of view, the relation of education to +work would seem to present no problem at all. Work itself is said to +be the only genuine method of education. A popular writer who holds +advanced ideas on this subject, says that the four years at college are +wasted, that “as early as fifteen or sixteen a youth should be brought +into contact with realities and kept in contact with realities from +that age on. That does not mean that he will make an end of learning +then, but only that he will henceforth go on learning--and continue +learning for the rest of his life--in relation not to the ‘subjects’ of +a curriculum, but to the realities he is attacking.” In this passage +one detects the odor of Rousseau. We discussed this theory when we were +considering liberal education as animal training. At best it is but +half true. If learning necessarily came from contact with realities, +every one would be educated. But there is no assurance that people will +see the significance of the realities they “attack.” The importance of +experimental study is not a new discovery. Science has long employed +the laboratory method. And even laboratory work, work done in an +environment which is carefully arranged to stimulate discovery, does +not always develop habits of independent judgment. + +The notion that experience is necessarily the best teacher is popular. +The newspapers encourage it. If a man makes a success in business, +interviewers seek his opinion on every conceivable subject. 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 books. Such students do not as a rule gain much from study, for no +matter what subject is under discussion, they always know more about it +than the instructor. + +Experience as such teaches just what is experienced and nothing more. +Few minds are able to reflect judiciously upon experience or to draw +correct conclusions from it. Labor is something that can be known only +by one who has experienced it, and this experience is important for +anyone who desires a broad knowledge of human life. But it is with work +as it is with travel: each is an aid to education only as it quickens +insight. The man on the Bowery who boasts that he has traveled over +America from coast to coast may really never have left the Bowery; in +each place he has visited, he finds himself in the same sort of lodging +house, in the same environment, among the same sort of companions, all +with the same interests. + +So with many kinds of work. Much of it is mere routine. He who from day +to day does the same thing, until he is able to perform the movements +with a minimum of effort and attention, is certainly acquiring a habit, +but we have seen that not all habit formation is education. Those +who work with certain kinds of machinery frequently complain of the +monotony of their work. I think that one of the serious objections to +such work is that it has so little educational value. 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 time. Some think that adult education is important because +it gives people something to do in their unemployed hours. But people +do not always improve their minds during the time when they are free +from labor, and many whose work is routine, possess by nature or +develop routine habits of mind which interfere with their education. +They become victims of fixed ideas, of slogans and catchwords. + +Perhaps the nearest approach to a real integration of education and +work is vocational training. This is the “education” which most people +seek. Universities offer an increasing number of courses in practical +subjects such as engineering, mining, business methods. Various trades +are taught in public schools. 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 “put more pay in his envelope.” +I have already discussed this useful knowledge. Both the individual +and society profit by it. And in addition to its practical advantages, +there is a sincerity and lack of pretense about such education which +distinguish it from much of the traditional education. It must be +thorough or it cannot meet the test of practical experience. If +men learned mechanics with no more thoroughness than that which +characterizes the study of the classics, the country would go into +bankruptcy. + +But as I have tried to show, this training for practical efficiency +is too narrow. 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 information. Advocates of this +type of education often become partisan and declare that it alone is +education. + +It is doubtless too soon to speculate upon the effects of our new +policy of reducing immigration to the point where it is almost +negligible. Whether the effect is to intensify competition among +working people, or to lessen it because of a labor shortage, in either +case the result is obvious. Somebody must do the actual work of the +country. We shall soon have a working class in America that is more +than one generation old. That is, we are now for the first time in +our history tending toward a relatively fixed and permanent working +class. The various national strains in it will be held together long +enough to become acquainted with one another, long enough to find more +in common than a common opposition to capital, long enough to develop +a working class tradition which is American. Workers will not only +strive individually to become middle class; they will be obliged to +improve their condition as a class. To the economic struggle there +will be added efforts for culture. Many workers are already beginning +to seek education as an aid to a more satisfactory and less sordid +existence while working at their tasks. Sooner or later education +must cease to be the distinguishing mark of a privileged class, or a +device which aids a man to the goal of his ambition; it must become a +universal practice of learning how to live like a civilized being in +any occupation. + +I have said that people’s ideas of the relation of education to work +are for the most part confused and fantastic, and that among the +causes of this confusion was a misconception of the meaning of labor. +We saw that the older romantic idealization of labor gives way to +the idealization of Labor not as work but as an organized movement. +There are “friends of Labor” who think of workers’ education as class +education. And by class education they do not mean the extension of the +opportunity for liberal education to people who toil for their daily +bread. They are not interested in liberal education, any more than +they are interested in work. They wish working men to be given such +instruction as will be useful in the “class struggle.” Labor is to have +its own kind of education. + +It is said that educators are but the retainers, the “high-brow” +policemen of the vested interests and must always teach what the +masters require. The educators’ task is to train the masses to be more +productive and willing servants of the masters, to train the sons of +the owners in the idealogy so that they may work it to advantage, 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 privileged. Traditional education, being nothing +but a weapon of the ruling class, is not for the workers. The workers +are now passing through a period of discipline which is preparing +them to be the future masters of the world. As the old education was +for the old master class, the new must likewise be the ideology of +the future master class, the organized proletariat. The workers must +educate themselves, for any education that capitalists provide for +them will be the capitalist education which enslaves the worker. The +new education in proletarian ideals must be wholly different from the +past. Its aim is not to provide useless and ornamental knowledge, or +escapes and consolations, but to equip labor to emancipate itself from +the rule of capital and to conquer and control industrial society. Thus +labor education is sometimes little more than old fashioned radical +propaganda. Where this is not the case, workers may still be urged to +the pursuit of knowledge by militant appeal. The following is quoted +from a bulletin issued by a state director of labor education in the +West: + + “He (the worker) lives in a society committed to the practice of + buying his labor cheap and selling its product dear, to the theory + that property is sacred and life of little value. In support of this + position toward labor, the press, the pulpit, and too often the + school lend their aid.... + + “All this passion for justice will accomplish nothing, believe me, + unless you get knowledge. You may be strong and clamorous, you + may win a victory, you may effect a revolution, but you will be + trodden down again under the feet of knowledge unless you get it for + yourselves. Even if you should win that victory, you will be trodden + down again under the feet of knowledge if you leave knowledge in the + hands of privilege, because knowledge will always win over ignorance.” + +If as an individual a man is interested in his education only in so +far as it may be to his economic advantage, we regard him as a rather +stupid materialist. It is no less stupidly materialistic to urge a +class to seek knowledge merely for the sake of a common economic +advantage. As a rule, ignorant men place a strictly material valuation +upon education. If education is nothing but the training of certain +groups of animals in the best methods for taking material advantage +of one another, it makes little difference which group wins in the +class struggle. This theory means that the belief that education can +make a difference in the kind of living is a delusion, and that the +only significant differences in human life are the results of economic +forces. + +Have we, in the notion of a special type of education for the working +class, a correct view of the relation between education and work? +Let us admit for the sake of argument, that traditional education is +class education, elaborated in the interest of the dominant elements +in society. Even then it might have a function other than that of an +aid to systematic exploitation. It might serve as a guide to the use +of leisure time. It might aid men in discriminating between ends which +were worthy of effort and those which were not. It might be necessary +for the development of personality, and to enable people to discover +that which would give some intelligible meaning to their existence. +Hitherto the privilege of the fortunate few, it might conceivably be a +good which may now be the possession of the many. + +I cannot see that the interests I have just mentioned are necessarily +those of any particular class. And it would seem that insofar as +traditional education has failed, the failure has been the result of +subordinating these very universal human interests to the special +economic advantages of a particular class. Along with the class spirit, +irrelevant factors enter into education. Education becomes illiberal +and propagandist, a drill in herd opinion. Prejudice is not removed; it +is intensified. A spirit of intolerance is bred concerning anything +which might effect class interest. + +And now it is argued that since liberal education has been spoiled by +one class in making it the servant of its class interests, the working +class is justified in again spoiling it for its own special interests. +If men prefer a substitute to the real thing, it is their own affair. +But a person is either being educated or he is not, and whether he is +or not is a matter quite independent of his particular occupation. Of +course a man’s education will make a difference in the spirit in which +he works and in the quality of his workmanship, for it changes the man. +If traditional education is unfit for the working man, it is not fit +for anyone. I can see no reason why economic differences should be made +the basis of cultural differences. The knowledge that has value should +be accessible to all regardless of their economic interests, or the +profession they practice. If a bad education should not be given to a +worker, it is not because he is a working man but because he is a man. +Anything that it is good for one class to know is good for another. A +banker may appreciate Shakespeare’s sonnets, so may a tailor; but there +is not one Shakespeare for the first and another Shakespeare for the +second. If biology is worth knowing, its value is not changed because a +machinist studies it. If a philosophy is true, it is true for the man +who can understand it, whether he be a railroad president or a coal +miner. There is no proletarian arithmetic or capitalist algebra or +Marxian astronomy. + +To be sure, a worker’s education should take account of the economic +situations in his environment. So should the education of all men. +It is sometimes said that within the ranks of labor there is a new +civilization in the making. Working men are said to have ideals and +standards, an ethic and culture of their own which are now manifest +as working class “idealogy.” I have not noticed it. From the time I +was a small boy, I have had somewhat unusual opportunities to know the +labor movement, and during the last twenty years have sought to make +a psychological study of it. The “labor point of view” is commonly +that which propagandists wish the worker to have. In America the +“revolutionary class-conscious proletariat” exists only on paper. If +we consider the ideals, habits and ambitions of working people, it is +difficult to conclude that they form a culture group apart. The working +man votes for Al Smith and Calvin Coolidge, dresses like the grocer +and the bank clerk, drives a motor car if he can afford it, reads the +popular journals, has about the same ideas of patriotism, morals, +government, and success in life as his employer, and tends in every way +to become more and more “middle class.” + +Suppose the change contemplated by many radicals should occur and +that there should be a “social revolution.” What of the education of +workers then? The worker would still spend his days at the machine or +bench. Is it not conceivable that men might then in their pursuit of +knowledge have some interests other than the economic? Under no system +should people permit their entire personalities to be drawn into and +used up by industry. Industry is a means, not an end. It is in its +proper place when it makes possible the achievement of culture. As a +man becomes educated, he should learn so far as circumstances permit, +to put his work in its proper place. The relation of education to work +is no different from its relation to all the interests and activities +and demands which life makes of us. A community may be said to have +a culture only when all men--each in his own way,--cooperate in the +realization of certain values, which give to all their actions and +strivings a perspective, an order, a meaning. It is in this sense that +Europe in the thirteenth century may be said to have had a culture. +In discussing the cultural values of any period of history, there is +danger of over-simplification. The picture which I have of that century +may not be historically correct, but it will serve to illustrate my +point. 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 meaning. The secular did not really exist for +the men of that age. All work was religious work. Everywhere there +was ceremony, the shrine, sacredness. The fields were blessed before +plowing; harvest was a gay religious festival. Every labor process +and every station in society was brought to the service of the common +ideal, and from it gained added significance. For it the peasant tilled +the ground, its themes were the inspiration of the sculptor, the +painter, the musician, the builder. In the service of this valuation of +the experiences of life the King ruled, the soldier fought, the monk +said his prayers, the philosopher meditated. + +The cultural ideal of an age is revealed in the type of man for whom +the people have greatest reverence. Such a man is the meaning of +living for the men of that age. Inquire of the thirteenth century in +whom is its ideal realized, and the answer is clear. It is realized in +the saints. I do not mean to suggest that everybody in those days was +saintly. But there was common agreement that human life existed for +the achievement of sainthood. People achieved it in varying degrees +and by methods which appear strange to us of the twentieth century. +But all men hoped to achieve it in the next world if not in this. The +existence of the saints in Heaven was a storehouse of merit upon which +all could draw. And one living saint was held to be enough to justify +the existence of an entire age. + +I trust it is not necessary for me to add that the saint is +not my ideal of the meaning of life. Ideals of asceticism and +other-worldliness have no interest for me. But I wonder what would +happen if people should “go in” for education with the unanimity +of agreement as to its value that they once showed with regard to +religion. I hesitate to make the suggestion lest I appear to suggest +something solemn, sanctimonious, pious and official. We have enough of +that sort of thing now among professional educators. + +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 men, we should again have a culture in which industry would +take its proper place. We have for it now no other goal than the +making of money, and hence industry runs amuck while the spirit of +commercialism crushes out all our values. We keep the wheels going +round, but the quality of living and the meaning of our work decline. +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 living. Only the peoples that have achieved a culture have a +goal for which to labor. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +EDUCATION AND MORALS + + +The source of much of our interest in public education is concern for +our neighbors’ morals. This is doubtless why in America we commonly +think of adult education as something which should exist for other +people rather than for ourselves. We are a nation of moral reformers. +Education is often proposed as an alternative to moral legislation. +There is an increasing demand for more effective moral education in the +public schools. + +When the educator becomes an “uplifter” the moral interest is always +a little forced and education suffers. Moral enthusiasm, when it is +enthusiasm for the good of others, tends to make of education a species +of organized charity. Seek education for yourself and it is the search +for the good life. From ancient times men have sought knowledge that +they might become better judges of good and evil. To one who is seeking +to know what is good, all popular moral conventions, taboos, and +alleged divine commandments become proper subjects of study, criticism +and possible revaluation. Moral education is not mere drill in the ways +of the herd. The good man’s first duty, as Professor Erskine says, is +to be intelligent. Good intentions alone do not enable a man to judge +wisely or behave well. The prevailing idea that one can be at the same +time good and stupid has strongly influenced our education. Moral +education becomes moralizing. The phrase “ethical culture” is either +tautological or it is a contradiction in terms. + +If we were each more genuinely interested in our education there would +be much less talk about morality and less occasion for such talk. The +moralist is as a rule the person with a lower middle-class mind, who +insists upon calling general attention to his own dilemmas. Mediocrity +makes parade of virtue a claim to superiority, presenting a picture of +itself as the likeness of the good man. Goodness is defined in negative +terms. The good man is he who observes the “thou shalt not,” not he +who can do the rare and difficult thing. It is in the localities where +there is least artistic appreciation or intellectual curiosity or +cosmopolitan spirit, the places where people have nothing with which to +occupy their minds, that we find the strongholds of “morality.” Where +education prevails, people learn to behave themselves as a matter of +wisdom and good taste. Those who are sufficiently practiced in the art +of living to be able to observe the common decencies without always +“watching their step,” may sometimes look up from the ground and take a +broader view. + +Much of the ethical instruction which is given in school is both +bad education and bad morals. Those colleges in which there is most +talk about “education for character” are as a rule those which most +patently fail as educational institutions. The instructor tends to +“protest too much.” The attitude of authority discourages the spirit of +search and criticism. Popular prejudice is intrenched. Non-essentials +are over-emphasized. Crowd-mindedness, rather than independence of +judgment, prevails. Every crowd persuades itself that it is vindicating +the right and justifies its behavior with fine moral sentiments. The +student in school is made susceptible to catchwords and is prepared +to become the typical crowd man of the future. To this end he is +given “ideals,” that is, he is taught to worship certain words such as +“justice,” “purity,” “brotherly love.” Instead of learning to enquire +what such words mean when applied to concrete situations, he is led +to believe that he possesses the realities for which they stand when +he has an attitude of adoration for the words. Henceforth, he can, +without using his brains, be always right even in matters where he +knows nothing, by the trick of seeing in each practical problem a moral +issue. It is in this manner that the majority is always right in a +democracy. If you question its wisdom, you are put in the position of +one who attacks its moral ideals. From the first day in school on, the +child is drilled in cant and in deference to prevailing public opinion. +He is brought up in an atmosphere of sex morality by a stupid and +shame-faced policy of expurgation and censorship, the assumption being +that apparent ignorance is “purity.” A student in a woman’s college +preparing to become a teacher of English literature, elected a course +in the eighteenth century novel, and after listening to the lectures, +she felt it her duty to look over some of the books. Unable to find +the works of Fielding in the library, she inquired of the instructor +where she could secure a copy of “Tom Jones.” The instructor replied, +“Heavens, child, you are not going to _read_ it!” This is perhaps an +extreme case, but it illustrates much of the influence of morals upon +the education of the young. + +Is the student to acquire the virtue of patriotism? Then he is not +to be shown the full force of the example of those who have resisted +tyranny, but must have his head filled with a glorified version of +his country’s history. Is he to learn respect for law? He is not +equipped with principles which enable him to discriminate between +wise and foolish legislation. His teachers and preachers tell him that +law is divine and must be obeyed because it is the law. After three +generations and more of such education, we have a population in which +moral independence is decidedly on the wane. The statute book, not +private judgment, becomes the guide to conduct, and the Federal courts +the safeguard to morals. Open protest against official invasion of +individual rights gives way to furtiveness and evasion. Moral training +which does not encourage critical examination of popular ideas of what +is right and good, does not tend to make men better, but only of one +mind. + +Popular suspicion of intelligence and the belief that one may be good +and do right without it, is carried over into the field of education. +Moral education becomes a special kind of education. It is thought that +there is a “moral knowledge” which is different from other knowledge. +The attempt is made to train character as if character did not include +intelligence. Education, then, intent upon character, distrusts +intelligence. The moral interest results in routine drill in current +precepts and values, not in the awakening of moral responsibility. +Professor Dewey says, + + “Morals are often thought to be an affair with which ordinary + knowledge has nothing to do. Moral knowledge is thought to be a + thing apart, and conscience is thought of as something radically + different from consciousness. This separation, if valid, is of + special significance for education. Moral education in school is + practically hopeless when we set up the development of character as + a supreme end, and at the same time treat the acquiring of knowledge + and the development of understanding, which of necessity occupy the + chief part of school time, as having nothing to do with character. On + such a basis, moral education is inevitably reduced to some kind of + catechetical instruction, or lessons about morals. Lessons ‘about + morals’ signify as a matter of course lessons in what other people + think about virtues and duties. 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 others. Without such a + regard, it has no more influence on character than information about + the mountains of Asia: with a servile regard, it increases dependence + upon others, and throws upon those in authority the responsibility + for conduct. As a matter of fact, 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 few. Not the teaching as + such but the reënforcement of it by the whole régime of which it was + an incident made it effective. To attempt to get similar results + from lessons about morals in a democratic society is to rely upon + sentimental magic.” + +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 values. + +In institutions of higher learning, “Moral Philosophy” or the “Science +of Ethics” is sometimes thought to be training in morals. It is so +only to the extent that such study is itself good education. I find +that many students have the same experience that I had with my college +course in Ethics. I took up the study believing that at last I should +learn what is right and how to do it. I soon discovered that I had +entered upon the driest and least practical course of study offered in +the college. 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 conduct. +I understand that in some institutions the students’ demand for advice +has resulted in courses of ethics which consist of case studies. No +doubt the opinions of the students and the instructor concerning +certain hypothetical dilemmas of conduct are very interesting. But as +Plato would say, such study is made up of “opinion,” not “knowledge.” +It is doubtful if such discourse ever results in modifying behavior. + +“Pure” ethics consists of _a priori_ arguments about the teachings of +philosophy concerning such abstract concepts as the moral judgment, the +nature of the Good, the idea of Duty in general, not of my particular +duties. Such study may be good training in logic, but it has no more to +do with conduct than has formal logic, and not as much as mathematics, +for one may apply the principles of mathematics to concrete problems. +Perhaps the greatest gain for the student from such study is the +discovery that philosophers do not agree upon any one system of morals, +and that in strict logic we do not know what we mean by our moral +generalizations. The more universal an ethical concept is, the more +it exists wholly within and for reason, the less is it a deduction +from experience and the less use is it as a guide to behavior. Ethics, +as moral philosophy, is not a descriptive study of the customs and +practices of people, or of what things men in diverse times and places +have held to be good or evil, right or wrong; this is anthropology. +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 good; +this is psychology. Ethics, moreover, is not a scientific study of the +means of accomplishing any good whatsoever; for this at once leads out +of pure ethics into economics, mechanics, medicine, etc. Pure ethics is +pure logic applied to ultimate concepts _about_ morality in general. +It is the “formulation of the Good as it would hold for all possible +worlds,” a kind of speculation or contemplation. Its good does not +exist in experience anywhere; it is metaphysical and exists only for +philosophizing. Hence ethic, strictly speaking, is concerned with ends +not with means, and the ends are not experienced, they are only thought +about. As an example of such an approach to morals, there is Kant’s +Categorical Imperative, from the consideration of which everything +concrete, empirical, personal is removed. + +I quote some typical passages from the discussion of the teaching of +ethics in a contemporary Journal of Philosophy, + + “The task of moral philosophy is, by analysis of the moral judgments + men actually make, to arrive at clear notions about obligation, + rights, good, punishment and the like. And the point of honor, the + chastity of the philosopher’s mind, should be never to suffer his + genuine moral judgments to be warped in deference to his theory. For + that is to poison the wells of truth. All that is valuable in ethics + is formal.... + + “Finally, it may be asked, has then moral philosophy no practical + value? I think its prime value is purely speculative,--the supreme + interest of the topic for thoughtful minds and its importance for + metaphysics. But, like everything else, it has its effects. I think + it is, when studied in its purity, an unrivalled mental training. + I believe that the more (apart from casuistry) we reflect on the + nature of the moral law the more we are likely to reverence it. + And lastly I think that nearly every human being does and must to + some extent philosophize. We are all apt to form crude principles, + as that morality consists in keeping the law, or obeying the ten + commandments, or realizing our selves, or seeking the common + good. And then we are apt pendantically and priggishly to distort + our genuine moral judgments in accordance with these inadequate + generalizations. Moral philosophy criticizes such formulas and shows + that they are either untrue or circular. Either self-realization + means realizing the _right_ part of the self or it is not always + right. Promoting the “common good” either means bringing about those + satisfactions which moral reason judges _ought_ to be brought about + (e. g., those which are _just_ or of a _higher_ value) or it is not + always right. And so a truer moral philosophy releases us from the + false dogmatisms which may, though usually they do not, corrupt our + practise.... + + “On the other hand, members of my class actually approached me, as if + I were a father-confessor, for the solution of special problems in + conduct!” + +In the following quotation from the same Journal, a different view is +expressed. The author believes that ethics is sometimes concerned with +the practical problems of conduct, but admits that this inclusion of +practical interests results in some ambiguity and confusion. + + “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 think, or esthetics + teaches us how to appreciate beauty and that we ought to love it, + there yet remains the question, is there a legitimate place in + philosophical education for a science of ethics which frankly does + not disclaim a “practical” interest? Is there a science of ethics + that is “practical” in something more than the Protagorean sense of + supplying instruction in “how to manage our homes in the best way, + and to be able to speak and act the best in public life?” (Such + instruction might well encourage sophistry and the casuistry of which + Professor Carritt speaks.) Is there, in other words, a science of + ethics which is “practical,” not in the sense of telling the pupil + what moral decisions to make, but in cultivating the ἔρως φιλοσοφίας + which would render possible well-considered choices? If there is not + a place for such a science, it seems hardly forthright or consistent + to perpetuate the ambiguity. If there is a legitimate place for + it, it is the duty of moral philosophers to terminate the present + ambiguity by explaining it. We can scarcely afford to laugh at or + deny it.” + +The relation of morals to education is to be found neither in special +discipline and habit formation in the effort for character apart from +intelligence, nor in drill in the logic of an _a priori_ science. When +moral training is made a special interest set off from other aims of +education, it defeats itself. There is no such thing as a moral good +separate from other goods. A moral good is simply the best choice among +the conflicting goods of experience, actual or possible. As James said, +the good is that which satisfies a desire. _A priori_, every desire +should be satisfied, since considered in itself it is a demand for a +satisfaction. But since desires are in conflict, choice is necessary. +The good deed is the right thing to do, or the right way of doing it. +All education if it is really education is moral education. 