6 Bad Manners and Old Learning

Abstract

The importance of good behaviour and the requirements for sociability emerge in the dissertation material, where impoliteness and distinctly worn clothing were discussed amongst the ridiculous vices of the previous generations. Johann Gottfried Buchner counted bad manners (mores mali) among the vices of the will, and Daniel Friedrich Jahn argued that a very small amount of erudition combined with good manners was more powerful than the knowledge of all languages and disciplines. True learning was expected to be something more profitable than mere words: It was defined as the solid cognition of divine and human things, which was necessary and useful for the temporary and eternal happiness of mankind. The criticism of solitary and old-fashioned scholars reflects the fact that over the years old ideals of the learned man skilled in pursuing scholastic philosophical studies had given way to new socio-political orientations and empirical studies of the world.Keywords: bad manners; eternal happiness; good behaviour; old-fashioned scholars; socio-political orientations; true learning