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Continuing on Allan Bloom's 1987 book critiquing the current fragmented structure of the university that promotes technical and professional education over the ability to think philosophically. Does Bloom's vision require aristocracy, or can a Great Books education be available for all?
Bloom thinks we lack a shared culture and consequently a sense of the common good. He gives us a history of the relationship between philosophy and society starting with Socrates's execution. The university, Bloom thinks, was established following the spirit of Socrates, and has had to negotiate with a more-or-less hostile society ever since. It does this by at least giving lip service to the values of the current society, which in our case means reflecting American values as diagnosed by Tocqueville: practicality, rejection of history, "common sense," all of which are antithetical (according to Bloom) to authentic, philosophical, humanistic thought.
Listen to part 1 first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Your Citizenship will also get you access to an exclusive follow-up discussion that gets into more of Bloom's comments on Nietzsche, Freud, and Rousseau. This is also available at patreon.com/partiallyexaminedlife. Please support PEL!
End song: "Greatness (The Aspiration Song)" by TC&I; hear Mark's interview with singer/songwriter Colin Moulding on Nakedly Examined Music #74.
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José Salgado says
June 19, 2018 at 4:42 pmHey there,
Love the podcast. Longtime listener, first time commenter. In one of the Allan Bloom episodes you mention a Richard Gordie(?). I am not sure of the name, but it spiked my curiosity, and would like to read more. Can you give me a reference?
Thanks.
Jennifer Tejada says
June 21, 2018 at 7:36 amRichard Rorty?
José says
June 21, 2018 at 7:41 amPossible. 🙂 Thank you.
Jennifer Tejada says
June 21, 2018 at 7:59 amHere are a list of all the episodes they have.
https://partiallyexaminedlife.com/?s=richard+rorty
They are really interesting if you liked the Bloom episode. Particularly the politics of the left episodes.
Wes Alwan says
June 21, 2018 at 8:29 amYes it’s Richard Rorty. We probably mentioned this: https://www.amazon.com/Achieving-Our-Country-Leftist-Twentieth-Century/dp/0674003128
José says
June 21, 2018 at 9:24 amI think so. Thank you.
Zac says
June 21, 2018 at 10:54 amHello there,
Recent grad and a huge fan; while in school my Professor (UCHI) and I would debate after a few Philosophy classes, the role of a education in society and sometimes the liberal or wholistic educational benefits. We almost always came back to the students will similar to the end of today’s podcast. However, we frequently came across how the professor’s own affiliation to the same material affected the course’s appearance and therefore the material learned. My professor would mention the importance of objectivity but he knew he was playing a role too and often times appealed to student’s sensibilities by offering real-world examples and usages of the philosophical texts.
My question, however, was how can this be expanded outside the classroom? To what extent is the text too generalized and broad to be misread or misused and what can be done to synthesize the stories of old into more common relatable learning experiences?
I try to answer this question myself in broad terms by creating art and writing dialogues that take place in relatively contemporary settings to be more easily understood and marketed. Still in early stages but I was curious of the groups thoughts on these matters.
Best
August Denys says
June 23, 2018 at 1:38 pmWhile I mostly enjoyed the video, I find that there is a term you just keep throwing around which is kind of dubious. That term is Western History/Civilization. The reason I want to bring this up is because just after this episode came out, Current Affairs Magazine published an article dealing directly with that term. All I wish to do is share that article.
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/06/dismantling-the-west
Alan Cook says
June 26, 2018 at 11:30 amBloom’s critique of Rawls (yes, he’s read him):
https://archive.org/details/AllanBloomJohnRawlss1stPhilosophyForTheLastMan
Alan Cook says
June 26, 2018 at 12:06 pmRe Pirsig at Chicago: The character of “the Chairman” in Zen and . . . is actually Richard McKeon, one of the progenitors of the Chicago Great Books program.