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 extraneous. Thus the pursuit of knowledge is shorn of +its significance for conduct, and morals is divorced from intelligence. +As Professor Dewey says, + + “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 moral. Discipline, natural development, + culture, social efficiency, are moral traits--marks of a person + who is a worthy member of that society which it is the business of + education to further. There is an old saying to the effect that it + is not enough for a man to be good; he must be good for something. + 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 contributes. What he gets and gives as a human + being, a being with desires, emotions, and ideas, is not external + possessions, but a widening and deepening of conscious life--a more + intense, disciplined, and expanding realization of meanings. What + he _materially_ receives and gives is at most opportunities and + means for the evolution of conscious life. Otherwise, it is neither + giving nor taking, but a shifting about of the position of things in + space, like the stirring of water and sand with a stick. Discipline, + culture, social efficiency, personal refinement, improvement of + character are but phases of the growth of capacity nobly to share + in such a balanced experience. And education is not a mere means to + such a life. Education is such a life. To maintain capacity for such + education is the essence of morals.” + +Moral behavior is not only social. It is also _intelligent_ behavior. +An act has moral significance when the performance shows _insight_ into +the situation. An action done under compulsion or without understanding +has no moral value. A machine may behave very correctly but it is not +a moral being. 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 results. An act is judged, not as +moralists would have it, merely by the intention, but by its results. +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 behavior. The greater the +intelligence, the more nearly does the consideration of an act approach +the estimate of the total result. Thus _the aims of education and +morals are the same_;--the good life in so far as it may be attained by +intelligent choice and behavior. + +Men have long sought to reconcile the true and the good. But what they +have sought to reconcile were as a rule mere _ideas_ about the true +and the good. It is not as logical abstractions that the true and the +good are one, but in the recognition that the really wise act is the +good deed. It is in this sense that wisdom is virtue--in the sense +that virtue is wisdom. But the objection will be made that educated +men are sometimes clever rascals who are only the more evil for all +their knowledge. I do not think I beg the question when I say that such +men are not wise but merely clever. Nor do I mean that good conduct +is merely a matter of reasoning and calculating. No one denies that +desire and instinct and purpose are involved. 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 +nature. Intelligence is not mere intellect. It is the whole man wisely +directing himself with respect to his environment and its alternatives. + +From one age or locality to another fashions in behavior patterns +change. These fashions seem to be important at the time they hold +sway. People confuse them with morals. Efforts are sometimes made by +reformers to introduce innovations similar to those which designers +of clothing each season create in haberdashery. A liberal journal in +New York recently published a series of articles dealing with “The New +Morality.” But morality is neither new nor old. Rules of conduct which +can be made mere matters of style are applicable chiefly to actions the +results of which are unimportant. Such rules have really very little +moral value. They constitute, however, the customs or folkways which +prevail at a given time. Conformity in such matters is required by the +herd. Often this requirement is the only reason for observing certain +rules; the opposite course would be just as good. It is with respect to +such matters that education has the effect of liberating the individual +and improving morals. It breaks the hold of the taboo, 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 behavior. The differences in conduct that count are those +between stupid deeds and well-considered deeds. Intelligence takes into +account the fact that no action of man can be isolated and judged apart +from its place in the social environment, and its effects both for the +author and for his human relationships. Long ago Aristotle showed that +each of our virtues unless intelligently exercised tends to extreme and +to become a vice. A virtue is what it does, not what it feels like to +its possessor. Much is said today about the necessity of loyalty. There +can be no social stability without it; but there is probably no more +serious social menace than unintelligent loyalty. + +Men persist in ascribing to their moral principles a sanctity, +a sublimity, which makes them appear to have an independent and +eternal existence and to be ends in themselves. I believe this to +be a superstition. In what respect is a moral principle more to be +reverenced than a principle of mechanics? To worship Duty in general +is simply to make a god out of a human generalization. The “rightness” +about which men grow eloquent exists simply as the implications of the +concrete situation in which an act is performed. As the ability to +grasp such implications improves, principles of conduct are employed +which are relevant to the situation. I spoke of insight into the +situation toward which action is taken as being alike essential to +education and to the moral judgment. He whose conduct is regulated by +his own insight and by principles which are relevant to the situation +at hand is a morally responsible being, and to the degree that a man +assumes responsibility for his conduct, he reveals the quality of his +education. 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 +place. Judge your conduct by this other, outside something and ignore +the lessons written in the results of your deed, and you cease to learn +anything from your behavior; your education in this direction has come +to a stop. + +Education frequently comes to such a halt when moral teaching is +carried on as part of religious instruction. There is a common belief +that religion is the real basis of morals. I think this belief has +its source in the fact that religious institutions in the past, being +by nature conservative, have sought to perpetuate the folkways. The +church is a form of social organization and has its own interest in +maintaining among its members certain standards of behavior. Often +it has been the only existing agency for the instruction of the +young. 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 punishment. Since both the precepts and the +religious beliefs and ceremonies have evolved together out of primitive +man’s ideas of divine authorship and authority, men do not see that +the basis of morals lies in social necessity--the need for mutual +adjustment among men. The church’s preëmption of the field of morals is +allowed to stand long after its squatter rights in other fields--art +industry, science, etc.--have been challenged. We forget that religion +was once thought to be the basis of all the interests of civilization, +so that naturally the moral interest came under its sway. + +It is obvious that every society, whatever be its religion, must +develop its moral codes as men learn to live together. In the community +everyone is part of the environment of everyone else, and each must +adjust himself to such a human environment. Adjustment is impossible +if there is no order in the environment. 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 do. These habits +and customs are the primitive morals which it is the task of wisdom +to inquire into and revalue and gradually improve or discard, and +substitute intelligently considered means and ends. + +When moral precepts are presented in the form of divine commandments, +morality is merely obedience; it consists in keeping the commandments, +not in acting according to the demands of the situation. The problems +of the control of behavior are solved in advance, and the solutions +learned by repetition and memory drill. If I act in strict obedience +to a divine command, the results of my deed are not my affair. The +responsibility for the result is upon the deity. I can ignore, in +fact, should ignore, the lessons of experience and of conduct. The +commandment does not require of me any insight into the situations in +which I act. I have no moral responsibility. 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 behavior. From the standpoint of their education, they are +children; they have never yet attained the age of moral responsibility. +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 education. + +Again there is a tendency to disregard the consequences of my acts if +I seek, as many moderns do, to make a religion of morality itself. It +is often said, religion is a life, the religious man is the good man. +“My religion is the Golden Rule,” or some other rule. It all depends on +what you mean. 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 you, +very well, but you have not said much. Thomas Paine said, “To do good +is my religion.” But I am not sure he added much to his good will by +styling it a religion. He might as well have said, “I desire very much +to do good.” So do all right-minded people, the difficulty comes when +we try to find out what specifically we mean by doing good. + +Again it is said there is “salvation by character,” but one does not +possess a character. One either is or is not a character. One does +not become a character as a result of routine moralizing or of mere +conformity to conventional standards. President Wilson is quoted as +saying, “There is no more priggish business in the world than the +development of one’s character.” Run away from the man who would be +good to you in order to develop his character. Do the thing that in +your best judgment is the thing to do under the existing circumstances, +do it as well as you can, watch what happens and learn your lesson from +it, and if you _are_ a character you will not go far wrong. + +In all behavior, he who takes responsibility takes chances. There +are those who demand moral certainty. They imagine an absolute good, +a universal principle of right and duty, to be the elemental law of +the universe. Duty is sublime, the Moral Law is God. People persuade +themselves that their adoration of this impersonal god develops in them +the “moral will,” when in fact its function is to provide them with a +fictitious sense of security. I think the ethical philosophy of Kant +is motivated by this wish for security, rather than by an interest +in morals as such. He seeks a good which is to be possessed merely by +thinking it, a maxim which is universally valid. But if I have such a +maxim, assuming that it can be made applicable to any concrete problem +of conduct, then all I need consider is whether I have acted according +to the rule. Here again I need not be concerned about the results of my +behavior. It is not the consequences of my act that show it to be right +or wrong. My deed is right if it is the act of the moral will. + +Another method of escaping moral responsibility is to run with the +crowd. The crowd never considers consequences; it is bent upon +vindicating its principles at any cost. It is anonymous; in it the +individual may not be held to account. The crowd is not the same as +the multitude; it is a distinct phenomena of social psychology. We +all have in our natures certain anti-social impulses. The crowd is +a sort of pseudo-social environment in which these impulses are not +inhibited but are indulged with mutual moral approval. All crowds +profess to be devoted to some moral ideal. Their moral idealism is +mere self-justification and pretext for letting oneself go. It is +a weapon useful in partisan strife; it puts the opposition in the +wrong and justifies hostility. Hence public questions tend to become +moral issues, and the attempt to understand the situation gives way +to righteous indignation toward anyone who witholds approval of the +crowd’s aims and methods. + +And the crowd strives to hold its members in line. Conformity to its +ways and standards is required of all, and becomes an end in itself. +One does things because others do them. The crowd man is shocked by +the unconventional because it is unusual. His ideas of right and +wrong, which he thinks he has by _a priori_ intuition or moral sense, +are merely those which prevail in his set or parish. The average +man’s conscience, which seems to him to be an infallible moral guide +and which he holds to be sacred and personal, is little more than a +reflection of herd opinion. And as men become marshalled in the mass +movements of present-day society, they tend more and more to submit the +control of conduct to the “public conscience” and to leave less and +less to private judgment. _There is no judgment but private judgment._ +The public conscience is a creature of emotional instability. It is +characterized by periodic obsessions similar to those of mania. It will +remain utterly indifferent to glaring evil and every appeal to it is +unheeded; then all of a sudden perhaps over a trifle, or an unconfirmed +rumor, it is stirred to the highest pitch of excitement. It has a +“cause” and for a time is occupied with nothing else. All realities +are thrown out of perspective. The cause is vindicated regardless of +consequences; it is carried triumphant at the head of a procession +of human wreckage, bitterness and folly. As soon as the mischief is +complete, the cause is abandoned. Men begin to “come to,” and public +conscience sleeps until the next episodic attack. + +It is precisely in regard to matters which most deeply stir the public +conscience that the educated man will be on his guard. He will not +be easily bullied into surrendering his private judgment to public +opinion. He will not permit the big words of herd morality to scare him +away from the consideration of cold facts. Before a man can think for +himself, he must have learned to think at all. There is only one sound +method of moral education. It is in teaching people to think. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE CLASSICAL TRADITION--PLATO AND ARISTOTLE + + +The classical tradition in education is one of the ironies of history. +That pedants should have succeeded in making this tradition into a mere +convention is almost incredible. In the poetry, drama and philosophy +which we have inherited from ancient Athens there is a spirit of youth, +of freedom, of inquiry, of adventure. In the estimation of Egypt or of +India, the culture of Greece was _parvenu_. The striking thing about +the Greek spirit is its humanism, its lack of priestly tradition, its +independence of religious authority. The men of the fifth century +before Christianity were creators, not imitators. They were following +many lines of inquiry for the first time, unhampered by the prestige +of orthodoxy. A noisy populace could condemn the philosopher but could +not secure his deference to its beliefs. No idea, no institution was so +venerable or sacred as to escape critical examination. The practice of +examining all things was the method of education; its aim was the life +of Reason. There was no official instruction, no established truth, +no traditionally recognized knowledge. Student and teacher together +pursued wisdom not as scribes and custodians of ancient and hallowed +doctrine, but rather in the spirit of those who enter upon a voyage of +new discovery. Such is the spirit of the classical tradition and no +education is liberal which loses that spirit. + +If we wish to know the meaning of a liberal education, we should turn +to those in whose lives and thoughts it was a living reality. I do +not believe that the student who grasps the significance of Plato’s +Apology, or the Phædo, or the Republic, can ever after be quite the +same. I once overheard a group of sophomores discussing the relative +greatness of various historical characters. Each had his favorite hero, +a conqueror, a statesman, an orator. One of the boys, who I afterwards +learned had discovered Plato’s dialogues for himself, said, “You +fellows are just repeating what you have heard people say or have read +in your history books. You’ll never know what a great man is till you +know Socrates. I think he was the greatest man who ever lived.” I saw +in his face a look of quiet earnestness which I have never forgotten. +Something was happening in that boy’s thinking. He was living through +an educational experience. + +To the question what is an educated person like, one answer is, he +is like Socrates, or like Plato. Whitman said, “I and my kind do not +convince by argument; we convince by our presence.” In the Dialogues +there is a presence. Here the personality of a great genius stands +revealed. You really come to know Socrates. In his company you cannot +fail to delight in his humor, his brilliant flashes of insight, the +subtlety and tenacity and wide sweep of his thought, his daring, his +unfailing reasonableness, his candor and freedom of spirit. 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 present. Our aim is to “find” the educated man. Here by common +agreement is the supreme type. + +Outside the Dialogues and a few such sources of information as the +writing of Xenophon, we know little that is authentic about Socrates. +Before Socrates there had been much speculation about natural phenomena +and the laws which govern the universe. Philosophers had begun to seek +naturalistic rather than mythological explanations of the world of +objects. This scientific interest was genuine, but the Greeks lacked a +logic of scientific method. Before man may think correctly, understand +his world or live wisely he must develop habits of exact thinking; +he must know what he means by what he says. He must examine his own +sentiments and beliefs, and presuppositions. + +As an educator Socrates was positively revolutionary, subversive, +disconcerting. He stands out in sharp contrast to the other great +teachers of antiquity, and to most of those who have lived after him. +He gives mankind an entirely different idea of what education is. He +pursues knowledge; the others proclaim it. Unlike the philosophers of +India and Egypt or the prophets of Judea, _Socrates has no gospel_, no +creed, no made-in-advance message, no “thus saith the Lord,” no system +of “truth.” Others indoctrinate; Socrates proclaims his ignorance. He +is not a sceptic, for he believes that knowledge is not only possible, +but that men possess it, though they seldom make use of that which they +possess. Although not a sceptic, Socrates is decidedly an agnostic. He +shows popular ideas to be ignorance, mere opinion. Living at a time +when even the intelligent few had hardly begun to question traditional +illusions, he did not seek to lure his students back to acquiescence to +authority, but to develop a technique for testing all things. To use a +modern colloquialism, Socrates simply strove to “debunk” the minds of +his students. He tried to aid Athenian youths to understand themselves, +to think their way to some degree of freedom and mastery, to ground +their ideas of virtue, justice, government, in well-considered reason, +to gain temperance of judgment, to re-examine what they thought they +knew and see if it were knowledge or only opinion. And his was no mere +idle curiosity, but a serious and courageous facing of the elemental +problems of human living. He set the precedent for all subsequent +liberal education. + +The herd loves nothing so little as the Socratic dealing with its +opinions. Such questioning is a challenge to popular faiths; it demands +that men reorient their minds to the values of experience. It arouses +in the opinionated the unwelcome suspicion that possibly they may be +deceiving themselves. It carries with it the suggestion that those +who uncritically accept dogma and custom are possibly intellectually +less alert than the critically minded few. 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 ridiculous. Every man who rises out of crowd-mindedness into +independent thinking weakens to that extent the faith of the crowd in +itself, and puts it on the defensive. Aristophanes gained popularity in +Athenian democracy by holding up the figure of Socrates to ridicule. +And when Socrates’ challenge could no longer be met with laughter, the +Fundamentalists of his day condemned the old philosopher to death on +the charge that he was corrupting the youth. As Woodrow Wilson once +said, “The human race has inexhaustible resources for resisting the +introduction of knowledge.” + +How the influence of Socrates survives in the work of his pupil Plato +every school boy knows. It is also a matter of common knowledge that in +the beautiful dialogues which Plato wrote many years after his master’s +death, the figure of Socrates becomes little more at times than a +vehicle of the author’s own thought. But not every one thinks of the +dialogues as primarily a record of a great work of adult education. +The Socratic method of education is retained by Plato, but he modifies +the objectives. Plato has something to “teach.” Knowledge is still +found by the method of clarifying men’s thinking. But if men are to +live the life of reason, their knowledge must give them a definite +outlook on life. Plato seeks something to tie to. He is occupied with +the search for reality, “pure being.” His interest in mathematics +leads him to attempt to construe the world according to principles +of abstract thought. The world of _ideas_ is seen to be the ultimate +reality, the world of objects is but a manifestation,--as James put +it, but a “stereotyped copy of the deluxe edition” which exists in the +eternal. Hence knowledge is not only clear thinking; to know is to +possess reality. The real world consists of form, of idea, of universal +and abstract principle. Education becomes philosophic contemplation +of the ideas of the good, the true, the beautiful. A Francis Bacon or +an Isaac Newton in Plato’s situation would doubtless have developed a +logic of science. Plato elaborates a metaphysic. But it would be an +error to suppose that Plato is occupied merely with meditation upon +the transcendental. All knowledge is one. The truth, of which the mind +bears witness to itself, must ultimately prevail in the affairs of men. +The idea of the good must take the place of the old mythology. Wisdom +is virtue. The people are enemies of the truth and hate philosophy +largely because they have never known “a 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 image.” Of +existing states, “not one of them is worthy of the philosophic nature.” + +“But no one is satisfied with the appearance of good,--the reality +is what they seek; in the case of good, appearance is despised by +everyone.” + +“Of this then, which every soul of man pursues and makes the end of +all his actions, 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 things, 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 State, to whom everything is entrusted, to be +in the darkness of ignorance?” + +Thus Plato’s greatest dialogue, “The Republic,” interweaves the +speculative with the practical; it is at once a treatise on reality +and appearance, an inquiry into the nature of the good, an elaboration +of the abstract principle of justice into the constitution of an ideal +aristocratic republic, and a philosophy of education. + +Jowett, in his introduction to the third edition to the English +translation of this dialogue, says, + + “The Republic of Plato is also the first treatise upon education, + of which the writings of Milton and Locke, Rousseau, Jean Paul, and + Goethe are the legitimate descendants. Like Dante or Bunyan, he has + a revelation of another life; like Bacon, he is profoundly impressed + with the unity of knowledge; in the early Church he exercised a real + influence on theology, and at the Revival of Literature on politics. + Even the fragments of his words when ‘repeated at secondhand’ (Symp. + 215 D) have in all ages ravished the hearts of men, who have seen + reflected in them their own higher nature. He is the father of + idealism in philosophy, in politics, in literature. And many of the + latest conceptions of modern thinkers and statesmen, such as the + unity of knowledge, the reign of law, and the equality of the sexes, + have been anticipated in a dream by him.” + +“The Republic” begins with a discussion of justice. It is agreed that +justice is virtue and wisdom, and injustice is vice and ignorance. +Justice is the virtue both of an individual and of a state. In order +to discover the nature of this virtue, the author proceeds to “create +in idea a State.” The state must be protected from evil, it must +have guardians. The guardians need to have both natural gifts and +the qualities of a philosopher. The good watchdog must be able to +distinguish between the face of the friend and that of the foe. “And +must not an animal be a lover of learning who distinguishes what he +likes and dislikes by the test of knowledge and ignorance?” + +“When we have found the desired natures, and now that we have found +them, how are they to be educated? 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 States?” + +Justice, he says, is each man doing his own business and not being a +busybody. One should practice the thing to which his nature is best +adapted. Justice is harmony, and harmony in the State is like harmony +in the nature of the individual. Intelligence must direct and control +the emotions, and the movements of the body. Hence in the just State, +men are to be divided into classes according to their degree of native +superiority. + +This is not an easy task, for men will not easily be persuaded to +accept such distinctions of worth among themselves. + +“How then may we devise one of those needful falsehoods ... just one +royal lie which may deceive the rulers if that be possible, and at any +rate the rest of the city?” + +“Well then, I will speak, although I really know not how to look you +in the face, or in what words to utter the audacious fiction, which +I propose to communicate gradually, first to the rulers, then to the +soldiers, and lastly to the people. They are to be told that their +youth was a dream, and the education and training which they received +from us, an appearance only; in reality during all that time they were +being formed and fed in the womb of the earth, where they themselves +and their arms and appurtenances were manufactured; when they were +completed, the earth, their mother, sent them up; and so, their country +being their mother and also their nurse, they are bound to advise for +her good, and to defend her against attacks, and her citizens they are +to regard as children of the earth and their own brothers.... + +“‘Citizens,’ we shall say to them in our tale, ‘you are brothers, yet +God has framed you differently. Some of you have the power of command, +and in the composition of these he has mingled gold, wherefore also +they have the greatest honour; others he has made of silver, to be +auxiliaries; others again who are to be husbandmen and craftsmen he has +composed of brass and iron; and the species will generally be preserved +in the children. But as all are of the same original stock, a golden +parent will sometimes have a silver son, or a silver parent a golden +son. And God proclaims as a first principle to the rulers, and above +all else, that there is nothing which they should so anxiously guard, +or of which they are to be such good guardians, as of the purity of the +race. They should observe what elements mingle in their offspring; for +if the son of a golden or silver parent has an admixture of brass and +iron, then nature orders a transposition of ranks, 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 artisan, just as there may be +sons of artisans who having an admixture of gold or silver in them are +raised to honour, and become guardians or auxiliaries. For an oracle +says that when a man of brass or iron guards the State, it will be +destroyed.’” + +Plato’s ideal state is thus an aristocracy of intelligence and of +virtue. There must be selection of those who are to rule. A series of +tests is proposed. Those selected must have shown greatest eagerness +to do what is good for their country. The youth are to be subjected +to various trials, toils, pains, conflicts, to determine whether they +can be forced to change their opinions by suffering pain, or by the +influence of enchantments, or the lure of pleasure, or as a result of +fear. Only those who come out of the trials victorious are to be made +rulers. + +Their education is to be a rigid discipline, and it is to continue as +long as they live. Along with the tests which they must endure, the +young are to grow up in a healthy environment, and in an atmosphere of +simplicity. First a censorship is established to guard them against +evil influences. Only authorized tales are to be told them. Erroneous +representation of the gods is forbidden. As the young cannot judge +what is allegorical and what is literal, the state is to determine the +general forms in which the poets may cast their tales. Mothers may not +frighten children with myths. The Gods must never be represented as +the authors of evil. Nor may one be allowed to say that wicked men are +often happy and the good miserable. Elsewhere Plato says that no one +shall be permitted to travel abroad until he reaches the age of forty. +When he comes home he must tell the youth that the institutions of +other states are inferior to their own. If any man blasphemes, he is +to be put in the reformatory for five years. If in the end he remains +unrepentant he is to be put to death. + +Plato requires that the young receive training in gymnastics and music +before entering upon the study of philosophy. Certain kinds of music +they may not be allowed to hear. Flute players are not to be admitted +to Plato’s state. Those who are clever at pantomime are to be exiled. +The theater is frowned upon, for the guardians must not be trained +to be imitators. Certainly they may not learn to imitate any kind of +illiberalism or baseness. In their acting they may not imitate slaves, +nor bad men, nor madmen, nor the neighing of horses, the bellowing +of bulls, nor the roll of thunder; nor may they represent smiths, +boatswains, or other artificers. And they may not play the part of a +woman old or young quarreling with her husband, or in conceit of her +happiness or when she is in affliction or sorrow or weeping--“and +certainly not one who is in sickness, love, or labor.” + +There must be temperance and order and not too much laughter. There +must be no sensuality and coarseness. There will be no need of lawyers +and physicians. “There can be no more disgraceful state of education +than this; that not only artisans and the meaner sort of people need +the skill of first-rate physicians and judges, but also those who +profess to have had a liberal education.” + +Thus would Plato direct the early education of the guardians of the +state. 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 trained. His guardians are to become noble men; they are +not to be imitators or trained animals or exploiters or traders. It +is often said by those who believe in the materialist conception of +history that education is an instrument for exploitation by the ruling +class. In Plato’s state education is a mark of privilege, but his ideal +nobleman is a communist. He must not touch silver or gold; he must live +like a Spartan. He may call nothing his own, neither house nor wife nor +child. The rulers are to be philosophers, and philosophers, kings. + +Hence the education of later life is the pursuit of philosophy. It is +knowledge of the idea of the good. True knowledge is drawn from within, +it is the turning of the eyes toward the light shed by the world of the +Idea, the spiritual world. It is the awakening of memories of ideas +seen by the soul of an earlier existence. Our world of concrete objects +and of sense experience cannot give this knowledge. Education deals +almost wholly with abstractions and with universals, and its method is +dialectic. + +I think that much of the illiberalism of Plato grows out of his theory +of knowledge. To him as to Socrates, knowledge is of universals. Mere +awareness of concrete objects we will agree is not knowledge. If we +only knew unrelated things--just one thing and then another, as we have +them in sense experience, we could have knowledge _of_ them but not +_about_ them. It is the knowledge about things that gives the world +its meanings. Much of the significance of things depends upon how we +conceive their relations. Every concept is an abstraction; it signifies +not some concrete fact, but a class or a common quality which inheres +in a number of objects. 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 applied, and for nothing else. The Greeks did not +seek accurate information concerning facts. They believed they had +exact knowledge when they had discovered just what they meant by any +concept. They had almost no experimental science. They had begun to +be deeply interested in the phenomena of nature but their interest +was largely speculative as yet. If they had possessed the modern +scientific laboratory their knowledge could still have been abstract +but it would have remained knowledge about nature. Knowledge would +have increased as men carefully observed objects, classified them, +studied their relations and made note of the changes which take place +under fixed conditions. By the method of forming hypotheses and then +trying to verify them by fact, knowledge could have been at once both +of the universal and of the concrete. 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 found. With Socrates, I believe, knowledge is about +universals, but he is primarily concerned with attaining clear and +workable abstractions, that is, he is interested chiefly in sharpening +the _instruments_ of thinking. + +With Plato the interest in ideas is very different. He is a +mathematician. He is fascinated with ideas of number and of geometrical +form. Mathematics to many minds seems to consist of a world of pure +reason which is more permanent than the world of things. Philosophers +before Plato had wrestled with the problem of change. Existence was +seen to be a stream in which everything is carried along toward +its inevitable destruction. Every object at any moment is but the +cross-section of the process of its becoming something different. Our +bodies grow and perish, so also does all pass away. The rivers run to +the sea, the plants die, the temples of the gods crumble. Even the +mountains are but waves on the surface of a sea of time into which all +things sink and are lost forever. How can the temporary objects which +whirl past in the course of their transformation be said really to +exist? Existence surely must be endurance. + +I think that Plato, like many thinkers since, saw the terrifying +significance of the flow of things and sought security and “reality” +in something permanent outside the process of change. What was more +natural than that he should turn to the realm of abstract thought? The +objects we perceive change, but a concept always means the same. The +world may pass away, things may each turn into other things, as water +into vapor and fire to smoke and the body to dust, but two and two are +still four, and the sum of the angles of a triangle remains constant. +Hence above and behind the world of objects there is a world of ideas +into which the teeth of time cannot gnaw. + +You have only to believe that ideas have an existence independent of +the minds which think them and all is transformed. Instantly you step +out of Time into Eternity; form without content; number without things +to be counted; common properties of objects stripped of the objects in +which such properties inhere; the forms of logical discourse, minus +the things talked about and the talkers as well; goodness, without +anything in particular to be good; beauty in general, independent +of any concrete beautiful thing, truth universal and absolute and +outside experience. All this is now the _real_ world, and the world +of troublesome, fleeting objects becomes a shadow and a delusion. +Knowledge is knowledge of the “real.” In other words, knowledge is +about itself. The more abstract and universal an idea is the more +reality it has. The mind persuades itself that it possesses Being, +Motion, the Good and the Beautiful merely by the magic of thinking +about them in abstract terms. The universe is transformed into an +ordered system of postulates and verbal exercises. Education now is +something more than the clarification of concepts; it is initiation +into the superworld of eternal verities. + +It is not my purpose to attempt a discussion of Platonic Idealism. +It has fascinated many of the most subtle minds of the race down to +our own times. It is the foundation of much Christian theology. 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 education. 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 Socrates. His influence has often +tended to make the aim of education mere intellectuality, rather than +intelligent grappling with the problems of living, and to transform the +search for the good life into a flight from the realities of experience. + +Go one step further and you land in ascetic mysticism. The Soul, +the Knower, is no more at home in the world of objects than is the +philosopher in the market place. It belongs to the spiritual world, the +higher realms of Being, in which ideas are forever pure and free of +distortion by matter. In the Phædo, Plato says that if we are to have +pure knowledge, the soul must be quit of the body which ever thwarts +it. Body and soul belong to different worlds. Plato thus prepares the +way for St. Paul and his doctrine that the spirit lusteth against the +flesh and the flesh against the spirit, and that to be present in the +body is to be absent from the Lord. + +If matter is corruption and mankind is during life chained to the +material body, human nature ceases to be trustworthy. Plato’s distrust +of human nature bears fruit some centuries later in the statement that +the natural man is sin and death, and in the doctrine of regeneration. +And unregenerate man is prone to error. Knowledge of the truth comes +by divine revelation and is to be sustained by infallible authority. +Dissent is heresy; assent may be required in the interest of salvation. +We have not yet reached the position of Tertullian, “I believe that +which is absurd,” but Platonism is headed in that direction. Knowledge +which feeds on itself in the end eats itself up. + +But there is in Plato something of far greater educational importance +than any metaphysic or theory of knowledge. When James said that in +the study of the classics one learns to recognize human excellence, +I wonder if he had Plato in mind. I have no doubt that Nietzsche was +thinking of him when he turned to philosophy for an answer to his +question, “what is noble?” One who deliberately strives to imitate +the manners and acquire the virtues of noble spirits, is a prig and +a clown. But unless education ennobles the mind, one becomes only a +well-informed cad. Nietzsche’s catalogue of noble traits is a little +absurd. We learn what is noble only when we see it. And efforts at +education “for character” are little more than cheap conventional +substitutes for such excellence. But there is a loftiness and sweep in +Plato’s thought which are more than genius; a graciousness which is +more than skill; a sincerity which is more than moral earnestness. He +has wrestled with the most searching problems that existence presents +to the mind of man, problems which each must face and to which he must +give his answer if ever he is to become a master spirit. Would you know +what nobility of mind is? Study Plato. + +The tradition of liberal education is a golden thread woven into the +fabric of civilization. Viewed in the perspective of history, the +thread is often broken. It is worked into various patterns according to +the divergent interests of successive ages, each pattern expressive of +the values and meanings which men once held important. The patterns, +whether lovely or grotesque, whether they are woven in or are merely +_appliqué_, are the creations of the time. The thread belongs to all +times, 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 education. We are seeking to know what the tradition is. + +I recently heard a teacher of philosophy say, “Aristotle is dead.” His +influence has died many times since the early death of his pupil, the +Macedonian conqueror, left the philosopher to the tender mercies of a +suspicious Athens. It would seem that the interest in Aristotle dies, +only to reappear subsequently in new configurations. He has something +that we always come back to when sanity returns after an epoch of +exaggeration and over-emphasis. If Socrates is critical intelligence, +and Plato nobility of spirit, Aristotle is sanity. All three are +essentials of liberal education. + +One can hardly over-rate the extent of Aristotle’s influence upon the +education of western Europe. For many centuries men spoke of him as +“The Philosopher,” drilled their minds in his logic, added little to +his metaphysics, his natural philosophy, his principles of ethics and +politics. Three periods of intellectual awakening may be attributed +largely to the revival of interest in his writings--that of Rome at +the time of Cicero, whose education and philosophy was essentially +Aristotelian; that of the brilliant Arabic culture which preceded the +Crusades; and that of the scholastic education of western Europe, +at the close of the Middle Ages. In the last, Aristotle’s teaching +was very much distorted as a result of theological interest and of +ignorance of the Greek language; 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 science. Aristotle could not +have anticipated that his authority would one day become an obstacle to +the study of nature. He himself was the great naturalist of his age. +His extensive work of research and classification of natural phenomena +remained unequalled until modern times. Had the Greeks not despised +mechanics, Aristotle might have possessed the necessary instruments +for scientific experiment, and our knowledge of nature might have been +centuries ahead of where it is today. + +Unlike Plato, his former master, Aristotle did not displace the world +of objects by a world of abstract thought. He seems to have held that +universals are real, but only as an account of the order which prevails +in the world. His logic is primarily instrumental. His whole philosophy +is an attempt at well-ordered common sense. + +The “Politics” and “Ethics” contain Aristotle’s philosophy of +education. It is the task of the legislator to consider how his +citizens may be good men. This is also the task of the educator. +Goodness is not represented as obedience to divine commands. Neither +is its aim that of securing reward in a future life. The aim of +goodness is the good life, and the good life is the happy life, the +life that is lived well. Such a life requires certain material goods, +also friendships, health, good looks, leisure and _aretè_. There is no +word in English which is the exact equivalent of _aretè_. It is often +translated virtue, or excellence. But Aristotle has in mind a definite +quality of excellence, which includes distinction, good breeding, +self-command, wisdom, balance and poise, and equanimity in all things. +_Aretè_ is the art of living. + +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 leads. To his mind +the central question for education is, what sort of man is it most +desirable that one should become. Moderns may justly criticise him +because he omits any reference to work, other than to say that it is +debasing. His philosophy of education is that of a leisure class. And +since work makes up the greater portion of most men’s experience in +life, it may be said that Aristotle would train men to possess the +subjective qualities of virtue only, and without reference to their +tasks and duties. It cannot be denied that his theory of education +has often been so employed. I have already discussed at some length +the relation of education to work. While Aristotle, like others of +his time, looks down upon labor, 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 bread. Let us say that Aristotle is in error +when he says that work is debasing. We may still hold that if his “good +life” is good at all, it is good for the man who works for his living. +My point is that this philosophy of education is not unrelated to the +ordinary affairs of life, but that it points out those habits which +best enable one to turn such affairs to value and to happy use. + +Aristotle has set forth his idea of the good man in no uncertain terms. +The good is not Plato’s absolute or ideal good--good in general; it +is _happiness_. It is to be attained not merely by philosophical +speculation, but by “an energy of the soul according to reason,” +by well-considered habits of choosing. Happiness is the aim of all +knowledge and of every act. But the educated do not agree with the +vulgar as to what it is. The latter believe it to be the accident of +good fortune. The former hold that it is the result of virtue. Virtues +are praiseworthy habits. “Virtue” therefore is a habit accompanied +with deliberate preference, in the relative mean defined by reason, +and as the prudent man would define it, “It is the mean state between +two vices, one in excess, the other in defect. Temperance and courage +are destroyed both by the excess and the defect, but are preserved by +the mean. Virtues are neither passions nor capacities.” They are not +mere moral enthusiasms nor any subjective state of mind. Wisdom and +deliberation are required for virtue. _The good man is the educated +man._ + +Education is not merely the teaching of morals, or the laying down +rules for behavior. The virtuous habits are not acquired by rote nor +exercised automatically. The habit of virtue is that of _appropriate +response_ to the situation, the response which is right because +“nothing may be” taken away from it nor added to it without causing it +to tend toward vicious excess or defect. There must be discrimination +or one will go to extreme. Courage is not mere bravery; it is that +well-considered “mean state” between fear and over-confidence. +Aristotle quotes Socrates to the effect that courage is a “kind of +science.” + +The temperate man does not feel desire “except in moderation, nor more +than he ought, nor in any case improperly.” He does not desire things +which are dishonorable or beyond his means. He is in the mean in all +things, his desires are “according to the suggestions of right reason.” +Liberality is the mean between prodigality and stinginess. It is not +virtuous to give unless one gives wisely. “The liberal man therefore +will give for the sake of the honorable, and he will give properly for +he will give to proper objects, in proper quantities, at proper times, +and his giving will have all the other qualities of right giving, and +he will do this pleasantly and without pain; for that which is done +according to virtue is pleasant.”... “But if it should happen to a +liberal man to spend in a manner inconsistent with propriety and what +is honorable, he will feel pain, but only moderately and as he ought, +for it is characteristic of virtue to feel pleasure and pain at proper +objects, and in a proper manner.” + +Magnanimity is a virtue if accompanied by intelligence. The magnanimous +are concerned with honor. He who being really worthy, estimates his own +worth highly, is magnanimous. He whose worth is low and who estimates +it lowly is not magnanimous, but modest. He who estimates his worth +lightly when he is really unworthy is vain. He who estimates it less +highly than it deserves is “little-minded.” In good or bad fortune, +the magnanimous will behave with moderation, he will not be too much +delighted with success nor too much grieved at failure. He must take +more care for truth than for the good opinion of men. He will not be +servile, for all flatterers are mercenary and low-minded. He will +not be given to the habit of too much admiring the great, nor will he +be fond of talking about himself or about other people; he will not +recollect injuries, nor be over-anxious, nor disposed to praise or +blame. “The step of the magnanimous man is slow, his voice deep and +his language steady: for he who only feels anxiety about a few things +is not apt to be in a hurry: and he who thinks highly of nothing is +not vehement and shrillness and quickness of speaking arise from these +things.... But vain men are foolish and ignorant of themselves ... +little-mindedness is more opposed to magnanimity than vanity, for it +is oftener found and is worse.” Hence a just appreciation of one’s +worth--knowledge of self, as Socrates would have said--is essential to +Aristotle’s ideal man. + +Furthermore, meekness is a virtue only when it is a sign of +intelligence. “He who feels anger on proper occasions, at proper +persons, and besides in a proper manner, at proper times, and for a +proper length of time is an object of praise.” The meek man is not +carried away by passion. He who is excessively sensitive to anger is +irascible. He who is unsensitive is a fool. + +Even the virtue of truthfulness must be exercised in moderation and +with good judgment. The excess of it is arrogance, the defect is +cunning or false modesty. Wit is also a virtue; the excess, Aristotle +says, is buffoonery or sarcasm, the defect is clownishness. + +Justice is discussed in a manner quite different from that of Plato. +The problem of universal justice is dismissed, and justice is +considered in relation to various transactions between man and man. +Hence the necessity of defining “right reason.” Aristotle turns to a +discussion of Prudence, Intelligence, Deliberation, Wisdom. He says, +“It is not sufficient to know the theory of virtue,”--the end is +in “practical matters.” Aristotle holds the relation of morals to +education is much the same as that which we found it to be in the +preceding chapter. Mere precept and example are not enough; there must +be general culture, and education should extend throughout a lifetime. + +“But reasoning and teaching, it is to be feared, will not avail in +every case, 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 seed. For he who lives in obedience to +passion would not listen to reasoning which turns him away from it: +nay more, he would not understand it. And how is it possible to change +the convictions of such a man as this? On the whole, it appears that +passion does not submit to reasoning, but to force.... + +“Perhaps it is not sufficient that we should meet with good education +when young: but since when we arrive at manhood we ought also study +and practice what we have learnt we should require laws also for this +purpose.” + +Aristotle discusses the desirability of public education. He thinks +that first men must become fitted for the duties of the legislator. +And since, he says, all previous writers have discussed the subject of +politics without scientific examination of the subject, he proposes to +undertake such an examination for himself. + +Let us note that neither Plato nor Aristotle when considering the good +life, thinks that the individual may attain it in isolation. It is not +merely a quality of the soul, but has to do with all of one’s human +relationships. Aristotle says that it is very difficult for the young +to receive a good education under a bad government. He would seem to +make the state and the laws a means to education. And it is the aim +of both the state and education to enable the citizen to live happily. +Education is training in wisdom and virtue, and the exercise of these +is freedom. Those who are incapable of education are slaves by nature; +those who obey only passion and abstain from vicious things not because +they are disgraceful but for fear of punishment, cannot be reasoned +with; they must be restrained by force. Education is liberal in that it +enables a man to govern himself. + +In comparison with Plato, Aristotle appears prosaic, worldly, +and lacking in charm and humor. Much that he says appears to us +platitudinous, for the same reason that the woman found Shakespeare’s +dramas full of familiar quotations. We forget how subversive of +convention and dogma it is to found the good life in the life of +reason. Aristotle has passed by mythology and tradition and the +sanctions of religion and has achieved a purely secular guide to +conduct. He has made freedom and happiness the goal of virtue and +education, and has done this without descending to utilitarianism. He +has made right reason the standard of life and has at the same time +given to the standard an æsthetic valuation. He has linked education +with conduct, and suggested a moral training which gives human nature +credit for some degree of intelligence. Aristotle is no longer “the +Philosopher.” Education in the modern world is necessarily set to tasks +very different from those of ancient Greece. But the good life is still +the goal, and Aristotle’s good man has remained one of the ideals of +liberal education. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +HUMANISM: ERASMUS AND MONTAIGNE + + +Each man’s education is a unique achievement. There are as many kinds +of education as there are kinds of men. In every educated mind there +is a mixture of temperament and learning, a selection and emphasis, an +elusive quality like that which haunts a work of art. We may recognize +this elusive something but we cannot define it or describe it. Such +words as wisdom, virtue, independence of judgment, freedom, cannot give +us the meaning of education. We must know the educated man. If you +read and understand Erasmus of Rotterdam, you will see what education +is better than if you read all the books written about theories of +education. A liberally educated person is like Erasmus. + +I do not mean that Erasmus is the only type of educated mind, or that +the educated man is like him in all respects. Certainly I would not +suggest that one living in the twentieth century should strive to +imitate a scholar who lived in the fifteenth. Change of environment +calls for a different response. But there are certain constant factors. +New modes of response may be necessary in order to recreate the +values which men of other times discovered, values the loss of which +in our times would cheapen our whole existence. If this were not so +there would be no point in trying to learn anything from men of other +times. There are those who have such faith in the infallibility of +contemporary opinion that they are convinced the past has nothing to +teach us. The ways of the present are “progress,” and progress is its +own criterion of the good and needs no other guide than the interests +of the hour. Such persons are usually to be found cheering for “the +latest thing.” As a rule they are people without background or reserve. +We live in the present, to be sure. But if we are really to live in it +and are not content merely to act a part in the passing show, we must +consider the values which are at issue in the responses we make. To +that end there is enlightenment in knowing the values for which other +men of other times struggled. The kind of living we are to achieve with +our environment is not determined by the environment itself, 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 doing. Men like Erasmus +and Montaigne lived better lives than most of their contemporaries +because of the wisdom of the ages that was in them. It may be said that +other men in their times also shared this ancient knowledge, for was +not The Revival of Learning at its height? Many did and were better +men for it. Many were fascinated by the Renaissance who merely shared +its externalities but did not thereby become wiser men; they remained +creatures of their own times. It became “the latest thing” to ape the +ancients without understanding them. Among obscurantists, and fanatics +and corruptionists, Erasmus and Montaigne lived like educated men. + +At the close of the fifteenth century, it was said, “Whatever is +artistic, finished, learned and wise is called Erasmian.” It is +difficult to speak of Erasmus except in terms of the superlative. +The most broadly educated man of his times, he was not only the +representative scholar of his generation; he remains an example to +us all of the truly civilized man. His polished wit, his humanity, +his gentle irony, his unfailing reasonableness, his ability to see +through cant and superstition, his philosophic calm in the midst of +intense partisan strife, his good taste and sense of proportion: these +qualities of mind belong to no one age, they are the constants of which +I spoke a moment ago; they are the essentials of a civilized attitude +toward life in any age. Without them man is a barbarian. + +The Great Humanist saw as no one else did the spiritual significance +of the revival of learning, and he came to represent all that was best +in it. Scholarship to him was more than erudition and pedantry and +literary style. He found in classic literature a window opening upon a +new vision of the meaning and possibilities of living. He became the +champion of a new way of life and thought. Past and present met and +mingled in his thought and became a new life of reason. “He quietly +stepped out of medievalism,” the first modern man, the forerunner of +Descartes and Voltaire. + +In a time when all human interests were submerged in religion, Erasmus +sought to humanize the Church, and leave it an international fellowship +of culture, free of dogma and superstition. He turns from knowledge of +divine things to human letters as the guide to living, and from blind +faith to reason. The Gospel becomes for him the “philosophy of Christ.” +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 Testament. His boldness in omitting passages from this +latter work, which he found not to be authentic, and his occasional +unconventional commentary on the text brought him under the suspicion +of being at heart a sceptic and a heretic. + +With bigotry and persecution almost universal all around him, Erasmus +taught tolerance, moderation, respect for truth. In a splendid +biographical study, Professor Preserved Smith says that Erasmus’s +“Colloquies” did more for the spread of liberal ideas than any book +of the sixteenth century. Another historian says, “Almost all the +liberating ideas on which the international culture of the present +rests, are present in germ in his thought.” + +The continent of Europe in the year fifteen hundred was culturally far +inferior to Asia. Compared to the civilization of Greece and Rome, all +Christendom was barbarian. The wave of interest in education which in +the thirteenth century had caused the universities to become crowded, +while it had not passed, had subsided into a dull scholastic dialectic. +Education had little effect upon the life of the masses or their +rulers. In Italy art and letters were breaking away from religious +tradition, but the new spirit which prevailed at Florence, Padua, and +Rome had little sway north of the Alps. Mediæval Christianity had +reached its culmination and was in a period of moral and intellectual +decline. Thoughtful men everywhere were dissatisfied. The time was soon +to come when this dissatisfaction could no longer be held in restraint, +when throughout a century of bloodshed, civil war, and violence and +hatred such as Europe had never known, the Church would be torn asunder +and anarchy and terror reign until modern nationalism and industrialism +could painfully emerge from the smouldering ruins. + +It is said that when Leo X ascended the Papal throne, there was placed +above his head in Latin the inscription, “_Nunc tempora Pallas +habet_,”--Now Athene reigns. Not many years were to pass before the +sacred walls, which had under the Pontificate of his predecessor been +decorated by Michelangelo and Raphael, were to echo the sound of church +bells ringing out the tidings of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day. +Soon all over Europe the floodgates would be open and Christendom would +be inundated by torrents of fury. Soon in defense of the sacred Gospel, +Christians would tear at Christians’ throats. With instruments of iron, +tongues would be wrenched from the mouths of men and women, eyes gouged +from their sockets, limbs broken on the rack. The bed of torture and +the heap of burning faggots would become commonplace spectacles for +the public to gaze upon. For a hundred years and more Europe was to +be ablaze with war on every hand, until it should sink exhausted by +the mutual destruction of Christian armies into almost unimaginable +misery and poverty. And this struggle which was destined to breed +hatreds and sectarian divisions lasting even till today, might have +been avoided, probably could have been averted, could the spirit of +Erasmus have prevailed. Protestants hold the Catholics responsible for +the horrors of the sixteenth and early seventeenth century. Catholics +hold the Protestants responsible. Both were equally guilty, for they +were equally ignorant and barbarous and deluded with superstition. This +is the kind of thing that happens and always will happen when ignorance +breaks loose in the world. Then in the general madness even learned men +like Melanchthon and Œcolampadius and the Medicis lose their poise and +become partisans. + +Erasmus during the most trying time kept his sanity. And both sides +denounced him bitterly. He was accused of taking a cowardly middle of +the road position. What neither group of militant partisans could +see was that Erasmus, far from being in the middle of the road, was +not on their wretched highway at all. He remained true to the issue +for which he had struggled from the first. Erasmus saw that what was +wrong with Europe, indeed what really gave rise to the abuses of +mediæval society, was barbarism sanctioned by religious superstition. +He knew that vice and folly and brutality and hypocrisy were not to +be removed by religious warfare, but rather deepened. He saw the same +spirit of doctrinaire scholasticism, the same intolerance and cruelty +and pious ignorance on both sides of the coming controversy. 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 times. Whether history has vindicated Erasmus +in this conviction of his is a matter concerning which opinions differ. +I think it has. Such liberty and cultural progress as the modern world +enjoys it would seem to have derived from the Erasmian tradition, not +that of Luther, Calvin or Wesley. Protestantism without the humanism +of Erasmus is Fundamentalism. And conversely, Paris and Vienna and +Munich are nominally Catholic, but they have known the influence of +Erasmus and Voltaire to a degree that many Protestant communities have +not known such influence, and so far as the advance of civilization is +concerned, I think that life in such localities will compare rather +favorably with that of certain strictly Protestant communities. I +believe that those movements of the present day which have greatest +spiritual significance and value--modernism in religion, liberalism in +education, the dawning recognition of the necessity of intelligence and +of individual responsibility in matters of belief and conduct, 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 Reformation. From this point of view +the Reformation is not the continuation of the Renaissance, but would +appear to have been something of a bourgeois reaction against it. + +Long before the storm broke, Erasmus was carrying on a brave work +against ignorance and obscurantism. In our times, we have seen +something of the conflict of science with theology. This issue is +tame in comparison with the conflict of theology with Humanism which +occupied scholars at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It is +difficult for us now to imagine that there could be bitter opposition +to the teaching of the Latin and Greek literatures. The issue is +blurred for us. Theologians are less acrimonious than they once +were, and Scholasticism has long been on the decline. The classics +moreover, 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 philosophers. It was pretty well +recognized on both sides of the dispute that the ancients were pagans, +rank heathen. Those who opposed these unchristian writers did so for +much the same reason that early Christians in the second century had +assailed “the present evil world” and all its works. + +In Italy the Renaissance tended for a time to take on a definitely +pagan aspect. Imitation of the ancients became a rather ridiculous +gesture, and the fad was often carried to extremes which were little +less than childish. Cardinals assumed the speech and manners of ancient +Roman senators. Sermons were preached in sonorous Ciceronian style. In +certain quarters Christ was identified with Apollo, and God the Father +with Jupiter. Nuns were spoken of as “vestal virgins,” and painters and +sculptors created figures of Mars and Venus and mingled these and other +heathen idols with the images of the saints. + +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 Europe. + +The sanity of Erasmus saved him and helped save the revival of learning +from such superficiality. He found in Humanism a balanced and serious +wisdom which he strove to combine with the Christian philosophy of +life. The synthesis he achieved was not a new system of theology; +it was the gradual merging of an older outlook upon life into a new +outlook, a transformation of intellectual interests. Professor Smith +quotes a passage which indicates something of Erasmus’s position +regarding the classics. That this literature was pagan he well knew, +but its paganism did not to his mind exclude it from the spiritual life +of mankind. He says of an essay of Cicero’s, “A heathen wrote this to +heathen and yet his moral principles have justice, sincerity, truth, +fidelity to nature; nothing false or careless is in them.” “When I read +certain passages of these great men, ... I can hardly refrain from +saying, ‘St. Socrates, pray for me.’” + +Erasmus found himself the leader of Humanism as an educational +movement. He stated the issue in precisely the terms that gave sincere +and intelligent men a new vision of the spiritual life. And he did it +with such a wealth of learning, such reasonableness, such unanswerable +irony and wit that his name became the symbol of the new scholarship. +His books had a larger circulation than those of any other writer of +his generation. And as for many years he travelled about Europe, +moving from one center of learning to another, his coming was hailed +with triumph. Scholars everywhere attended him, sat at his feet, took +up the cause he championed. The Humanists were winning victory after +victory and could look forward to the triumph of their movement in the +education of western Europe. 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 warfare, no one can say. Perhaps the masses were not +prepared to accept or tolerate so sudden a change as that for which +Erasmus strove, for Humanism was a much more radical departure from +the mental habits and standards of value of the Middle Ages than was +Protestantism. The leaders of the Renaissance did not accept the +Reformation because they regarded it as a backward step. Perhaps they +had themselves gone too far ahead. Perhaps the representation of the +good man as the intelligent man, an ancient Greek idea which the +Humanists revived, will always be offensive to the masses. Erasmus +seemed--he still seems to many--to have lacked moral earnestness. He +generated light and what mankind wants is heat. At any rate, the masses +in the nations where the new scholarship was being carried, showed +that they did not want the pagan wisdom. Instead they suddenly became +possessed with a longing for the primitive faith of the first Christian +century, or what they thought was that faith. They followed the leader +who gave them not insight, but a moral issue. + +Both Luther and Erasmus had visited Rome. Each was impressed by the +“sight of antique monuments.” Each saw evidence of the corruption and +veniality which along with luxury surrounded the gay Papal court. +Luther later spoke of Rome as the “sink of every abomination,” a +conviction which doubtless had much to do with determining the course +of events which led to his break with Papal authority. + +Of the effect of all this on the mind of Erasmus, we have the record in +a book, one of the great classics of literature, “In Praise of Folly.” +In the letter of dedication to his friend Sir Thomas More, Erasmus says +that in his late travels from Italy, that he might not trifle away his +time in the rehearsal of old wives’ fables, he began reflecting upon his +past studies, and thought it good to divert himself by drawing up a +“panegyrick upon Folly.” He suggests that this trifling may be a whet +to more serious thought and that “comical matters may be so treated +of, as that a reader of ordinary sense may possibly thence reap more +advantage than from some more big and stately argument.” He hints that +he does not wish to be so carping that he will fail to instruct, and +says that he who points indifferently at all, can hardly be accused of +being angry with any one man or one vice. And he wonders at the “tender +humor” of an age in which some are so “preposterously devout that they +would sooner wink at the greatest affront against our Saviour, than be +content that a prince or a pope should be nettled with the least joke +or gird, especially in what relates to their ordinary customs.” + +Here we have the characteristic reactions of two contrasting types +of men who probably can never understand each other. To Luther the +vices of Rome are sin; to Erasmus they are folly. The one is filled +with moral indignation at the iniquity of the world, and rushes into +the fray to stamp it out, puts it on the defensive, attacks it in its +stronghold. The other makes iniquity ridiculous, renders it defenseless +by laughing away its pretexts at justification, showing it to itself +as folly and reminding all men that their foolishness may be removed +only by wisdom. No doubt without more moral indignation in the world +than Erasmus seems to have shown there would be too easy tolerance of +abuse. On the other hand, without his insight and scepticism and irony, +indignation turns to malice, men lose their perspective, and their +power of self-criticism; they become so intent upon the struggle for +righteousness that they forget what they are struggling for, and when +the great cause finally triumphs, it carries to victory the same old +iniquities in new dress. + +It is evident from a reading of “In Praise of Folly” that Erasmus’ +thought made deeper inroads into the very spirit of Mediæval thought +and religion than did Luther’s moral indignation. It undermined many +things that the Reformer left standing. “In Praise of Folly” was +written eight years before Luther’s break with the Pope, and it reveals +a mind emancipated from much more than the Papacy. The man who could +write this satire must have regarded the Reformation as a quarrel which +dealt with only the surface of the problem. I do not wonder that later +both Catholics and Protestants considered him a sceptic. It is my +belief that he was too sceptical to become greatly excited about the +Reformation. He is impressed with the whole stupid comedy of the life +about him. + +Knowledge of this book should be part of every man’s education. It has +much more than a historical interest for the modern student. In form +it is an oration which Folly delivers in praise of herself. She makes +a good case; perhaps too good a case. 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 +happiness. “At first sight of me you all unmask and appear in more +lively colors.” + +Without Folly society would go to pieces. Indeed no one would ever be +born, for would women ever have children or marry except for Folly? And +except for Folly marriages would be few and divorces many. How could +the government exist without Folly? Have not wise legislators in all +times recognized the necessity of fooling the people? After showing +how Folly reigns in the arts and the professions, and how each nation +has its pet folly and self-conceit, the speaker sums up, “I am so +communicative and bountiful as to let no particular person pass without +some token of my favor, whereas other deities bestow gifts sparingly +and to their elects only.” + +Let us note this reference to Folly as “deity.” Does Erasmus mean to +imply that Folly is the deity that mankind really worships and has been +worshipping all the while? He makes Folly say, + + “Well, but there are none (say you) build any altars, or dedicate + any temple to Folly. I admire (as I have before intimated) that the + world should be so wretchedly ungrateful. But I am so good natured + as to pass by and pardon this seeming affront, though indeed the + charge thereof, as unnecessary, may well be saved; for to what + purpose should I demand the sacrifice of frankincense, cakes, + goats, and swine, since all persons everywhere pay me that more + acceptable service, which all divines agree to be more effectual and + meritorious, namely, an imitation of my communicable attributes?... + Farther, why should I desire a temple, since the whole world is but + one ample continued choir, entirely dedicated to my use and service? + Nor do I want worshippers at any place where the earth wants not + inhabitants. And as to the manner of my worship, I am not yet so + irrecoverably foolish, as to be prayed to by proxy, and to have my + honour intermediately bestowed upon images and pictures, which quite + subvert the true end of religion....” + +But Folly has not time to recount all the foolishness of the ignorant, +neither is it necessary. She confines herself to the follies of those +who make pretense of wisdom. Of these the theologians doubtless “least +like to be reminded of their dependence upon Folly,” but in evidence of +this fact, + + “They will cut asunder the toughest argument with as much ease + as Alexander did the Gordian knot; they will thunder out so many + rattling terms as shall fright an adversary into conviction. They + are exquisitely dexterous in unfolding the most intricate mysteries; + they will tell you to a tittle all the successive proceedings of + omnipotence in the creation of the universe; they will explain + the precise manner of original sin being derived from our first + parents; they will satisfy you in what manner, by what degrees, and + in how long a time our Saviour was conceived in the Virgin’s womb, + and demonstrate in the consecrated wafer how accidents may subsist + without a subject. Nay, these are accounted trivial, easy questions; + they have yet far greater difficulties behind, which nothwithstanding + they solve with as much expedition as the former; ... whether Christ, + as a son, bears a double specifically distinct relation to God the + Father, and his virgin mother? whether this proposition is possible + to be true, the first person of the Trinity hated the second? whether + God, who took our nature upon him in the form of a man, could as + well have become a woman, a devil, a beast, an herb, or a stone? and + were it so possible that the Godhead had appeared in any shape of an + inanimate substance, how he should then have preached his gospel? + or how have been nailed to the cross? whether if St. Peter had + celebrated the eucharist at the same time our Saviour was hanging on + the cross, the consecrated bread would have been transsubstantiated + into the same body that remained on the tree?” + + “Further, does any one appear a candidate for any ecclesiastical + dignity, why an ass or a plough jobber shall sooner gain it than a + wise man.”... + + “All their preaching is mere stage-playing, and their delivery the + very transports of ridicule and drollery. Good Lord! how mimical are + these gestures? What heights and falls in their voice? What toning, + what bawling, what singing, what squeaking, what grimaces, making + of mouths, and apes’ faces, and distorting of their countenance; + and this art of oratory as a choice mystery, they convey down by + tradition to one another. The manner of it I may adventure thus + farther to enlarge upon. First, in a kind of mockery they implore the + divine assistance, which they borrowed from the solemn custom of the + poets.... + + “Now as to the popes of Rome, who pretend themselves Christ’s vicars, + if they would but imitate his exemplary life, in the being employed + in an unintermitted course of preaching; in the being attended with + poverty, nakedness, hunger, and a contempt of this world; if they did + but consider the import of the word pope, which signifies a father; + or if they did but practice their surname of most holy, what order or + degrees of men would be in a worse condition? There would be then no + such vigorous making of parties, and buying of votes, in the conclave + upon a vacancy of that see: and those who by bribery, or other + indirect courses, should get themselves elected, would never secure + their sitting firm in the chair by pistol, poison, force of violence. + How much of their pleasure would be abated if they were but endowed + with one dram of wisdom? Wisdom, did I say? Nay, with one grain of + that salt which our Saviour bid them not lose the savour of. All + their riches, all their honour, their jurisdictions, their Peter’s + patrimony, their offices, their dispensations, their licences, their + indulgences, their long train and attendants, (see in how short a + compass I have abbreviated all their marketing of religion;) in a + word, all their perquisities would be forfeited and lost.”... + +Finally, after quoting many passages in praise of Folly and of foolish +actions and foolish persons which occur in his precious classic +literature, Erasmus does a surprising thing. 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 to, if +not above, that of the Church. That Erasmus placed the Holy Scriptures +in the same category as other ancient literature is indicated by his +free and easy treatment of it. He humorously quotes many passages to +prove that the Bible actually enjoins men to practice folly and eschew +wisdom. Were not our first parents expelled from Eden in punishment for +the sin of eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge? He does not +even spare the New Testament. + + “Now therefore I return to St. Paul, who uses these expressions ‘Ye + suffer fools gladly,’ applying it to himself; and again, ‘As a fool + receive me,’ and ‘That which I speak, I speak not after the Lord, + but as it were foolishly’; and in another place, ‘We are fools for + Christ’s sake.’ See how these commendations of Folly are equal to the + author of them, both great and sacred. The same holy person does yet + enjoin and command the being a fool, as a virtue of all others most + requisite and necessary: for, says he, ‘If any man seem to be wise in + this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.’... + + “Nor may this seem strange in comparison to what is yet farther + delivered by St. Paul, who adventures to attribute something of Folly + even to the all-wise God himself, ‘The foolishness of God (says he) + is wiser than men’ ... wherein is to be understood that other passage + of St. Paul, ‘The preaching of the cross to them that perish, is + foolishness.’ But why do I put myself to the trouble of citing so + many proofs, since this one may suffice for all, namely, that in + those mystical psalms wherein David represents the type of Christ, + it is there acknowledged by our Saviour, in way of confession, that + even he himself was guilty of Folly; ‘thou (says he) O God knowest + my foolishness?’ Nor is it without some reason that fools for their + plainness and sincerity of heart have always been most acceptable to + God Almighty.... So our Saviour in like manner dislikes and condemns + the wise and crafty, as St. Paul does expressly declare in these + words, ‘God hath chosen the foolish things of the world’; and again, + ‘it pleased God by foolishness to save the world’; implying that by + wisdom it could never have been saved. Nay, God himself testifies + as much when he speaks by the mouth of his prophet, ‘I will destroy + the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nought the understanding of the + learned.’ Again, our Saviour does solemnly return his Father thanks + for that he had ‘hidden the mysteries of salvation from the wise, and + revealed them to babes,’ i. e. to fools.” + +The book ends with these words, “I hate a pot-companion with a good +memory: so indeed I hate a hearer that will carry anything away with +him. Wherefore in short, farewell: be jolly, live long, drink deep, ye +most illustrious votaries of Folly.” + +It is said that Luther was repelled by this book. I do not wonder. +Erasmus would seem to be as far removed from the spirit of +Protestantism as from that of mediæval Catholicism. Has Erasmus, +perhaps without wholly realizing the fact himself, 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 Rationalist? I do not know. He is +certainly a liberal in matters of religion, but unlike our contemporary +liberals, he shows little interest in natural science. + +He was severely criticised for refusing to participate in the +Reformation on the side of the Reformers. The following bits of +correspondence which I quote from Professor Smith’s biography indicate +the esteem in which he and Luther finally held each other. Luther wrote +about the year 1524: + + “Since we see that the Lord has not given you courage and sense to + assail those monsters openly and confidently with us, we are not the + men to expect what is beyond your power and measure.... We only fear + that you may be induced by our enemies to fall upon our doctrine with + some publication, in which case we should be obliged to resist you to + your face.... Hitherto I have controlled my pen as often as you prick + me, and have written in letters to friends, which you have seen, that + I would control it until you publish something openly. For although + you will not side with us, and although you injure and make skeptical + many pious men by your impiety and hypocrisy, yet I cannot and do + not accuse you of willful obstinancy.... We have fought long enough; + we must take care not to eat each other up. This would be a terrible + catastrophe, as neither of us wishes to harm religion, and without + judging each other both may do good.” + +Erasmus wrote to his friend, Everard, + + “With what odium Luther burdens the cause of learning and that of + Christianity! As far as he can he involves all men in his business. + Everyone confessed that the Church suffered under the tyranny of + certain men, and many were taking counsel to remedy this state of + affairs. Now this man has arisen to treat the matter in such a way + that he fastens the yoke on us more firmly, and that no one dares to + defend even what he has said well. Six months ago I warned him to + beware of hatred. ‘The Babylonian Captivity’ (a bitter treatise which + Luther wrote) has alienated many from him, and he daily puts forth + more atrocious things.” + +And again to Luther, in reply to a very unkind letter, + + “Your letter was delivered to me late and had it come on time it + would not have moved me.... The whole world knows your nature, + according to which you have guided your pen against no one more + bitterly and, what is more detestable, more maliciously than against + me.... The same admirable ferocity which you formerly used against + Cochlaeus and against Fisher, who provoked you to it by reviling, + you now use against my book in spite of its courtesy. How do your + scurrilous charges that I am an atheist, an Epicurean, and a skeptic + help the argument?... It terribly pains me, as it must all good men, + that your arrogant, insolent, rebellious nature has set the world in + arms.... 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 calm, while it is my greatest desire that + it should die down.... I should wish you a better disposition were + you not so marvelously satisfied with the one you have. Wish me any + curse you will except your temper, unless the Lord change it for you.” + +Much has been made of the following “damning” admission: + + “Would that some ‘deus ex machina’ might make a happy ending for this + drama so inauspiciously begun by Luther! He himself gives his enemies + the dart by which they transfix him, and acts as if he did not wish + to be saved, though frequently warned by me and by his friends to + tone down the sharpness of his style.... I cannot sufficiently wonder + at the spirit in which he has written. Certainly he has loaded the + cultivators of literature with heavy odium. Many of his teachings and + admonitions were splendid, but would that he had not vitiated these + good things by mixing intolerable evils! If he had written all things + piously, yet I should not have courage to risk my life for the truth. + All men have not strength for martyrdom. I fear least, if any tumult + should arise, I should imitate Peter (in denying the Lord).” + +It is doubtful if Erasmus meant this confession of weakness to be taken +literally. Cowards are not often so honest with themselves, nor do +they make such candid revelations of their fears, but rather affect a +show of bravery so long as it is possible to disguise their weakness +of character. Had Erasmus been less strong, he would have yielded to +pressure, joined the reformers and sought refuge among them. Instead, +he stood against the crowd, knowing well that although he might decline +to join the ranks of Luther, there was no refuge for him amongst the +churchmen whom he had been attacking for many years. He did not betray +his own cause, the Renaissance, but remained true to it in opposition +to bigotry and ignorance on both sides of the controversy. In support +of the revival of learning he was courageous enough. Surrounded as he +was by madness, he conceived it to be the task of the wise man to keep +his balance and work for peace and sanity. + +I believe this to be the first social task of the educated. Could +a Socrates, or a Seneca, or Cicero have returned to life in the +year 1525, it is difficult to imagine that he would have pursued a +course very different from that Erasmus pursued. A man’s intellectual +integrity does not require that he take sides when he believes that +neither side has the truth. I believe Erasmus took the longer view, for +today we find Humanism gradually supplanting orthodoxy among educated +Protestants, and I have no doubt that something similar is taking place +in Catholic centers of culture. The liberal Catholic and the liberal +Protestant are more nearly of one mind than is either of them with the +Fundamentalist in his own sect. And they are each nearer to Erasmus. +Erasmus did not suffer martyrdom, neither did he make martyrs of those +who opposed him. Persecution and martyrdom are the first things that +the uneducated think of in any social crisis. The masses are prepared +to make any conflict the occasion of both, and with only the vaguest +idea of what the killing is all about. If there were more men like +Erasmus there would be less occasion for such practices. His is the +cause which will never triumph by force. + +Humanism, which in the Italian Renaissance was something of a _parvenu_ +effort at culture, comes to its maturity with Montaigne. It is an +educational experience lived through, a wisdom grown into, as Montaigne +says, with everything in its season. Montaigne’s mind is stored with +the fruits of the wisdom of all historic times. He quotes the ancients +as only Erasmus could, yet he is never an imitator or copier. His is +one of the most original minds in literature, and his originality +increases as he grows older and has time to think. It is very different +from the rebelliousness of certain contemporary radicals, whose +liberalism might be characterized as retarded adolescence. + +A contemporary critic says of him, “Montaigne ... was one of the most +civilized men of whom we have any record: his intellectual curiosity +was matched by his magnanimity. He hated cruelty, prejudice, violence +and stupidity: his love of life was so great that it illumined every +object in the world of sense and in the world of thought. His style was +so original that his remarks on little things have outlived thousands +of works dealing soberly with portentous ideas. He could write on +trivial themes without becoming trivial.” + +Like Erasmus, he has a delicious sense of humor in which there is no +bitterness. He is so accustomed to ideas that he can play with them. +He can smile at his own weaknesses, and discuss every question with +open mind and with that “kindly irony which is perhaps the ripest of +all moods in which poor humanity can look at itself.” But Erasmus +was the professional scholar, and we think of him always moving in +circles where learning is of special interest. One does not think of +educational institutions when one reads Montaigne’s essays, but of the +educated man himself. He is the learned layman, the _amateur_ whose +learning is assimilated with all the interests of the daily routine of +living. He is not “taken in” by his culture so as to make it an end in +itself. He says, + + “I labor not to be beloved more and esteemed better being dead than + alive.... If I were one of those to whom the world may be indebted + for praise, I would quit it for one moytie, on condition it would + pay me before hand.... I make no account of goods which I could + not employ to the use of my life. Such as I am, so I would not be + elsewhere than on paper. Mine art and industry have been employed + to make myself of some worth; my study and endeavor to doe, and not + to write. I have applied all my skill and devoire to frame my life. + Lo--heere mine occupation and my work. I am a less maker of books + than of anything else.... Whosoever hath any worth in him, let him + shew it in his behaviour, manners and ordinary discourses; be it + to treat of love or of quarrels; of sport and play or bed-matters, + at board or elsewhere; or be it in the conduct of his own affairs + or private household matters.... Demand a Spartan whether he would + rather be a cunning Rhethorician, then an excellent souldier; + nay, were I asked, I wuld say a good Cooke, had I not some one to + serve me. Good Lord--how I would hate such a commendation, to be a + sufficient man in writing and a foolish, shallow-headed braine or + coxcombe in all things else.” + +He ridicules those who strive to make a show of learning and “alledge +Plato and Saint Thomas for things which the first man they meete would +decide as well.... Such learning as could not enter into their middle +hath staid on their tongues.” + + “Being young I studied for ostentation; then a little to enoble + myselfe and become wiser; now for delight and recreation, never for + gaine. A vaine conceit and lavish humour I had after this kinde of + stuffe; not only to provide for my need, but some what further to + adorne and embellish my selfe withall; I have since partlie left it.” + +He loves Letters but does not worship them. 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 philosophers. + + “Nothing may be spoken so absurdly but that it is spoken by some of + the philosophers. And therefore do I suffer my humors or caprices + more freely to pass in publike. For as much as though they are borne + with, and of me, and without any patterne; well I wot, they will + be found to have relation to some ancient humour, and some shall + be found, that will both know and tell whence, and of whom I have + borrowed them. My customes are naturall; when I contrived them, I + called not for the help of any discipline: And weake and faint as + they were, when I have had a desire to expresse them, and to make + them appeare to the world a little more comely and decent, I have + somewhat endevoured to aide them with discourse, and assist them with + examples. I have wondred at my selfe, that by mere chance I have + met with them, agreeing and sutable to so many ancient examples and + Philosophicall discourses. What regiment my life was of, I never knew + nor learned but after it was much worne and spent. A new figure: An + unpremeditated Philosopher and a casuall.” + +It is this unostentatious, unpremeditated, casual and chatty quality +of Montaigne’s writing that reveals the genuineness of his education. +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 illustrations. In a characteristic bit of humor at his +own expense, Montaigne seems to justify this idea that he was a mere +compiler of other men’s thoughts. + + “We labor and toyle and plod to fill the memorie and leave both + understanding and conscience empty. 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 + ones: 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 wind. It is strange how filthy sottishness takes hold of + mine example. Is not that which I do in the greatest part of this + composition all one and self same thing? I am forever here and there + picking and culling from this and that book the sentences that please + me, not to keepe them (for I have no store house to reserve them in) + but to transport them into this: where to say truth, they are no more + mine than in their first place.” + +But it is obvious that these essays were not the product of a mind +which worked in such a sophomoric manner as this. Montaigne’s mind +is saturated with “ancient humor.” There is no pretense or conscious +effort to appear erudite. While many other Renaissance scholars were +writing in Latin and affecting a Ciceronian style, Montaigne wrote +in French. He is, I believe, the creator of the essay as a form of +literary expression, a style which is more free and informal than the +conventional forms of his day. + +A man who spent his days in seclusion in his library in the tower +of his castle, he writes not of books but of every conceivable +human interest and commonplace reality. His wisdom turns to such +considerations as, “By diverse means men come to a like end.” “How +the soul dischargeth her passions upon false objects.” “Whether the +captaine of a place besieged ought to sally forth to parley.” He writes +of “Idleness,” of “Liars,” or “Virtue,” of “Drunkenness,” of “Exercise +or Practice,” of “Profit and Honesty,” of “Repenting,” of “Coaches,” +of “The Verses of Virgil,” of “Vanity,” of “The affection of fathers to +their Children,” of “Seneca” and “Plutarch” and “Julius Caesar.” Always +his interest is in human experience. Shrewd personal observations are +mingled with stories from antiquity and quaint philosophic maxims in a +mind which is at once mature and inquisitive, loquacious and sceptical, +candidly self-revealing, without pretention, equally at home among +books and things. Let those who object to the teaching of the classics +on the ground that they tend to a “separation of education from life” +go back and re-read Montaigne. + +Although the two were by temperament very different, Montaigne would +have pleased Erasmus. His education and philosophy of life were very +much the type that Erasmus strove to encourage. When Montaigne was +born, in 1533, the influence of the Renaissance had already made +itself felt in France. He was three years old when Erasmus died. But +his casual mention of “The Adages” and “Colloquies” of Erasmus would +indicate that sometime in his youth these books formed part of his +education. His knowledge of Greek and Latin began at a very early +period in his life. 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 tongue. He entered what was called a “college” at the age of +six. It was, I suppose, a preparatory school. 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 time. At the age of thirteen +he entered a university to study Law, took his degree at twenty, and at +twenty-one was appointed councilor for the Parliament of Bordeaux. He +seems to have had some military experience also, and to have spent some +gay years at court. + +When he was thirty-nine years old he inherited the estate and castle +of Montaigne near Bordeaux. He married, and except for the few years, +when against his inclination he served as Mayor of Bordeaux, he spent +the remainder of his days in private life, looking after his estate and +enjoying hours of unbroken meditation in his tower library, reading his +Horace and Plutarch and the ancient poets and philosophers generally. +He says he was not a great reader, but that he liked to have his +books about him. He especially enjoyed the privacy of his library, +from which, he gives us to understand, his wife and the rest of the +household were excluded. + +Montaigne began writing brief essays when he was forty-five years old, +not at first for publication but rather so that he might present a true +picture of himself to his family and friends. The writing evidently +amused him for as the years passed the essays grew longer and their +content more serious. + +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 written. The struggle of the Reformation was in full swing. +Montaigne’s lifetime coincides with what was doubtless the most bitter +and acrimonious period of that religious conflict. Everywhere there +was persecution, riot, intrigue, retaliation; men seemed to have lost +utterly the liberal spirit of the Renaissance and to have forgotten +that there was such a virtue as tolerance. + +Montaigne was an exception. It is said that during the years of +bloodshed in France, his castle was never fortified, nor closed, and +that both Catholics and Protestants were welcome there. The battle does +not disturb Montaigne’s equanimity, nor warp his judgment; it remains +to him a little more than a fight in the street. I should like to call +attention to this indifference to the great mass movement of the times, +for there are those who contend that philosophy, art and letters are +but the by-products of such movements. At a time when nearly every +one is eaten up with partisan zeal, Montaigne hardly mentions the +Reformation. He says, “I perswade you, in your opinions and discourses, +as much as in your custom, and in every other thing, to use moderation +and temperance, and avoid all newfangled inventions and strangenesses. +All extravagant wais displease me.” + +While others are resorting to torture and massacre for the sake of a +faith which they do not question, Montaigne quietly retires and has +time to see when he is making himself ridiculous. + + “It is not long since I retired my selfe unto mine owne house, with + full purpose, as much as lay in me, not to trouble myselfe with any + businesse, but solitarily and quietly to weare out the remainder + of my wellnigh spent life: when me thought I could doe my spirit + no greater favor than to give him the full scope of idlenesse, and + entertaine him as best he pleased, and withall to settle himselfe as + best he liked: which I hoped he might, now being by time become more + settled and ripe, accomplish very easily: but I finde + + ‘... evermore idlenesse + Doth wavering mindes addresse.’ + + That contrariwise, playing the skittish and loose broken jade, he + takes a hundred times more cariere and libertie unto himselfe than + he did for others: and begets in me so many extravagant chimeraes + and fantastical monsters, so orderless, and without any reason, one + huddled upon the other, that at leisure to view the foolishnesse and + monstrous strangeness of them, I have begun to keep a register of + them, hoping, if I live, one day to make him ashamed and blush at + himselfe.” + +Toward the multitude and its judgments of value he is indifferent, + + “Our soule must play her part, but inwardly, within our selves, + where no eyes shine but ours: ... not for any advantage but for the + gracefulness of honestie itselfe. This benefit is much greater, and + more worthie to be wished and hoped, then honor and glory, which is + naught but a favorable judgment that is made of us.... Is it reason + to make the life of a wise man depend on the judgment of fooles? + Nothing is so incomprehensible to be just waied as the mindes of the + multitude.... + + “... In this breathie confusion of brutes and frothy chaos of reports + and of vulgar opinions which still push us on, no good can be + established. Let us not propose so fleeting and so wavering an end + unto ourselves. Let us constantly follow reason: And let the vulgar + approbation follow us that way, if it please. Of the many thousands + of worthie, valiant men which fifteen hundred years since [the day of + Juvenal] have died in France with their weapons in their hands, not + one in a hundred have come to our knowledge.... It shall be much, if + a hundred years hence the civil warres which lately we have had in + France be but remembered in grosse.” + +Yes, the multitude may follow if it pleases; Montaigne will not urge +it. He may remind it that in a few years its cause may be forgotten. +But how free he is from the righteous indignation and vindictiveness +and factiousness which everywhere storm about him. He has that urbanity +of which I spoke, and the serenity of one who has learned to laugh at +his own prejudices. + + “Surely, man is a wonderful, vaine, divers and wavering subject: it + is very hard to ground any directly constant and uniforme judgment + upon him.” + +His wisdom leads him to see not only the folly of mankind, but also +his own folly and weakness, which he does not strive to conceal, but +relates with amusing candor. + + “I have, a kind of raving, fanciful behavior that retireth well into + myselfe: and on the other side a grosse and childish ignorance of + many ordinary things: by means of which two qualities I have in my + daies committed five or six as sottish trickes as any one whatsoever: + which to my derogration may be reported.... + + “For my part, I may in generall wish to be other than I am: I may + condenme and mislike my universall forme: I may beseech God to + grant me an undefiled reformation and excuse my natural weaknesse: + but me seemeth I ought to tearme this repentance, no more than the + displeasure of being neither an Angell nor Cato.... + + “When I consult with my age of my youthe’s proceedings, I finde that + commonly (according to my opinion) I managed them in order. This + is all my resistance is able to perform. I flatter not myselfe: in + like circumstances I should be ever the same. It is not a spot, but + a whole dye that staynes mee. I acknowledge no repentence (that) is + superficiall, meane, and ceremonious. + + “Crosses and afflictions (works of penance) make me doe nothing but + curse them. They are for people that cannot be arroused but by the + whip.... The happy life (in my opinion, not as said Antisthenes, the + happy death,) is it that makes man’s happinesse in this world. + + “I have not preposterously busied myselfe to tie the taile of a + Philosopher unto the head and bodie of a varlet: nor that this + paultrie end, should disavow and belie the fairest soundest and + longest part of my life. I will present myselfe and make a generall + muster of my whole, everywhere uniformally. Were I to live againe, it + should be as I have already lived. I neither deplore the past, nor + dread what is to come.” + +The man who can speak so of himself is not likely to hold up any +universal standard of faith or practice. He is not the man with the +message for humanity, as were the Reformers and their enemies in the +church. He is not a partisan because he has gone beyond such dilemmas. +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 “one right way.” Reason has often been opposed +to faith. Montaigne sees that reason too is faith, and faith all too +human. There can be no finality. + +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 “Nathan the Wise,” and his story of the three rings. No one +possessed the original, which was supposed to entitle the owner to +the ancestral blessing and inheritance. All, like all religions, were +counterfeits of the lost article. + +Montaigne gives his ideas of religion and philosophy in the longest of +his essays, “An Apologie of Raymond Sebond.” He says that his father +once requested him to translate a book on natural Theology by an +unknown Spanish writer of this name. His remarks reveal the extent to +which his mind is freed from both rationalism and religious dogmatism. + + “We should accompany our faith with all the reason we possess: yet + always with this proviso, that we think it does not depend on us, + and that all our strength and arguments can never attain to so + supernaturall and divine a knowledge.” + +His remarkable detachment is seen in the following. He says that the +best test of Verity is the practice of virtue. + + “And therefore was our good Saint Lewis in the right, when that + Tartan King who was to become a Christian intended to come to Lions + to kisse the Pope’s feet, and there to view the sanctitie he hoped + to find in our lives and manners, 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 + religion. How be it the contrary happened to another who for the same + effect being come to Rome, and there viewing the dissoluteness of the + prelates and people of those days, was so much more confirmed in our + religion, considering with himselfe what force and divinity it must + of consequence have since it was able, amidst so many corruptions and + so viciously poluted hands to maintain her dignitie and splendor.... + + “Our zeale worketh wonders when ever it secondeth our inclination + toward hatred, cruelitie, ambition, avarice, detraction or + rebellion.... Among other discommodities of our nature this is + one, there is darkness in our minds, and in us not only necessity + of erring but love of errors.... Presumption is our naturall and + originall infirmitie. Of all creatures, man is the most miserable + and fraile, and therewithall the proudest and disdainfullest ... + he ascribeth divine conditions unto himselfe that he selecteth and + separateth himselfe from out the ranke of other creatures.... By + what comparison from them to us doth he conclude the brutishness he + ascribeth unto them? When I am playing with my cat who knows whether + she have more sport in dallying with me than I in gaming with her? We + entertain one another with mutuall apish tricks.” + + “We understand them (the beasts) no more than they us. By the same + reason may they as well esteem us Beasts, as we them. It is no great + marvell if we understand them not: no more doe we understand the + Cornish, the Welch, or Irish.” + +He is persuaded he says, that if anyone who has pursued knowledge will +“speak in conscience, he will confess that all the benefit he hath +gotten by so tedious a pursuit, hath been that he hath learned to know +his own weaknesse.” + + “My profession is not to know the truth nor to attaine it. I rather + open than discover things. The wisest that ever was, being demanded + what he knew, answered that he knew nothing.” + +He speaks with approval of the doubters, the Phyrronians who “but +desire to be contradicted, thereby to engender doubt and suspense of +judgment which is their end and drift.” Thus these men have attained +the condition of a quiet and contented life, exempted from the +agitations which beset ourselves because we imagine we have a certainty +and a knowledge that we do not possess. + +After all “that ignorance which knoweth and condemneth itselfe,” is +not absolute ignorance. 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 +another. The fears and revenge and jealousies and partisan strife and +rebellion and envy and immoderate desires which everywhere he finds +about him all proceed, he thinks, from presumptuous ignorance which +does not know itself to be ignorance. In the midst of theological +disputation he smilingly reminds his neighbors that as, + + “Xenophanes said pleasantly that if beastes frame any gods unto + themselves (as likely it is they doe) they surely frame them like + unto themselves and glorifie themselves as we do. For what may not a + Goose say this? All parts of the world behold me, the earth serveth + me to tread upon, the sunne to give me light, the starres to inspire + me with influence: this commodity I have of the winds, and this + benefit of the waters: there is nothing that this world’s vault doth + so favorably looke upon as me selfe: I am the favorite of nature. Is + it not man that careth for me, that keepeth me, and serveth me? For + me it is he soweth and reapeth and grindeth. If he eat me, so doth + man feede on his fellow, and so doe I on the wormes that consume and + eat him.” + + “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 aloft, laid something in + his way to make him stumble, 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 feet. + Verily she advised him well, and it better became him rather to looke + to himselfe than to gaze on heaven.” + +“_The wisest judging of heaven is not to judge of it at all._” His own +modest answer to the riddle of existence in contrast to those who would +“turne and winde God Almighty according to their own measure,” is “Que +scay-je?”--What do I know? + +Montaigne is not a hard and soulless sceptic. He is a well poised, +modest thinker and an honest man. He is not a denier, but one whose +mind is free from cant, humbug, pretentiousness. Historically he is one +of the links between the best in modern education and the questioning +Socrates whom he knew and loved. I trust that in presenting the +Humanist tradition in this concrete manner, I have been able to suggest +something of its spirit. It has a necessary place in liberal education +because it helps liberate the mind from the clutches of opinionated +ignorance, from the follies which prevail as truth in our own age, and +from conceit and vanity to which our human nature is ever prone. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION--HUXLEY + + +When the ancient Humanist, Protagoras, said, “Man is the measure of +all things,” he probably did not mean that all things may be measured +by man, for in his following sentence he is sceptical of our knowledge +of many things. He meant rather that all our measurements are human. +This independence of supernaturalism was not always characteristic +of educated minds of antiquity, but it is one of the distinguishing +features of the educational tradition which we have derived from Greece +and Rome. Thus Aristotle would establish ethics in the life of reason. +This same naturalistic bias also inspires those early attempts at +science which were broken off under the influence of Christianity. + +The Renaissance was accompanied by a re-awakened interest in nature, +and in human nature as part of nature as a whole. The trend toward +naturalism is seen in art, in the resumption of scientific research and +experimentation, and in the effort to supplant scholastic theology by +the study of human letters. To Da Vinci, for instance, science, art, +and letters were but the varied aspects of the same cultural awakening. +But for the greater number of those who felt the influence of the +Renaissance, science and letters became quite separate interests. +The new learning of the Humanists was almost exclusively a literary +scholarship. Erasmus and his followers had very little interest in +natural science. They found in classic literature a body of mature +wisdom ready to hand. Science on the contrary, was obliged to begin +_de novo_, and slowly construct its instruments of thought, building, +gradually a new system of knowledge. The brunt of the conflict with +scholastic education fell upon the humanists. The real renaissance of +science did not take place until the seventeenth century. + +Meanwhile the Reformation had caused a revival of religious interest, +and in Protestant countries like England, and later America, the +influence of religion upon higher learning remained powerful. It +permitted the classical tradition to survive in letter rather than in +spirit. The naturalistic implications of the classics were ignored; +commentators whenever possible read into the texts the conventional +beliefs and sentiments of Protestantism. Humanism became “traditional +education,” a new scholasticism, formal and innocuous, a mark of +intellectual respectability, a “refining” influence, an embroidery of +familiar quotation in the speech of parsons and country squires. + +Successive generations of grown-up schoolboys in Gothic halls, +laboriously translated, over and over again, hackneyed passages from a +literature that in the fifteenth century had been carried about like +the fire of Prometheus, kindling defiance to Heaven all over Europe. +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 “discipline” which was good for the soul. The student’s attention +was centered upon the niceties of construction and upon the task of +memorizing rules of grammar and a vocabulary, all stuffed into his head +in the most artificial manner conceivable. He was not likely to be +puzzled over the discovery that there might be something spiritually +irreconcilable between Lucretius and the Thirty Nine Articles, or +between the dialectic of Socrates and the Westminster confession of +faith. + +There is a world of difference between this _denatured_ Humanism and +that of Erasmus or Montaigne. That this traditional education made +for polish and good breeding cannot be denied. Neither, I think, +can it be denied that there was something sterile and illiberal in +Protestant-classical education. 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 opposition. + +I do not see how the situation could well have been otherwise. 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 science. +In the second place, the Reformation quite side-tracked the revival +of learning, superseded it, and took over into its own service only +so much of it as it found congenial to its religious interests. It +was a mass movement, an attempt at a restatement of Christianity in +terms of the philosophy of the common man, a philosophy to which +the questioning, enlightened common sense and worldly wisdom of a +Montaigne, a Voltaire or a Hume is never very congenial. Santayana +says, “The philosophy of the common man is an old wife that gives him +no pleasure, yet he cannot do without her, and resents any aspersions +that strangers may cast on her character. + +“Of this homely philosophy the tender cuticle is religious belief; +really the least vital and most arbitrary part of human opinion, the +outer ring, as it were, of the fortifications of prejudice, but for +that very reason the most jealously defended; since it is on being +attacked there, at the least defensible point, that rage and alarm at +being attacked at all are first aroused in the citadel. People are not +naturally sceptics, wondering if a single one of their intellectual +habits can be reasonably preserved; they are dogmatists angrily +confident of maintaining them all. Integral minds, pupils of a single +coherent tradition, regard their religion, whatever it may be, as +certain, as sublime, and as the only rational basis of morality and +policy. Yet in fact religious belief is terribly precarious, partly +because it is arbitrary, so that in the next tribe or in the next +century it will wear quite a different form; and partly because, +when genuine, it is spontaneous and continually remodelled, like +poetry, in the heart that gives it birth. A man of the world soon +learns to discredit established religions on account of their variety +and absurdity, although he may good-naturedly continue to conform +to his own; and a mystic before long begins fervently to condemn +current dogmas, on account of his own different inspiration. Without +philosophical criticism, therefore, mere experience and good sense +suggest that all positive religions are false, or at least (which +is enough for my present purpose) that they are all fantastic and +insecure.” + +Speaking of the Reformation and its relation to science, Whitehead +says, “We cannot look upon it as introducing a new principle into human +life.” Perhaps he is inclined to over-emphasize the assertions of +the Reformers that they were only restoring what had been forgotten. +But he says, “It is quite otherwise with the rise of modern science. +In every way it contrasts with the contemporary religious movement. +The Reformation was a popular uprising and for a century and a half +drenched Europe in blood. The beginnings of the scientific movement +were confined to a minority among the intellectual élite.” + +It is doubtless because the Humanists remained relatively indifferent +to science, that its early struggles with theology were comparatively +mild. It was permitted to make remarkable progress in the seventeenth +century without raising an issue too great for its strength. It is +interesting to note that when in the nineteenth century the conflict +of natural science with theology became acute, science was at the same +time engaged in a struggle for recognition by the official educational +system in which the classical tradition held sway. + +The outstanding public champion of science in this conflict was Thomas +H. Huxley. He could say of university education in England in the year +1868, that the colleges no longer promoted research in science, and +were hardly more than “boarding schools for bigger boys.” Once they +had been homes for the life study of the most abstruse and important +branches of knowledge. + + “I believe there can be no doubt that the foreigner who should wish + to become acquainted with the scientific, or the literary, activity + of modern England, would simply lose his time and his pains if he + visited our universities with that object. + + “The countrymen of Grote and of Mill, of Faraday, of Robert Brown, of + Lyell, and Darwin, to go no further back than the contemporaries of + men of middle age, can afford to smile at such a suggestion. England + can show now, and she has been able to show in every generation + since civilization spread over the West, individual men who hold + their own against the world, and keep alive the old tradition of her + intellectual eminence. + + “But in the majority of cases, these men are what they are in virtue + of their native intellectual force, and of a strength of character + which will not recognise impediments. They are not trained in the + courts of the Temple of Science, but storm the walls of that edifice + in all sorts of irregular ways, and with much loss of time and power, + in order to obtain their legitimate positions. + + “Our universities not only do not encourage such men; do not offer + them positions, in which it should be their highest duty to do, + thoroughly, that which they are most capable of doing; but, as far as + possible, university training shuts out of the minds of those among + them, who are subjected to it, the prospect that there is anything in + the world for which they are specially fitted.--Imagine the success + of the attempt to still the intellectual hunger of any of the men I + have mentioned, by putting before him, as the object of existence, + the successful mimicry of the measure of a Greek song, or the roll of + Ciceronian prose!” + +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 +understand. + + “For I hold very strongly by two convictions--The first is, 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 either; and the second + is, that for the purpose of attaining real culture, an exclusively + scientific education is at least as effectual as an exclusively + literary education. + + “I need hardly point out to you that these opinions, especially the + latter, are diametrically opposed to those of the great majority of + educated Englishmen, influenced as they are by school and university + traditions. In their belief, culture is obtainable only by a liberal + education; and a liberal education is synonymous, not merely with + education and instruction in literature, but in one particular form + of literature, namely, that of Greek and Roman antiquity. They hold + that the man who has learned Latin and Greek, however little, is + educated; while he who is versed in other branches of knowledge, + however deeply, is a more or less respectable specialist, not + admissable into the cultured caste. The stamp of the educated man, + the University degree, is not for him.” + + “The representatives of the Humanists, in the nineteenth century, + take their stand upon classical education as the sole avenue to + culture, as firmly as if we were still in the age of Renascence. Yet, + surely, the present intellectual relations of the modern and the + ancient worlds are profoundly different from those which obtained + three centuries ago. Leaving aside the existence of a great and + characteristic modern literature, of modern painting, and, especially + of modern music, there is one feature of the present state of the + civilized world which separates it more widely from the Renascence, + than the Renascence was separated from the middle ages. + + “This distinctive character of our own times lies in the vast and + constantly increasing part which is played by natural knowledge. Not + only is our daily life shaped by it, not only does the prosperity + of millions of men depend upon it, but our whole theory of life has + long been influenced, consciously or unconsciously, by the general + conceptions of the universe, which have been forced upon us by + physical science.” + + “The scientist, no longer disposed to remain on the defensive with + the usual apology for science, carries the battle into the opposing + camp and indicts the opposition, with some justice I think, for + its failure even when judged by its own traditional standards of + education. + + “There is no great force in the _tu quoque_ argument, or else the + advocates of scientific education might fairly enough retort upon + the modern Humanists that they may be learned specialists, but that + they possess no such sound foundation for a criticism of life as + deserves the name of culture. And, indeed, if we were disposed to be + cruel, we might urge that the Humanists have brought this reproach + upon themselves, not because they are too full of the spirit of the + ancient Greek, but because they lack it. + + “The period of the Renascence is commonly called that of the “Revival + of Letters,” as if the influences then brought to bear upon the + mind of Western Europe had been wholly exhausted in the field of + literature. I think it is very commonly forgotten that the revival of + science, effected by the same agency, although less conspicuous, was + not less momentous.... + + “We cannot know all the best thoughts and sayings of the Greeks + unless we know what they thought about natural phenomena. We cannot + fully apprehend their criticism of life unless we understand + the extent to which that criticism was affected by scientific + conceptions. We falsely pretend to be the inheritors of their + culture, unless we are penetrated, as the best minds among them were, + with an unhesitating faith that the free employment of reason, in + accordance with scientific method, is the sole method of reaching + truth. + + “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 abated, if not + abandoned.” + +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 letters; the two were one in the +naturalistic minds of the Greeks. He is aware of the fact that both +science and letters were revived by the Renaissance, 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 position. + + “But for those who mean to make science their serious occupation; + or who intend to follow the profession of medicine; or who have to + enter early upon the business of life; for all these, in my opinion, + classical education is a mistake; and it is for this reason that I + am glad to see ‘mere literary education and instruction’ shut out + from the curriculum of Sir Josiah Mason’s College, seeing that its + inclusion would probably lead to the introduction of the ordinary + smattering of Latin and Greek....” + + “The great peculiarity of scientific training, that in virtue of + which it cannot be replaced by any other discipline whatsoever, + is this bringing of the mind directly into contact with fact, and + practising the intellect in the completest form of induction; that is + to say, in drawing conclusions from particular facts made known by + immediate observation of nature.” + +The struggle for recognition of the liberalizing educational value of +science was carried to successful issue in the nineteenth century. +In backward communities, Fundamentalism still sets its face against +certain of the anti-supernaturalist implications of science, and it is +always possible that if at any time the populace now dazzled by the +“wonders” of science, should suspect the full meaning of the world-view +which science would substitute for the older anthropomorphic ideas +about the universe, there may be a wide-spread popular reaction against +it in the name of religion. But at present in educational institutions +generally, scientific courses tend to predominate over the classical. +Most of the struggles for “academic freedom” and most of the live +problems in education revolve about the teaching of the sciences. +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 classics. The latter is on +the decline and I suppose must continue to be so until Humanism again +possesses that vitality and naturalism, and independence of judgment +which men had when the Greeks set out to discover the Good Life. + +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 reflection. In it may be realized that desire +for exact knowledge as different from mere opinion which the ancients +sought. It tests all things in the light of experiment and by appeal +to cold objective fact. It is often said that science is Reason in +contrast with Faith. Certainly the scientist cannot in his research +permit himself to be swayed by religious belief and remain scientific. +He must accept no conclusion on authority or because he wishes to +believe it. But the scientific mind is not, as a matter of fact, as +strictly rationalistic as was the scholastic mind. The logic of the +latter is a formal vindication of The Truth conceived in advance of +knowledge of fact. The reasoning of the former proceeds by a succession +of shrewd guesses which are held to be mere hypothesis until verified +by the facts. This necessity of holding judgment in abeyance, and +of being willing to discard any belief or postulate that may not be +confirmed by objective reality, has the greatest educational value. 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 knowledge, I should say, +precisely because of these things, training in scientific methods is +the best device available to the educator for instilling into the human +mind some measure of respect for truth. + +To this end Huxley would introduce scientific experimentation into the +elementary school and would establish “scientific Sunday schools,” + + “Would there really be anything wrong in using part of Sunday for + the purpose of instructing those who have no other leisure, in a + knowledge of the phenomena of Nature, and of man’s relation to + Nature? + + “I should like to see a scientific Sunday-school in every parish, + not for the purpose of superseding any existing means of teaching + the people the things that are for their good, but side by side with + them. 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 + feet. + + “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 worship, to awaken the minds of the young to the infinite wonder + and majesty of the works which they proclaim His, and to teach them + those laws which must needs be His laws, and therefore of all things + needful for man to know--I can only recommend them to be let blood + and put on low diet. There must be something very wrong going on in + the instrument of logic if it turns out such conclusions from such + premises.” + +There is an intellectual cleanness, something downright and honest +about the scientific pursuit of knowledge, and this uncompromising +mental integrity characterizes everything that Huxley said and did. +There is nothing shifty in a mind trained as his was. His is like a +cool north breeze on one of those clear summer days that sometimes +follow a period of sultriness, fog and rain. If things are a little too +sharply outlined, they are at least recognized for what they are. No +evasive mistiness obscures the landscape. To Huxley the foundation of +morality is to give up pretending to believe that for which there is no +evidence. 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 fictions. You will remember +his correspondence with Kingsley when death had entered his home. The +grief-stricken Huxley refused the consolations of a faith in which he +could not whole-heartedly believe. Like Socrates and Montaigne and +many educated men today, Huxley was candidly agnostic with respect to +matters which lie beyond the radius of human knowledge. + +Huxley was a determinist, but it is doubtful if he was a materialist. +At least he held to a materialism which in one sense might be +reconciled with a form of idealism. In the address in honor of Joseph +Priestley he said, + + “Without containing much that will be new to the readers or Hobbs, + Spinoza, Collins, Hume, and Hartley, and indeed, while making no + pretensions to originality, Priestley’s ‘Disquisitions relating to + Matter and Spirit,’ and his ‘Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity + Illustrated,’ are among the most powerful, clear, and unflinching + expositions of materialism and necessarianism which exist in the + English language, and are still well worth reading. + + “Priestley denied the freedom of the will in the sense of its + self-determination; he denied the existence of a soul distinct + from the body; and as a natural consequence, he denied the natural + immortality of man. + + “In relation to these matters English opinion a century ago was very + much what it is now. + + “A man may be a necessarian without incurring graver reproach than + that implied in being called a gloomy fanatic, necessarianism, + though very shocking, having a note of Calvinistic orthodoxy; but, + if a man is a materialist; or, if good authorities say he is and + must be so, in spite of his assertion to the contrary; or, if he + acknowledge himself unable to see good reasons for believing in the + natural immortality of man, respectable folks look upon him as an + unsafe neighbour of a cashbox, as an actual or potential sensualist, + the more virtuous in outward seeming, the more certainly loaded with + secret ‘grave personal sins.’ + + “... I must confess that what interests me most about Priestley’s + materialism, is the evidence that he saw dimly the seed of + destruction which such materialism carries within its own bosom. In + the course of his reading for his ‘History of Discoveries relating + to Vision, Light, and Colours,’ he had come upon the speculations of + Boscovich and Michell, and had been led to admit the sufficiently + obvious truth that our knowledge of matter is a knowledge of its + properties; and that of its substance--if it have a substance--we + know nothing. And this led to the further admission that, so far + as we can know, there may be no difference between the substance + of matter and the substance of spirit (‘Disquisitions, p. 16’). + A step farther would have shown Priestley that his materialism + was, essentially, very little different from the Idealism of his + contemporary, the Bishop of Cloyne.” + +Perhaps William James may have had Huxley or his type in mind when +he wrote his famous passage about learning “to stand this universe.” +Yet I suspect that Huxley’s universe was more simple and benevolent, +more naïvely conceived than was that of James. Huxley was to the end a +rationalist, and lived and worked in a period when Nature was thought +to be essentially reasonable. Man need only learn the laws of nature +and obey them to become wise and happy and good. The aim of education +was to acquaint the student with the laws of nature. + + “Well, what I mean by Education is learning the rules of this mighty + game. In other words, education is the instruction of the intellect + in the laws of Nature, under which name I include not merely things + and their forces, but men and their ways; and the fashioning of the + affections and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to move + in harmony with those laws. For me, education means neither more nor + less than this.... + + “Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every + one of us would, one day or other, depend upon his winning or losing + a game of chess. 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 + pieces; to have a notion of a gambit, and a keen eye for all the + means of giving and getting out of check? + + “Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth, that the life, the + fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of + those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something + of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than + chess. It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man + and woman of us being one of the two players in a game of his or + her own. The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena + of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws + of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know + that his play is always fair, just and patient. But we also know, to + our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest + allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well, the highest + stakes are paid, with that sort of overflowing generosity with which + the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is + checkmated--without haste, but without remorse. + + “My metaphor will remind some of you of the famous picture in which + Retzsch has depicted Satan playing at chess with man for his soul. + Substitute for the mocking friend in that picture a calm, strong + angel who is playing for love, as we say, and would rather lose than + win--and I should accept it as an image of human life.... + + “That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so + trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and + does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it + is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with + all its parts of equal strength, and in smooth working order; ready, + like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the + gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is + stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature + and of the laws of her operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is + full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to + heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience; who has + learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of art, to hate all + vileness, and to respect others as himself. + + “Such an one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education; + for he is, as completely as a man can be, in harmony with Nature. He + will make the best of her, and she of him. They will get on together + rarely; she as his ever beneficent mother; he as her mouthpiece, her + conscious self, her minister and interpreter.” + +But surely liberal education is more than becoming the mouthpiece +of a benevolent nature. It seems to me that Huxley omits one of the +essentials. Just as the nineteenth century Humanists, because of +their neglect of science, possessed only a distorted and one-sided +view of Humanist education, so it would seem to me that nineteenth +century science in its opposition to traditional education, failed to +see that science is itself a part of Humanism. It is not merely the +discovery of given “Laws” which exist independently in a benevolent +and rational universe. 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 beings_. What nature is +aside from the fact that we are interested spectators does not concern +us. Science grows out of the fact that we are more interested in +some things than in others. It is a human achievement; it is one of +the answers that mankind gives to the riddle of existence. It is not +existence which gives that answer, it is man. And education must not +only seek knowledge of the facts of nature, but having obtained such +knowledge, _must try to understand what to do about it_. Now that we +understand our natural environment, what kind of life can we best +achieve with it? What valuations have men put upon deeds and things? +What values is it possible to achieve? Our education is not done when +we have learned Nature’s _yes_ and _no_; we have our own _yes_ and _no_ +to give. + +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 knowledge. Their own reason which +they are thus able to impose upon nature, they believe they have +discovered in nature itself. Hence nature appears to be more ordered +than it really is, and to be essentially reasonable and beneficent. +Compare Huxley’s picture of nature as a beneficent mother of whom the +educated mind “makes the best, and she of him,” he “her conscious +self, her minister and interpreter,” with William James’ statement +about “this partially hospitable and ‘stepmotherly’ world of ours.” +The latter is surely the more profound and correct view. Water is not +only H₂O, it may drown you or quench your thirst. Fire is not merely +a process of oxidation, it is hot. It may be your willing servant, or +your relentless enemy. 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 it. +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 agony. 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 process, but that he may +select wisely among the alternatives which Nature presents to him, lift +himself above chaos and the slime, and achieve an existence that, at +least while it lasts, has some significance and quality of decency and +worth. + +It is to this end that science is education; a true Humanism is +impossible without it. Such a Humanism is as anti-supernaturalistic as +determinism. But it is naturalism with mankind, however, not merely +pictured as a passive resultant of natural forces, but actively +selecting and creating value. As Huxley himself says, its aim is to +provide criteria for a “criticism of life.” + + “Moreover this scientific ‘criticism of life’ presents itself to + us with different credentials from any other. It appeals not to + authority, nor to what anybody may have thought or said, but to + nature. It admits that all our interpretations of natural fact are + more or less imperfect and symbolic, and bids the learner seek for + the truth not among words but among things. It warns us that the + assertion which outstrips evidence is not only a blunder but a crime.” + +He saw a new culture in process of development, one which would enlist +the whole spiritual life of mankind, + + “The scenes are shifting the great theatre of the world. The act + which commenced with the Protestant Reformation is nearly played out, + and a wider and deeper change than that effected three centuries + ago--a reformation, or rather a revolution of thought, the extremes + of which are represented by the intellectual heirs of John of Leyden + and of Ignatius Loyola, rather than by those of Luther and of + Leo--is waiting to come on, nay, visible behind the scenes to those + who have good eyes. Men are beginning, once more, to awake to the + fact that matters of belief and of speculation are of absolutely + infinite practical importance; and are drawing off from that sunny + country ‘where it is always afternoon’--the sleepy hollow of broad + indifferentism--to range themselves under their natural banners. + Change is in the air. It is whirling feather-heads into all sorts + of eccentric orbits, and filling the steadiest with a sense of + insecurity. It insists on reopening all questions and asking all + institutions, however venerable, by what right they exist, and + whether they are, or are not, in harmony with the real or supposed + wants of mankind.” + +Huxley’s services to education were more than his struggle for the +recognition of the educational value of science. 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 preëminence +and to aid in placing both education and modern thought upon the basis +of a philosophy of evolution. + +After receiving his degree in medicine, Huxley was appointed to the +position of assistant surgeon in the British navy. As he cruised about +on the war-ship ‘Rattlesnake,’ he began his studies of marine animals. +Darwin, you will remember, had also spent long months on southern seas +as government naturalist assigned to the Beagle. During the years that +followed each had risen to a high position as a British scientist, +conducting research, publishing papers, making new discoveries, all of +which contributed to make the nineteenth century, as John Fiske said, +“the century of science.” + +During the years when Darwin was patiently elaborating the theory of +“descent with modification” which was destined within his own lifetime +to bring about a revolutionary transformation in the philosophy of +nature, Huxley did much to organize the science of Biology as a +definite branch of natural history. His great energy and industry, his +passion for exact knowledge and his genius for clear and comprehensive +statement made him one of the outstanding scientists of England. As +professor of Natural History at the Royal School of Mines, and later in +the Royal College of Surgeons, and as publicist and member of numerous +commissions on science and education, he was in a position to throw +a tremendous weight of influence to the support of his convictions, +should he be drawn into a scientific controversy. + +When in 1859 Darwin published the “Origin of Species,” 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 world. Darwin did not invent +the doctrine of evolution. This idea had from time to time suggested +itself to men’s minds whenever a naturalistic account of creation was +attempted. The increase of knowledge of comparative anatomy, of geology +and of zoölogy, 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 surface, could +not fail to suggest to many minds the thought that perhaps all forms +of life might be related in one comprehensive evolutionary process. +Although the evidence against the dogma of special creation was rapidly +accumulating, no valid explanation had been found. 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 organs, was under discussion. +The theory did not, however, interest Huxley, because it implied that +modifications which occurred as a result of effort and use could be +inherited, a belief for which there was not sufficient evidence. + +Darwin’s book put the whole problem in a new light, and stated the +hypotheses of organic evolution as an alternative to “special creation” +in terms which were comprehensible to a mind trained in natural +science. Heretofore a mysterious principle of development had been +substituted for a miracle of creation. 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 facts. + +It is not my purpose now to enter upon a discussion of Darwinism, or +its present status in biology, a general understanding of which I think +should be part of the education of a modern man. I suspect that many +moderns who “believe in evolution” merely cherish a popular faith in +some mystical law of unusual progress, such as is expressed in the +verse, “Some call it evolution and some God.” + +Huxley was uncompromisingly opposed to all such romantic theologizing +in science. He was moreover, aware, as Darwin himself was, of the +difficulties of Darwin’s theory. But he grasped the significance of +what Darwin had done and saw the ground upon which he had placed the +discussion of the problem, and he held that in the main Darwin was +correct. Gracefully and courageously he took his stand at Darwin’s +side. In various addresses, essays, books, he drew upon his extensive +knowledge for evidence in support of the theory. In “Man’s Place in +Nature” he uncompromisingly placed the origin and development of the +human race within the process of the evolution of animal organisms. 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 century. He accepted +the challenge, and during the decades that followed 1860 he was +probably the outstanding champion in England, not only of evolution, +but of science itself. In 1925, upon the centennial of his birth, his +grandson, Julian Huxley wrote, + + “Of the general truth of the evolutionary hypothesis, its enormous + value to biology, and the necessary reorientation which it would give + to the general current of thought, he had no doubts; nor did he spare + himself in the cause. It is sometimes as well, in these easier-going + and theologically more tolerant days, when we are reaping what he + and others like him sowed, and may sometimes be tempted to think of + his criticism as essentially destructive, to remember what power of + inertia, what violence of the odium theologicum there was in the + opposition. ‘Professor Huxley’ became a sort of bogy in orthodox + lower middle-class families, almost as ‘Boney’ had done for the + nation in earlier days. He was attacked as irreligious, immoral, + unscrupulous, on the platform, in the press, by letter. That sort of + opposition cannot be persuaded; it must die out or be destroyed.” + +The scholar confronted by the fury and stupidity of the mob, and +counted a fool for his pains when he strives to induce it to listen to +reason, has often turned aside in disgust. Henceforth he will write and +speak for the learned few. Let the masses, who think that a scientific +demonstration may be satisfactorily refuted with derision and slander, +consume themselves in their own ignorance. They have made it clear +that learning is not for such as they. In the Theatetus Plato tells +us of the discomfiture of the philosopher in the marketplace. As “the +rabble” is in all times heedless or hostile to reason, there has often +developed the idea that any belief that is popular is thereby shown +to be untrue and vulgar. Cato at once became suspicious of himself +when any utterance of his met with applause. Among would-be educated +minds this suspicion becomes a cult. Anything is “refined” and true +to the extent that it is unpopular--and for the reason that it is not +shared by the many. Today this attitude--which is really intellectual +snobbishness--gains plausibility from the fact that much of the +popularization of science is base caricature and misrepresentation. + +It is obvious that the wider the circulation of pseudo-science, the +greater is the need of genuine instruction in the elements of science +and of general culture. I can see no other way by which modern learning +or modern civilization may be sustained. The man on the street has +power to determine which values shall survive in our common life, and +which shall perish, to a degree that he never had before. He exercises +this influence upon our culture in many ways both direct and indirect, +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 strength. + +Moreover, it is not likely that a strictly esoteric intellectualism can +survive at all, much less attain that leadership which is the proper +function of intelligence in human affairs in a world organized as ours +is. As I have said before, our intellectual hold upon reality, even +for the best trained minds, is more precarious than we think. A slight +general shifting of emotional interest or of perspective--the spread, +let us suppose, of Fundamentalism through lower middle class minds +generally,--a sudden spasm of popular disillusionment regarding the +“wonders” of science or of hostility toward scientific methods which +are ever upsetting the consolations of faith,--might conceivably occur +at any time, and bring the beginning of the end of all that scholars +have struggled for since the Renaissance. If as Huxley said, the epoch +which began with the Reformation is about played out, it is not by +any means a foregone conclusion what the sequel is to be. If science +and letters are to join forces in the achievement of a truly Humanist +culture, this culture must be rooted in the life and thought of the +community. It will not likely be again a fifteenth century Italian +mimicry of the age of Cicero; neither can it support itself like a +bridge over an illiterate and enslaved populace, after the fashion of +ancient Athenian Humanism. This modern public can read, it is very +vociferous, it has votes and purchasing power and it pays to flatter +it. But there is in the modern public a small and growing minority, +scattered throughout all classes in the community, who honestly desire +knowledge of science and the humanities. + +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 minority. I once invited a neighboring biologist to +participate with other research scholars, in a course of lectures at +Cooper Union on scientific methods. He declined, because he believed +that a scientist who lectured to popular audiences cheapened his +reputation. I wondered if he had forgotten the great service to science +rendered by Huxley, 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 Union. + +Huxley seemed to believe that the outcome of the struggle of evolution +against popular ignorance and superstition was inseparable from the +fate of science itself. He set himself to make knowledge of the +principles of science universal. He did a work of adult education +that has not been surpassed in modern times. If today there is greater +freedom for scientific research and teaching, and in general a more +liberal and tolerant attitude on the part of official and popular +religion toward scientific discovery, our generation is in no small +measure indebted to Huxley. + +In reply to the commonly expressed fear that liberal education may give +us a type of mind which is sceptical and ineffective, I offer Huxley. +The educated man may not perhaps take sides on the ever recurrent +question who is to profit at another’s expense, nor easily give his +devotion to the particular Utopian scheme of social reorganization +which happens to be the fashion of the reformers of his day. But if he +is like Huxley, he will be alert enough when he finds that intellectual +integrity and cultural progress are at stake. Like Erasmus, Huxley +survives in the philosophy of modern education as a symbol of +enlightenment in its struggle against obscurantism. Both insist upon +the recognition of the value of one aspect of a developing educational +tradition which has its origin in ancient Greece, and is in sharp +contrast both with popular opinion and with mediæval scholasticism. +As I have indicated, it was unfortunate that these two educational +interests did not develop out of the Renaissance, as one, for a +well-rounded Humanism is an integration of both. Erasmus champions the +cause of “human letters” and in the end classical education degenerates +into a species of Protestant scholasticism. Huxley champions science, +but is unable to liberate science itself from a mechanistic philosophy +which became associated with it two centuries earlier. The struggle +of science with theology was but a continuation of the spirit of the +Renaissance. The struggle of science against an entrenched classical +tradition meant that _the Renaissance had become divided against +itself_. This dualism is reflected in science down to the present time. +It is revealed in Huxley’s type of agnosticism, which is really naïve +in comparison with the sophisticated, mellow scepticism of Montaigne or +Hume, or in our own day with that of Mr. Santayana, who sees that all +knowledge is faith. + +It was not so with Huxley; about the finality of the knowledge that +can be brought within the scope of scientific method he had no doubt +whatever. Of other knowledge he is sceptical because of want of +evidence. This is courageous and honest, and, from the standpoint +of the struggle in which science was then engaged with theological +rationalism, the issue cannot be compromised without the surrender of +science to superstition. 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 nature, +he seems to hold that morality and truth are absolute and eternal +principles which exist outside the process and constitute the very +basis of existence. Reason which knows these eternal principles and +in which they inhere, must then also exist outside the process. But +we have seen that reason is a function of the behavior of an animal. +Huxley is thus a Rationalist; as much so as any Scholastic. The body +of scientific knowledge which we possess is the revelation of the +true nature of the facts which we experienced. It is the intellectual +equivalent of reality. + +But is scientific knowledge knowledge of facts taken in their +wholeness, or is it in each instance knowledge of some special _aspect_ +of the facts--fact reduced to abstract quality, to number and point in +space and to a multiple of smaller and “more real” units all conceived +in logical relationship rather than as experienced? Suppose we should +say that scientific ideas do not exist independent of the minds that +think them, are not equivalents of independent truths which reason +discovers, 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 it. + +From this point of view, the one most consistent, I believe, with +a biology and a psychology which must take evolution into account, +scientific ideas are seen to be humanly created symbols, not cerebral +photographs of the ultimate nature of things. Why should the ultimate +nature of a lobster be the fact that a morphologist discovers it to be +an “articulate,” anymore than that I discover that it turns red when +put in boiling water? Scientific ideas are instruments. Abstraction and +classification are in a sense labor-saving devices, according to which +we may hold that what is true for one object or event is true for all +of its kind. + +But the success of our thinking depends upon which of these many +aspects and relationships we observe and hence how we classify them. +All aspects and relationships are equally true, as James said, if true +at all. Correct thinking is the thinking which seizes upon those which +are relevant to our interest and purpose. And the interest and purpose +are human, not inherent in the world of things. Hence the order science +finds in nature is not _given_; it is the order of human thought +itself. Thus science also is “human letters.” + +The humanist, or organic, view of the world of science differentiates +the twentieth century philosophy of nature from the mechanistic +philosophy of earlier science. Mechanism, which is faith that the +universe is reducible to Reason is, I hold, a survival from the old +religious dualism, according to which matter and spirit were separate +entities each belonging to its own world of phenomenon. The existence +of Reason as an entity in itself could be taken for granted, because +Reason belonged to the realm of spirit or mind, which though it existed +outside the material order of being, had yet established this order in +conformity to Reason. + +Huxley’s agnosticism properly denies that man can have knowledge of +this world of spirit, yet retains from that realm the principle of +reason which it re-discovers in the world of material phenomena. Hence +Huxley was more religious than he knew. It is not the agnostic who is +the non-religious man, but the naïve realist who sees every fact and +situation uncolored by fancy or theory or illusion. For such a mind, +spiritual values do not exist. This kind of materialism is a different +thing from philosophical materialism, which is very theoretical and +fanciful. There are persons who approach this naïve realism, but I +doubt if anyone is wholly lacking in poetry and fancy. Certainly Huxley +was not. + +Ordinarily we see our environment in a perspective of wish-fancy and +traditional myth and magic. To more logical minds the world of objects +is colored by the “sentiment of Rationality.” The universe appears to +them to be governed, not by an indulgent or harsh imaginary Father, but +by a principle of Reason. In each case, the fiction of security gives +the feeling of salvation. In a wholly rational universe salvation is +explanation. Everything is reasonable, hence right, if only we could +explain it and show its place in the whole. 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 spirit, but as Whitehead says, “the faith in the possibility of +science generated antecedently to the development of modern scientific +theory is an unconscious derivative from medieval theology.” + +The conflict in the nineteenth century on behalf of science has +effected education in various ways. It has not emptied the churches, +but it has had a marked liberalizing influence, causing various groups +of believers to seek to modify the public expressions of their faith +in the light of modern knowledge. It has given the average educated +person of today a very different conception of his world from that +commonly held a century ago. It has to some extent revived the Socratic +insistence upon clear and accurate thinking as the first requirement +of an educated mind. It has brought a greater degree of objectivity +and wholesomeness of outlook to bear upon the formation of the mental +habits of students. It is by its insistence upon the biological point +of view, causing marked changes in men’s ideas of human nature and +society, gradually turning their thought away from the political dogma +of the eighteenth century to a less doctrinaire social philosophy. + +On the other side, it may be said to be in part responsible for the +over-specialization common in our educational institutions. It has +left on the mind of the public the impression that science is a new +kind of magic, sometimes actually augmenting the general credulity and +gullibility. 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 “scientific.” Minds stuffed with a smattering of science may be +just as opinionated as minds stuffed with a smattering of theology. + +A result which could perhaps not have been foreseen in 1875--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 discussed. The scientific interest tended to have +a mechanizing influence upon all life and culture, to ignore and +sometimes deny all values which resisted laboratory methods. 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 else, +this purposeless correlation of matter, space and movement expressed in +mathematical formulae was frequently given out as the true picture of +the nature of all existence--human life included. + +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 +astronomers. Just as matter was thought to consist of combinations +of atoms, so living organisms consisted of cells, and complex acts +of behavior were seen to consist of combinations of simple reflexes. +The cell and the reflex, being the irreducible minimum of physiology +and of psychology, were said to be the realities which constituted +the nature of the organism and its acts. All phenomena of life were +but combinations of these elemental realities. Find the smallest +particles in the combination, show how by a mechanical principle +they are inevitably placed in certain temporal and spacial and +other quantitative relationships, and behold, science has led you +to _Reality_. All this seemed to be very certain in the nineteenth +century; it alone was _knowledge_, all else was mere opinion and error. + +Professor Whitehead says, “But the progress of biology and psychology +has probably been checked by the uncritical assumption of half-truths. +If science is not to degenerate into a medley of _ad hoc_ hypotheses, +it must become philosophical and must enter upon a thorough criticism +of its own foundations.... + +“There persists, however, throughout the whole period the fixed +scientific cosmology which presupposes the ultimate fact of an +irreducible brute matter, or material, spread throughout space in +a flux of configurations. In itself such a material is senseless, +valueless, purposeless. It just does what it does do, following a +fixed routine imposed by external relations which do not spring from +the nature of its being. It is this assumption that I call ‘scientific +materialism.’” + +“The progress of science has now reached a turning point. The stable +foundations of physics have broken up: also for the first time +physiology is asserting itself as an effective body of knowledge, as +distinct from a scrap-heap. The old foundations of scientific thought +are becoming unintelligible. Time, space, matter, material, ether, +electricity, mechanism, organism, configuration, structure, pattern, +function, all require reinterpretation. What is the sense of talking +about a mechanical explanation when you do not know what you mean by +mechanics?” + +It is this disposition to find the real nature of the facts in the +smallest homogeneous particles, in other words, “atomism,” which +science in the twentieth century modifies. The parts themselves, +considered without regard to their position in the whole event, are +nothing. The reality is the organism, the situation as a whole. The +unity of a tree is very different from that of a machine, and even +physicists are beginning to suspect that they also deal with the +former kind of unity. The effect of this change of view upon education +is difficult to predict. I believe there are indications of a better +synthesis of science with general culture than that which obtained in +Huxley’s time. And as science modifies its mechanistic presuppositions, +there will doubtless be an increase of the importance of philosophy +in education, less pretense at finality, 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 individual, reduces him to atoms, and regards him as a +machine. + +The recognition of the probability that much even of our established +scientific knowledge is a human convention, should have a liberalizing +effect upon the education of the present generation. Compare the +assurance of Huxley with the following passages which I quote from the +writings of Bertrand Russell, the first from his book on “Relativity,” +and the second from the closing words of “The ABC of Atoms.” + +“What we know about the physical world, I repeat, is much more +abstract than was formerly supposed. Between bodies there are +occurrences, such as light waves; of the _laws_ of these occurrences, +we know something--just as much as can be expressed in mathematical +formulae--but of their _nature_ we know nothing. Of the bodies +themselves, as we saw in the preceding chapter, we know so little +that we cannot even be sure that they are anything: they _may_ be +merely groups of events in other places, those events which we should +naturally regard as their effects.... Perhaps an illustration may make +the matter clear. Between a piece of orchestral music as played, and +the same piece of music as printed in the score, there is a certain +resemblance, which may be described as a resemblance in structure. +The resemblance is of such a sort that, when you know the rules, +you can infer the music from the score or the score from the music. +But suppose you had been stone deaf from birth, but had lived among +musical people. You could understand, if you had learned to speak +and to do lip-reading, that the musical scores represented something +quite different from themselves in intrinsic quality, though similar +in structure. The value of music would be completely unimaginable to +you, but you could infer all its mathematical characteristics, since +they are the same as those of the score. Now our knowledge of nature is +something like this. We can read the scores, and infer just so much as +our stone-deaf person could have inferred about music. But we have not +the advantages which he derived from association with musical people. +We cannot know whether the music represented by the scores is beautiful +or hideous; perhaps, in the last analysis, we cannot be quite sure that +the scores represent anything but themselves.” + +“The theory of relativity has shown that most of traditional dynamics, +which was supposed to contain scientific laws, really consisted of +conventions as to measurement, and was strictly analogous to the +‘great law’ that there are always three feet to a yard. In particular, +this applies to the conservation of energy. This makes it plausible +to suppose that every apparent law of nature which strikes us as +reasonable is not really a law of nature, but a concealed convention, +plastered on to nature by our love of what we, in our arrogance, choose +to consider rational. Eddington hints that a real law of nature is +likely to stand out by the fact that it appears to us irrational, +since in that case it is less likely that we have invented it to +satisfy our intellectual taste. 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 physics. + +“This raises a somewhat important question: Is the world ‘rational,’ +i. e., such as to conform to our intellectual habits? Or is it +‘irrational,’ i. e., not such as we should have made it if we had been +in the position of the Creator? I do not propose to suggest an answer +to this question.” + +No, we do not know whether the world is such as we would have made +it if we had been in the position of the Creator. 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 understanding. +Throughout all historic times men have striven to attain that insight, +discrimination and foreknowledge which would enable them to become +“legislators of values”--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 lives. This is the aim of the pursuit of +knowledge. It is to give to existence an “order of rank.” What if the +order be a human one? General coöperation in its development is what we +mean by culture. And education is not mere perpetuation of the order of +the past. The hierarchy of values must be constantly recreated if it is +to survive. Knowledge of the past is the inspiration to such creative +effort and knowledge of nature is a guide to it. A generation ago +William James, whose philosophy of science was thoroughly Humanistic, +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 +making, and that we should never know what sort of world this would be +“till the last man’s vote is in and counted.” 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 education. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE FRUIT OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE + + +Finally, with what appraisement may the seeker for knowledge view +education itself? In the course of our study we have cast aside +numerous idols and comforting fictions. We have seen that in the +process of a liberal education old dilemmas are outgrown; that the +habit is formed of questioning all things; that the educated mind +becomes capable of amused self-criticism, attains urbanity of spirit +and tolerant scepticism of the crowd and its partisan controversies, +and with civilized resignation learns that it may not possess finality +in matters of truth and right, but that a man must order his life +according to the wisest discrimination of value of which he is capable. + +Now, I believe, the wise man will pursue his education always viewing +it with a certain light-heartedness and detachment. 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 folly. Like Falstaff’s confession, +“I am not much better than one of the wicked,” Socrates, the wisest, +knows he is not much better than one of the foolish. People who +solemnly try to improve their minds, with groanings of the spirit that +cannot be uttered, determined to reach some cultural “Pike’s peak or +bust,” do not often become educated; they become intellectual bores. + +Education is a way of living, but it is never a substitute for life. +Rational living does not mean that interest, feeling, love, respect, +practical achievement, do not count, or that in the end education +should make of life a mere _knowledge affair_. One does not pursue +scholarship merely for the sake of philosophical contemplation, or as +an intellectual trick. And there is no magic about education, but plain +common sense. I think we may safely say that a life guided by reason +and good taste is better than one enslaved to tradition, tabu, narrow +utilitarianism, conventionalism and passion. But surely education is +not a hair shirt to be worn in order to discipline the spirit and +achieve the modern idea of salvation. Neither is it something to be +attained by practicing before the mirror. It is nothing ostentatious. +Nor is it to be made a cult of. It does not work miracles, nor can it +create out of airy nothingness an intelligence that does not exist. + +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 work. I know a +number of college graduates who are very bitter in their criticism of +college education, protesting that they did not learn anything that did +them any good. Perhaps they expected too much for the amount of effort +put forth and tried to do too great a business on a small intellectual +capital. Or perhaps such criticism is in part a pose; in certain +circles it is now “the thing.” + +An article which recently appeared in a student’s journal is typical +of this attitude toward College education. The writer asks, “Are the +American colleges worth their keep?” They have not, he says, given to +the nation the trained leadership which we had the right to expect of +them. Enter any University Club and you will find yourself far removed +from that intellectual atmosphere which should be characteristic of +education in a great democracy. Few college men may be found fighting +on the side of social justice. Few have the courage to deviate in any +way from the totums and tabus of a plutocratic, materialistic society. +Few have any very different ideas from those of their chauffeurs of +what constitutes success in life. Men’s colleges are no different +from girl’s finishing schools; they are not educational institutions, +but exist merely to impart information of the ways and manners of +upper-class society. Instructors are devitalized, for none but a +devitalized person could endure the system. Trustees have the habit +of judging colleges by the same standards they apply to business, yet +judged even by such standards, the author thinks higher education is a +failure. If Mr. Henry Ford turned out motor cars as bad as the products +the colleges turn out, he would soon be bankrupt! + +In so far as such sweeping indictments are inspired by a feeling of +antipathy toward the so-called upper classes, it is not necessary for +us to discuss them. But I think that criticisms of this sort also +reveal a tendency to expect too much of education. We become more +charitable when we pause to consider how small a part, even at best, +intelligence plays in the control of human behavior. We have seen what +Erasmus thought about this subject. Most of those who call attention to +the general lack of intelligence, draw a distinction between the amount +of it in existence and the amount in common use. This is a democratic +view of the matter. It flatters the average man if you tell him that he +possesses more intelligence than he is using. A more correct view is +perhaps that of Freud, who says that most of us in modern civilization +are living “psychologically beyond our means.” + +A good example of this democratic view may be found in a discussion +of “Intelligence in Our Time,” by a very able professor in one of +the Eastern colleges. “The general state of intelligence in our time +is of the strangest. It is richly and splendidly equipped and it is +tragically unsuccessful,--unsuccessful, that is, in the conduct of +life, both personal and social.” You may test it, broadly speaking, +by the troubles of the world. “One of the foremost failures of human +intelligence is not to remember its own importance.” In other words, +I suppose we haven’t enough intelligence to use our intelligence. We +live in “a sea of loose and floating ideas, more of them produced +daily, and no clearly recognized way of deciding, to the coercion of +all trained minds, which is right.... When people go wrong in reasoning +they usually do so in obvious ways, by violating obvious rules.” +Intelligence has its standards, but does not enforce them; it “lacks +confidence in itself.... On most important subjects opinions differ. In +each case something else appears as more important than intelligence, +something else has the right of way.” + +In other words, we know better than to believe and behave as we do +most of the time. But I doubt if this unfortunate state of man is a +peculiarity of our times. I suspect that there has long been more +knowledge than intelligence in the world. The difficulty is that we +frequently do not know how to use the knowledge we possess, for to +use knowledge well requires wisdom, and no one can give us wisdom. +I can see no gain in condemning the human race for not using its +intelligence. I suspect that the beliefs we entertain and the deeds +we perform or leave undone are the best measure of the intelligence +we possess. 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 disguise. The admission will to some extent save us +from that childish pride of intellect which is a common affliction of +those who “go in” for education. + +Sometimes pride of intellect disguises itself with a holy tone and +reverential mien, as if education were a very solemn affair. When I +was a school boy, there was in our town a woman librarian who presided +over our little public library with deadly seriousness. She filled the +place with a crushing and awesome silence, as with reverential whispers +she quietly moved on tiptoe among the books like one ministering in the +house of the dead. I have known people to behave in this spirit toward +literature. I have seen school teachers and professors take such an +attitude toward education. It characterizes the average baccalaureate +address and is discernible in much that is said and written about +education. I know several “prophets” of adult education who succeed in +giving a similar impression. Their very souls creak under the weight of +the world-mending “spiritual values” of adult education. If people will +take their education as hard as the Kantians take morality, they are +welcome to their “sublimities.” 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 presence. But I would rather dwell in the tents of +the wicked than be a door-keeper in such a house of serious thinkers. +Extravagant claims for education lead to pretense, to painful efforts +at keeping up appearances, to exposure and ultimate disillusionment. + +Several times in history there has occurred a wide-spread reaction +against education, followed by a long period of decline of interest +in it. Usually such reactions have taken the form of a revival of +religion and have followed upon a period of general intellectual +awakening. The Augustan age is followed by primitive Christianity, the +Renaissance by the Reformation, the eighteenth century, the age of “the +Enlightenment,” by those distinctly anti-intellectualist movements, the +Revival, the Revolution and Romanticism. May not one of the causes of +such reactions be the fact that people have been led to expect too much +of the prevailing education? Men for a time believe that education will +disclose some wonderful secret which is about to transform the world, +and when they find that the learned doctors do not reveal the secret +because they have none to reveal, and that the world does not at once +proceed to transform itself, they turn from learning to religion where +the secret is kept from the wise and revealed unto babes. No one is +more concerned than I that the interest in education be as wide-spread +and as genuine as possible. But I would not force its growth lest we +get all foliage and no fruit. It is better that in its due season the +tree be known by the fruit it bears. + +Just as some believe that education is a sort of gospel, there are +others who contend that knowledge makes for unhappiness. One evening +at an informal dinner in New York a small group of thoughtful people, +all of middle age, were discussing in a rather desultory manner the +education of the younger generation. Suddenly the conversation became +serious. One of the women said, “They are hard, disillusioned young +realists. What else could we expect? It is the result of the education +we are giving them. They know too much.” She continued, “I wish, though +I do not see how it could have been done, that we could have retained +the simple beliefs of our parents. It was very comforting to believe +those things. It seems to me that everything I learn robs me of some +consoling ideal and makes the world appear cruel and terrible.” + +To the question, what shall we put in the place of the old faiths which +education leads us to doubt, there is perhaps no other answer than +that we shall _exchange an infantile mentality for a mature one_. Most +people will agree that it is better to grow up, but as to whether we +are happier without our childish illusions, opinions differ. + +Much of the tenderness which people show for small children is a +mixture of pity and envy. The other day I saw a business man about +fifty years old gaze long and wistfully at an infant playing with his +toys. He said as he turned away, “I wish I could remember what it feels +like to be his age. Can you imagine what this world must look like to +him?” There is my own small son who is now just learning to stand on +his feet and speak a word or two. How trusting and sweet he is. He is +not afraid of any one or any thing. No one would of course wish him to +live always surrounded only by pretty pictures and parental kindness. +But it is easy to understand how one in moments of weariness and doubt +might envy him his brief day of blessed ignorance. Think of it, he does +not even know that people have to work, and that it is the common lot +of mankind both to endure and inflict suffering. He does not suspect +the existence of such things as hospitals, slaughter houses, war, +slums, jails, policemen or Congress. He does not know that he is not +immortal, or that he must ever part with those he loves. He must know +these things since they exist, and must learn about many other facts +equally hard to endure. 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 escape. + +Such is knowledge, and such is the price we pay for it. One reason +why mankind persistently resists the introduction of knowledge is the +disinclination to pay the price. It is not altogether easy, as James +said, to “stand this universe.” The longing for the irresponsibility +of childhood is very common among mankind, and it gives rise to many +comforting fictions which yield reluctantly to knowledge of fact. The +general attitude toward wisdom has in it always a touch of the dread +of the unknown. There is a very old legend that our first parents +were expelled from paradise after eating of the fruit of the tree of +knowledge. + +Even our boasted practical knowledge of nature and of mechanics can +hardly be said to be an unmixed blessing. We are not quite so utopian +in our enthusiasm over applied science as we were twenty years ago. I +once burst into eloquence with an entertaining peroration something +like the following: “Everywhere as science displaces the hallowed +survivals of primitive magic and superstition, man emerges from +darkness with dignity and freedom in his bearing and titanic power in +his hands. The great friend for whom humanity has waited is the quiet +man in the laboratory amongst his test tubes and apparatus. What kings +could not command, nor priests call down from an unanswering heaven, he +can command and bring into being to enrich the heritage of happiness +for all. The earth blossoms for science. Where the medicine man in the +desert once vainly prayed for rain, science digs an irrigation ditch +and waste lands turn into fields of grain. 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 faith. Science offers +no sacrifice to propitiate revengeful gods: it drains the swamps: it +resorts to such mundane devices as screens, vaccine and the quarantine, +and for the first time in all history the human race is freed of its +most terrifying scourge. Science has drawn the nations together as +its lines of mechanical communication have annihilated the spacial +distances which have hitherto isolated man from man. It has lightened +the burden of toil and has multiplied the productive force of labor a +hundredfold. It has lengthened the span of the average human life by +nearly a decade. + +“And with what a wealth of unforeseen goods it has supplied us, motor +cars, and aëroplanes, and talking machines, and a countless variety of +new chemical products. What indeed can we not achieve with its aid; we +can send our messages around the world, dig the Panama Canal, throw a +dam across the Mississippi and turn the wheels and light the homes of +distant cities. We can make the lightning our household servant, we +can fly through the clouds, we can weigh distant suns, and by throwing +their light waves through a spectroscope, analyze them chemically and +tell whether they are composed of gas or solid matter and whether they +are moving towards us or receding. As science is giving us mastery +over nature, why should it not likewise give man control over his own +nature? The existence in a scientific age of poverty and crime and +injustice and corruption is an anachronism. Human reason has at last +decided to make itself at home and put the house of life in order, and +all nature smilingly welcomes it. It is flushed with success and well +it may be, for in it is the promise of the final triumph of man on the +earth.” + +We are not so sanguine now. We have seen the destructive uses to which +scientific knowledge may be put in warfare. We are not so hopeful about +the easy control of human nature by means of it. It cannot be said that +there has been a general gain in intelligence, corresponding to the +increase of specialized scientific knowledge. 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 children. We are like passengers on a +steamship speeding through fog with an empty pilot house. + +We move swiftly from one place to another, but it is doubtful if we +find more happiness or good when we reach our destination, or if we +behave more wisely than do men who know nothing of the fruits of +science. Those who are acquainted with China, a country in which a vast +population has maintained the oldest civilization extant without any +science at all, say that the cultural level of that nation has not been +raised by the occasional importation of western methods of sanitation, +military science, electric lights and chewing gum. + +Medical research has saved the lives of countless numbers of children, +so that infant mortality is negligible now as compared with that of the +ages that had no science. I am sure no one would wish to give up such +a splendid application of modern knowledge to human welfare. Yet even +this has its price. There are biologists who doubt if the amount of +human suffering has been so greatly reduced as we at first supposed. +They say that many physically unfit persons are thus preserved, only to +suffer in later life, and that the survival to maturity, of such poorly +equipped organisms and their reproduction lowers the quality of the +racial stock of the nation. This is an extreme position and is perhaps +a premature conclusion, but it illustrates my point that at best our +modern knowledge may not be had without paying some price for it. + +Theoretical knowledge of nature may be said to be no less costly than +applied science. 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 creation. 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 on. Early +astronomy revealed to man that his earth, far from being “the Center” +was but a perishable and relatively very small kind of moon whirling +about a slowing cooling sun, 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 planet. Chemistry +showed man that his glowing life was a molecular process. Physics +taught him that all change and movement were but the redistribution of +a meaningless and purposeless energy the quantity of which remained +forever constant. 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 earth. Biology revealed to him his kinship with other animals +and his lowly origin. Psychology sought to find his soul, and gave up +the search, finding it easier to account for his behavior in terms +of animal impulse and reflex action. Anthropology discovered for him +the origin of his cherished beliefs in the customs of primitive man. +Sociology reduced his individual existence to that of a statistical +unit in the mass. + +It now appears probable that science may abandon in time its +traditional mechanistic conceptions of the cosmos and of life, but +there is little likelihood that such a change of outlook will restore +man to the place in nature which he once thought he occupied. 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 century. Indeed, +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 +science. + +Now I have tried to state the situation in its bold harshness, for the +educated mind today must know all this and must wrestle with it. The +knowledge cannot of itself lead to happiness, nor do I think that it +necessarily leads to unhappiness. All depends upon what we are able to +make of our existence in such a world. Although we possess different +and more precise instruments of knowledge, I do not think this is the +first time that thoughtful minds have seen through popular fancy and +the shows of things. I believe wise men of all times have suspected +that existence is different from what people naïvely imagine it to be. +And it is precisely because they wrestled with such suspicions, asked, +“what then?”, and have sought to give their existence some meaning and +worth, that their words are precious. Now that education is general, +and vast numbers seek it, 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 fact. + +The fear that most men cannot do this, and that they will turn aside +with some substitute for knowledge or with that “little learning +which is a dangerous thing” has led some writers, wrongly I think, to +question that any good may come of universal education. This esoteric +point of view is dramatically stated by Dostoevsky in “The Brothers +Karamazov,” 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 Inquisition. The Inquisitor tells the Christ that he has +demanded too much of mankind. What the masses need is not freedom of +the spirit, but mystery, miracle, and authority; someone to take their +bread from their hands, bless it and give it back to them; someone who +will permit them to sin, and take the responsibility on his own soul, +someone who will _guard the secret_ and deceive mankind every step of +the way as he leads it down to death. The old Inquisitor says to the +Christ, “If at the last day you condemn me, I will defy you to your +face, for I too have eaten bitter roots in the wilderness.” + +Nietzsche in his lectures on “The Future of our Educational +Institutions” at Bâle, takes a similar position. Nietzsche believed +that to the degree that education is extended it is weakened and +minimized. 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 philosopher. + + “And do you not fear that solitude will wreak its vengeance upon you? + Just try living the life of a hermit of culture. One must be blessed + with overflowing wealth in order to live for the good of all on one’s + own resources! Extraordinary youngsters! They felt it incumbent upon + them to imitate what is precisely most difficult and most high,--what + is possible only to the master, when they, above all, should know + how difficult and dangerous this is, and how many excellent gifts + may be ruined by attempting it!... No one would strive to attain to + culture if he knew how incredibly small the number of really cultured + people actually is, and can ever be.” + + “... those blatant heralds of educational needs, when examined at + close quarters, are suddenly seen to be transformed into zealous, + yea, fanatical opponents of true culture, i. e., all those who + hold fast to the aristocratic nature of the mind; for, at bottom, + they regard as their goal the emancipation of the masses from the + mastery of the great few; they seek to overthrow the most sacred + hierarchy in the kingdom of the intellect--the servitude of the + masses, their submissive obedience, their instinct of loyalty to the + rule of genius.... The education of the masses cannot, therefore, + be our aim; but rather the education of a few picked men for great + and lasting works. 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 period.... What is called the ‘education of the + masses’ cannot be accomplished except with difficulty; and even if a + system of universal compulsory education be applied, they can only be + reached outwardly.... + + “We know, however, what the aspiration is of those who would disturb + the healthy slumber of the people, and continually call out to them: + ‘Keep your eyes open! Be sensible! Be wise!’ 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 thereby. These very + people, using these very means, are fighting against the natural + hierarchy in the realm of the intellect, and destroying the roots of + all those noble and sublime plastic forces which have their material + origin in the unconsciousness of the people.” + + “This eternal hierarchy, towards which all things naturally tend, is + always threatened by that pseudo-culture which now sits on the throne + of the present. It endeavors either to bring the leaders down to the + level of its own servitude or else to cast them out altogether.” + +Whether Nietzsche’s theories of education were derived from his +political philosophy, or the reverse, I do not know. We are not, +however, interested in discussing political and sociological theories. +The point is that Nietzsche held that education is difficult and +dangerous, and that only the rare, strong, courageous spirits may +attain it. The many really do not want education at all, he thinks, but +only that cheaper knowledge which will give them success and enable +them to take their places in the rank and file; seeking such education +the herd tramples culture under foot, like cattle in growing corn when +the fences are down. Difficult and dangerous as knowledge is, it is +to Nietzsche the most precious possession of man. 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 democracy. I think he +had a real issue, although I wish he had possessed more self-control +in arguing his case; he had always something of the intemperance and +over-excited gestures of a religious evangelist or soap-box orator. + +A much more sane statement of the true aims of education in conflict +with Philistinism is that of Matthew Arnold. I hesitate to mention +Arnold because those who are still guilty of the errors he exposed will +say he was a Victorian, and how could his ideas of education have any +value for a progressive twentieth century population? I doubt if many +men of today, advocates of advanced theories of education included, are +as far removed from the vulgarities and pseudo-culture of the Victorian +age as Arnold was. Like Nietzsche, he holds that the multitude gives +evidence that it does not really want education. Unlike Nietzsche, he +does not think that knowledge is some grim secret which only a few +heroic supermen may attain. The fruits of knowledge are not merely +ideas about life and reality which men may or may not believe in, but +are to be known in the quality of life and thought which characterize +the educated mind. + +Arnold’s phrase “sweetness and light” is a little suggestive of a +Unitarian sermon, or of some cult of the “higher life.” 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 individual; he +would not necessarily become an educated person. All such deliberate +efforts at self-improvement, if they are not characterized by a +sentimental insincerity which is content with imitation and appearance, +are at least a little like the effort of Benjamin Franklin to school +himself in the moral virtues, who, finding the task too great, decided +that he could best gain proficiency by practicing his desired virtues +one at a time. + +You may rest assured that Arnold had nothing of this sort in mind, +much as he seems at one time to have admired the wisdom of Franklin. +He meant that certain mental traits are sufficiently characteristic +of educated minds generally to be the distinguishing marks which +differentiate them from the uneducated. To be sure, it is a thankless +task to call attention to such traits, and no one who does it may +expect to be very popular, but sometimes, when the culture of a +nation is in danger, it has to be done. Arnold has in mind characters +like Socrates, Erasmus, Montaigne--no muddle-headed, opinionated or +narrow-minded men, but men who had attained clarity of thought and the +insight which pierces the glamour of things and the follies of men, and +yet could speak and write without bitterness or rancor or malice. + + “Here culture goes beyond religion, as religion is generally + conceived by us. + + “If culture, then, is a study of perfection, and of harmonious + perfection, general perfection, and perfection which consists + in becoming something rather than in having something, in an + inward condition of the mind and spirit, not in an outward set of + circumstances,--it is clear that culture, instead of being the + frivolous and useless thing which Mr. Bright, and Mr. Frederic + Harrison, and many other Liberals are apt to call it, has a very + important function to fulfill for mankind. And this function is + particularly important in our modern world, of which the whole + civilisation is, to a much greater degree than the civilisation + of Greece and Rome, mechanical and external, and tends constantly + to become more so. But above all in our own country has culture a + weighty part to perform, because here that mechanical character, + which civilization tends to take everywhere, is shown in the most + eminent degree. Indeed nearly all the characters of perfection, + as culture teaches us to fix them, meet in this country with some + powerful tendency which thwarts them and sets them at defiance.... So + culture has a rough task to achieve in this country. Its preachers + have, and are likely to long have, a hard time of it, and they will + much oftener be regarded, for a great while to come, as elegant or + spurious Jeremiahs than as friends and benefactors.... + + “Faith in machinery is, I said, our besetting danger; often in + machinery most absurdly disproportioned to the end which this + machinery, if it is to do any good at all, is to serve; but always in + machinery, as if it had a value in and for itself. What is freedom + but machinery? what is population but machinery? what is coal but + machinery? what are railroads but machinery? what is wealth but + machinery? what are, even, religious organisations but machinery? Now + almost every voice in England is accustomed to speak of these things + as if they were precious ends in themselves, and therefore had some + of the characters of perfection indisputably joined to them.... But + culture indefatigably tries, not to make what each raw person may + like the rule by which he fashions himself; but to draw ever nearer + to a sense of what is indeed beautiful, graceful, and becoming, and + to get the raw person to like that.... + + “The people who believe most that our greatness and welfare are + proved by our being very rich, and who most give their lives and + thoughts to becoming rich, are just the very people whom we call + Philistines. Culture says, ‘Consider these people, then, their way of + life, their habits, their manners, the very tones of their voices; + look at them attentively; observe the literature they read, the + things which give them pleasure, the words which come forth out of + their mouths, the thoughts which make the furniture of their minds; + would any amount of wealth be worth having with the condition that + one was to become just like these people by having it?’” + +As Nietzsche sees that education must struggle for its values if it is +to survive in a democracy, Arnold is equally aware of its conflict with +middle-class English Puritanism. He will give the Puritan credit for +his moral earnestness, but-- + + “the Puritan’s ideal of perfection remains narrow and inadequate, + although for what he did well he has been richly rewarded. + Notwithstanding the mighty results of the Pilgrim Fathers’ voyage, + they and their standard of perfection are rightly judged when + we figure to ourselves Shakespeare or Virgil,--souls in whom + sweetness and light, and all that in human nature is most humane, + were eminent,--accompanying them on their voyage, and think what + intolerable company Shakespeare and Virgil would have found them! In + the same way let us judge the religious organizations which we see + all around us. Do not let us deny the good and the happiness which + they have accomplished; but do not let us fail to see clearly that + their idea of human perfection is narrow and inadequate, and that + the Dissidence of Dissent and the Protestantism of the Protestant + religion will never bring humanity to its true goal.” + +Of the relation of education to the growing power of nineteenth century +democracy, Arnold says, + + “Other well-meaning friends of this new power are for leading it, + not in the old ruts of middle-class Philistinism, but in ways which + are naturally alluring to the feet of democracy, though in this + country they are novel and untried ways. I may call them the ways of + Jacobinism. Violent indignation with the past, abstract systems of + renovation applied wholesale, a new doctrine drawn up in black and + white for elaborating down to the very smallest details a rational + society for the future.... Culture is the eternal opponent of the two + things which are the signal marks of Jacobinism,--its fierceness, + and its addiction to an abstract system. Culture is always assigning + to system-makers and systems a smaller share in the bent of human + destiny than their friends like.” + +The following is as truly the problem of education today as it was on +the day it was written, and the answer that our generation gives to the +problem will determine the whole quality of the fruit of knowledge for +our lives. + + “... Plenty of people will try to give the masses, as they call them, + an intellectual food prepared and adapted in the way they think + proper for the actual condition of the masses. The ordinary popular + literature is an example of this way of working on the masses. + Plenty of people will try to indoctrinate the masses with the set of + ideas and judgments constituting the creed of their own profession + or party. Our religious and political organisations give an example + of this way of working on the masses. I condemn neither way; but + culture works differently. It does not try to teach down to the level + of inferior classes; it does not try to win them for this or that + sect of its own, with ready-made judgments and watchwords. It seeks + to do away with classes; to make the best that has been thought and + known in the world current everywhere; to make all men live in an + atmosphere of sweetness and light, where they may use ideas, as it + uses them itself, freely,--nourished, and not bound by them. + + “The great men of culture are those who have had a passion for + diffusing, for making prevail, for carrying from one end of society + to the other, the best knowledge, the best ideas of their time; who + have laboured to divest knowledge of all that was harsh, uncouth, + difficult, abstract, professional, exclusive; to humanise it, to + make it efficient outside the clique of the cultivated and learned, + yet still remaining the _best_ knowledge and thought of the time, + and a true source, therefore, of sweetness and light. Such a man was + Abelard in the Middle Ages, in spite of all his imperfections; and + thence the boundless emotion and enthusiasm which Abelard excited. + Such were Lessing and Herder in Germany, at the end of the last + century; and their services to Germany were in this way inestimably + precious.... And why? Because they _humanized_ knowledge; because + they broadened the basis of life and intelligence.” + +The human race has demonstrated how it can get along without knowledge; +it has not on any general scale demonstrated how it can get along with +knowledge. Ignorance and vulgarity have amazing survival value in human +society. Knowledge has its dangers. One may lose one’s faith in the +pursuit of it or expend much effort, and never attain it; and, what is +worse, never know that one has not attained it. Or having gained some +bit of knowledge, one may not store it up as final truth and abide with +it, but having seen must pass on to other knowledge. The pursuit of +knowledge is an open road. + +All, or nearly all, who have pursued knowledge will say that such a +pursuit is a great adventure. It is an adventure which never goes +stale, nor loses its lure, nor grows old, and there are indirect +results of such an adventure which cannot be measured. Just as he who +has traveled in many lands returns and views his home with new eyes +never really having seen it before, so he who follows knowledge in time +sees the things about him in new light. They have a richer meaning and +better perspective for they have a wider reference. + +What might happen if a considerable portion of the population should, +or could, become devoted to education in the way that men have engaged +themselves in religion, war, and commerce, we perhaps can never know. +Men have been converted to religion and have “back-slid” or have +outgrown their faith. Men have gaily marched off to war and before +the conflict ended have grown sick of it. Men have given up commerce, +finding that it does not satisfy some deep longing in their natures. +Most of those who begin their education leave off before they learn +what it is about. But the few who have remained to taste the fruit of +knowledge as a rule become addicted to it, and never leave off, being +never satisfied with what they have yet attained. If for eating this +fruit they find themselves outside the paradise of childish innocence +and popular belief, they do by their bearing give us the impression +that the experience is worth its cost. It is only the half-educated, +those who would follow wisdom and at the same time look back over their +shoulders casting longing glances at comforting ignorance, unable to +say farewell, who dwell upon the painfulness of knowledge. 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 it, are men who find in the Byronic attitude a convenient way of +convincing themselves that they are intellectual heroes. Or they are +romanticists who enjoy the sorrows of Werther. + +For the encouragement of those who might wish to continue their +education or assist in the education of another, I have tried to +present certain historical examples of men who have attained wisdom. +They are brave men and true; they do not make us ashamed of our race. +It is a pleasure to try to understand such minds, 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 confusion, we +may have been able to gain something, from turning our attention to +Socrates and Plato and Aristotle and Erasmus and Montaigne and Huxley +and Nietzsche and Arnold, that will help us to see the meaning of +education. But we can never be sure whether we like its fruits until we +taste them. + + + + +CHAPTER XV--POSTSCRIPT + +ADULT EDUCATION IN AMERICA + + +When the European universities were established in the late +Middle Ages, they were not, like our modern American colleges, +super-high-schools. It was not their primary purpose to give to +undergraduates and aspiring professional students a maximum fund +of information during a brief period of residence. There were many +thousands of such students, but the college or university was in a real +sense an institution for adult education. It was a place of residence +for mature scholars, a center where such men could pursue their +studies and live the life of education, just as in the monasteries men +could live the “religious” life. The teaching which went on in these +universities was in a sense a secondary activity. + +Among the many changes which have occurred in life and education +since the thirteenth century, that represented by Goethe’s “Faust” +has special interest for us. The modern man attempts to live the life +of the spirit outside the cloister. In this respect we are, as I have +said, more like the ancient Athenians who formed themselves into little +groups and attached themselves as disciples to their teacher for an +indefinite period of time. We may easily imagine the students and +friends of Socrates continuing with him for years their philosophical +inquiries, while at the same time engaged in the conduct of their +duties as citizens and householders. Both Plato and Aristotle, as we +have seen, thought of education in this way. It was an interest which +as a matter of course extended into adult life. This continued emphasis +upon the education of the mature mind is important, for it is in +contrast with much modern thought on the subject. Modern educators are +chiefly interested in the problems of teaching children. + +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 ancients. The average mature individual, +is not like the ancient Greek student, a member of the leisure class, +nor may he like the mediæval scholar retreat to a cloister. He must +earn his living and seek education during his leisure time. To be +sure, the formal and professional education of our time has still the +advantages of a certain privilege and seclusion. Adult education must +necessarily proceed without these valuable aids to learning. In earlier +ages it was generally believed that education could not be achieved +without these advantages. Modern men insist that the spiritual values +of life be realized not in contemplative aloofness but in the life of +activity. They also demand a satisfactory existence for as many people +as possible; hence all are to have opportunity to share in the cultural +goods of civilization. Education is made universal and, below a certain +age, compulsory. But it is obvious that unless education is to remain +the privilege of a few professionally trained scholars, large numbers +of people must be given the facilities for continued study after school +or college days are passed. + +In other words, the aim of adult education is the cultivated amateur. +I have tried to show that this is precisely the aim of all liberal +education. Learning which is discontinued when one leaves school has +been for the most part wasted effort. 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 +community. We have seen that Huxley deplored the fact that much of the +intellectual leadership of Victorian England was found outside the +university faculties. While this may have been a just criticism of +the universities, it was a sign of intellectual vigor in the nation. +Education may be said to be achieving its purposes in a nation to the +extent that quiet reflection supplants superficial cleverness, and that +minds with patience and grace and breadth of outlook, with indifference +to fads and catchwords and with respect for excellence, supplant the +“go-getter,” the “movie-fan,” the worshipper of Mammon, the sensation +monger and the narrow sectarian. + +The extent to which our education is a reality in the life of this +Republic is almost daily brought to our attention. A very small +percentage of the population spends four years at college, 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 entered. After +graduation, students bring home little cultural interest or added civic +virtue. They for the most part vote the regular party ticket, support a +church in which they happen to have been brought up, play golf, dance +to jazz music, talk prohibition and drink synthetic gin, repeat the +shibboleths of the group in which they grew to maturity, and make money. + +A small minority of students attend post-graduate schools, become +research scholars, and within the radius of their special branch of +study often reach high proficiency and unequalled scholarship. In the +universities of New York City are gathered many of the most eminent +scholars in America. But it must be said that very little educational +influence passes over the chasm which separates our professionalized +education from the man in the street. 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 red, white and blue +bunting which had been hung up by a tenant for the occasion of a street +festival some days previous; 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 +actor; and anon half the city runs oggling and open-mouthed after a +young woman who can swim across the English Channel. + +Without background or tradition other than folkway and a perishing +ancient dogma, and with quantity production methods devised to pamper +to its fancy, this multitude tends to cheapen the quality of everything +it comes near, while it parades its material prosperity before the +world as evidence of superior American virtue. Education has not +yet taken root in our soil. It is a potted plant, like those little +evergreen trees which may be seen growing in painted tubs on the stoops +of New York houses. Such ancestral systems for valuing experience and +controlling behavior as people brought to this country were mostly +cast aside in the process of Americanization; the swift tempo of +industrialism supplanted the slow process of spiritual maturing, and a +newspaper-fashioned public opinion became the dominant cultural force +for the country at large. + +We do not know at present whether the alleged general interest in +adult education is evidence of a spontaneous and growing desire for +knowledge, or is something promoted, worked up by interests which +would “educate the masses” in order to attain certain economic ends, +individual or social. Nearly three million persons are said to be +annually enrolled for various courses of study outside the resident +classes of established institutions of learning. Undoubtedly a great +variety of motives prompts these hundreds of thousands of people +to take up the task of study. But wide-spread as this interest is, +popularization of knowledge is not the same as the humanization of +knowledge. We have seen how the values of religion may decline into +empty caricatures of the spiritual life amongst certain popular sects. + +Those engaged in the work of adult education, often fear that the +movement may become standardized after the fashion of the public school +system. Is it possible to keep up the standards without resorting to +the mechanical uniformity we commonly call standardization? I think +this is possible only if we are guided by a philosophy of liberal +education. Lose sight of such a philosophy and adult education +becomes a confusion of tongues. In such confusion there is of course +freedom from uniformity, yet there may be much standardization; each +educational cult may easily degenerate into a doctrinaire, misguided +sect. If I am correct in holding that the aim of liberal education +is to produce the cultivated amateur, who possesses in general the +mental traits which in the preceding chapters of this book we have +seen to characterize the liberally educated mind, we have in the +pursuit of such a goal the very thing that will save adult education +from degenerating, like Protestantism, into a conflict of narrow +orthodoxies. Without such a goal, any passing fancy or popular +prejudice, however ungrounded in philosophy, may come to serve as a +dominant ideal of education. Adult education then becomes the means to +every sort of propaganda and personal ambition. + +One educator of adults conducts short-time “institutes” for farmers +in which during a period of two or three weeks instruction is given +in such subjects as the fertilization of the soil, rotation of crops, +marketing, and the elements of bookkeeping. Others offer instruction to +industrial workers which will improve their efficiency and deepen their +loyalty to the company. Others teach various trades and professions. +Much of the Americanization propaganda which gave employment to +uplifters during the years following the war is now called adult +education. There is a group of very serious idealists who believe that +by means of adult education they may initiate working people into the +“proletarian culture of the future,” and arm the working class with +the necessary weapons for a social revolution. Others would conduct +schools in which young people may be trained to become professional +labor leaders. To still others the task of adult education is very +clear and simple: 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 emotions, to which end classes in +appreciation and self-expression are organized, and students are sent +out after two or three months of such training prepared to teach the +emotional awakening to others. + +Adult education thus becomes a matter of slogans. Each educator is sure +he has it and can give the formula. It is that “every man be given +opportunity to think for himself,” or it is to give people “a new and +modern world view,” or to help people “get out of the ruts in which +they find themselves,” or to enable one to “evaluate his experience,” +or it is “an adventure in independence.” + +Many of these things may be very desirable, but are they education? +Taken together, they reveal something of the confusion which always +results when men try to find their standards of value in the passing +interests of the hour. 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 aims. The idea sometimes +prevails in education, just as it has prevailed in religion and in +politics, that if only the masses may emancipate themselves from the +past and start all over again, setting up their own values, there will +necessarily be great improvement. Hence Labor, for instance, is to have +“its own education,” whatever that is. To be sure, every person, be he +a laborer or anyone else, must in the end educate himself, and perhaps +the masses in insisting upon their own values and ideals can make +no worse business of their education than when they are “given” the +education which someone equally uneducated and materialistic thinks is +good for them. + +It is obvious that the _methods_ of adult education must be different +from those in common use in teaching children. The instructor cannot +compel attendance; he cannot require submission to his authority; he +must realize that he is among people who, though they have not his +special knowledge, have yet each his own experience, and he must see +the relations of his knowledge to such experience; and in fact he must +make himself a student with the others. Now because the methods differ +from those of formal education, people frequently infer that the _aim_ +also is different. There are many things which would seem to lead to +such an inference. + +In the first place, in all education, attention is focused almost +exclusively upon methods of teaching rather than upon the question, +“what is an educated person?” Again many of those who are interested in +adult education both as instructors or as students have grown up in an +environment of traditional education, they have seen the futility and +meaninglessness of much that passes for education in the schools and +colleges, and are often moved to protest against the system and all its +works. 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 is. 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 education. They assume that it is what it appears to be, and +hence, instead of seeking the meaning of liberal education, they turn +away and strive to set up a hastily considered educational aim of their +own. + +Finally, adult students are sometimes very opinionated--especially +when they first come to class. Often they have violent prejudices and +are extremely “advanced.” Such minds are very much creatures of the +popular movement of the hour. The educator, if he is to keep his hold +upon these persons, must gain their favor and sustain their interest. +The easiest way to gain and keep a following is to make concession to +popular prejudice. Classes in adult education, like the reading public, +wish to be told what they would like to regard as true. One of the +great “truths” for which they often seek support is the belief that +the increasing or anticipated supremacy of the mass is “progress.” +Men wish adult education to be modern, to reflect current thought and +present-day tendencies. In an earlier chapter I tried to show how +much of the popular thought that men believe very advanced is really +unrecognized Rousseauism. Often the idea of a new start in education +is only a survival of Rousseau’s revolt against civilization. Since +the influence of Rousseau serves always to rationalize any plebeian +wish-fancy whatsoever, it is not surprising that it should sometimes +appear to set the goal of adult education. To the degree that the +desire for education is genuine and spontaneous, the demand will +naturally be for what people think, is education. + +But in spite of all the chaos and confusion as to aims, adult +education, when the initiative comes from people who are hungry for +knowledge, even though they do not know what education is, shows more +promise than when the initiative comes from the professional school +teacher. In the former case, there is some likelihood that someone will +stumble upon the meaning of a liberal education. As a form of protest +against the established educational system, I think adult education +is a wholesome movement. The school authorities frequently show an +interest in this new thirst for knowledge which is met with suspicion. +I do not wonder. 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 knowledge. Much that school +superintendents regard as adult education is really only elementary +education, primary instruction offered to adults. _The surest way to +defeat learning is to place it in charge of those whose own education +has stopped._ Their influence is everywhere to divert this mature +interest in learning to the only ends such professional educators know; +service to the state, conformity and routine, material advancement and +industrial efficiency, the uplift of the masses. + +In the words of a great educator of the nineteenth century, we should +“inquire whether it is the masses alone who need a reformed and +improved education.” Adult education is not something to be “given” +to the masses, while college education may be kept for the sons of +privilege. There is no such thing as “mass education.” Throughout +the mass of mankind, college graduates included, there are scattered +here and there persons who can learn something and have the desire +to continue learning. It is as important for us to consider for whom +adult educational opportunities should exist as it is to consider what +education is. Such opportunities are for people who are worth educating. + +Adult education is selective. Its aim is not to provide a slight +increase of information and a few noble sentiments for the rank and +file, but to select out of the undifferentiated mass those who are +naturally capable of becoming something more than automatons. These +need no credits or examinations or promise of diplomas to spur them +to intellectual effort. They would gain wisdom if there were no +educational institutions, or classes, or lectures. But they need advice +and the fellowship of other studious minds, for they are often lonely. +Very few even professional students can easily carry on their studies +when isolated from their kind. Hence the existence of universities. +The rush and racket of our industrial civilization are so great that +there is need to establish for those whose minds can rise above it, an +environment where thought is leisurely and where people may be found +who have had learning long enough to be at home with it. The isolated +student, like the person learning to swim, makes much needless effort. +He tries to stuff his head with learning. He needs time to meditate +upon what he learns, talk about it, assimilate it, see its relations to +his knowledge and experience as a whole. I believe this to be the value +of group discussion, where there is a real meeting of minds. I do +not, however, as some seem to do, believe that a company of uninformed +people talking nonsense are necessarily engaged in a work of mutual +education. It is not as groups that men may attain wisdom. With all +the aid possible from others, education is necessarily an individual +achievement. + +We need adult education not because it is a path to some Utopia, +or imaginary triumph of the masses, or because it will add to the +contentment of the poor, or improve their morals and their industrial +efficiency, or raise the tone of politics. We need adult education for +the same reason that we need any education at all. 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 +man. The result of all their striving is a vast body of knowledge +which is the heritage of the men and women of our time. 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 estate. They desire education because that is the kind +of animal they happen to be. Such persons are different from the common +lot. It is not that they may possess some secret information which the +others may not have. They have a different _goal_. + +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 wisdom. Society as +a whole is the gainer for their education. To the end that such minds +may find themselves, together with the work and the adventure which +are their destiny, the widest possible efforts at general education +should be made. It is because of what people are in themselves and may +become, not because of something they may get, that liberal education +is the duty of man. What Huxley said of England in 1868 is true for +America today: + + “a 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 being, doing, and suffering, and that it is as true + now, as it ever was, that the people perish for lack of knowledge.” + + +THE END + + + + +_Announcing_ + +THE NEW SCIENCE SERIES + + +One of the most significant developments in our life today is that as +scientific knowledge almost daily advances, educated people are left +more and more in ignorance of its achievements. Scientists for the most +part write for each other and the general reader is forced to resort to +popularizers of science for his information. 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 ideas. + +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 work. It is the aim of +this series to help modern men and women to know more about themselves +and their world, and to feel that they understand something of what it +is all about. + + +EDITED BY C. K. OGDEN + + VOL. I. MYTH IN PRIMITIVE PSYCHOLOGY BRONISLAW MALINOWSKI, Ph.D., + D.Sc. + + VOL. II. SCIENCE AND POETRY I. A. RICHARDS, M.A. + + VOL. III. FATALISM OR FREEDOM C. JUDSON HERRICK, Sc.D., Ph.D. + + +_Other Volumes in Preparation_ + +EACH VOLUME $1.00 + + + _For descriptive catalogue, ask your bookseller or write + W · W · NORTON & COMPANY_ + 70 Fifth Avenue New York + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber’s note + + + + +Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Spelling +was standardized except for quotes. Hyphenation was standardized where +appropriate. + +The following changes were made: + + Page 37: “Pavlow. A hungry dog” “Pavlov. A hungry dog” + Page 54: “information that anyone” “information than anyone” + Page 76: “in the early nineteeth” “in the early nineteenth” + Page 88: “Nietsche said that” “Nietzsche said that” + Page 123: “it not the social problem” “is not the social problem” + Page 130: “Max Sterner’s “Ego”” “Max Stirner’s “Ego”” + Page 137: “it hestitated to carry” “it hesitated to carry” + Page 141: “organized soicalist locals” “organized socialist locals” + Page 142: “sort of convenant among” “sort of covenant among” + Page 176: “its value it not” “its value is not” + Page 176: “a philosophy it true” “a philosophy is true” + Page 198: “creation of Plato’s genuis” “creation of Plato’s genius” + Page 199: “to aquiescence to authority” “to acquiescence to authority” + Page 224: “Michaelangelo and Raphael” “Michelangelo and Raphael” + Page 224: “Melanchthon and Œcolampadus” “Melanchthon and Œcolampadius” + Page 239: “matched by his magnaminity” “matched by his magnanimity” + Page 253: “fire of Promethus” “fire of Prometheus” + Page 256: “believe there an be” “believe there can be” + Page 304: “system-makers and sytems” “system-makers and systems” + Page 304: “destiny then their friends” “destiny than their friends” + Page 306: “a covenient way” “a convenient way” + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75711 *** |