Liberal Education and the Good Society

Abstract

When I was asked to contribute to this symposium on Liberal Education and Good Society, my first inclination was to decline invitation politely, invoking all-purpose excuse of being too busy. What could I, a harried professor of political philosophy at a small college in Maine, possibly say about a topic so large and well-trodden that hadn't been said already by heads better than my own? It was not that I didn't care deeply about liberal education ? I do ? or even that I didn't believe that such an education has something to contribute to the good society ? again, though perhaps more quali fiedly, I do. It was that I was haunted ? paralyzed ? by specter of such eloquent spokesmen on behalf of lib eral education as Newman and Nietzsche, Leo Strauss and Michael Oakeshott. Was there anything left to add? Clearly, I overcame my scruples. I reasoned that, while I might not be able to offer an original theory or defense of liberal education, I could certainly provide a report from trenches. Having taught at an elite liberal arts college for almost 15 years, I feel modestly qualified to comment on condition of liberal education today, challenges it faces and impediments it must overcome. It will not come as a surprise that I consider these challenges to be great and impediments many. Nevertheless, I hope to avoid in this essay ranting of many conservative critics of contem porary higher education. My aim is to say something useful, not to fire potshots in a pointless culture war. Let me begin by specifying what I consider to be chief impediments to liberal education today. These impediments can be considered under two heads: character of students currently entering college; and character of curriculum currently offered by colleges. With respect to first, I hope I am not being unduly pes simistic by saying that students currently entering college are less prepared to take advantage of ? and therefore also more in need of ? a liberal arts education than ever before. It would take a sociology more sophisticated than my own to unravel complicated sources of this educational incapacity. Suffice it to say that television, video games, advertising, popular music, and computer have all contributed to a mental disposition that is more responsive to what is immediate, sensory, easily accessible, pre-packaged, and emotionally crude than to what is reflective, linguistically complex, conceptually challenging, and emotionally refined. Given culture in which most children grow up, it is not surprising that they cannot read, write, or speak very well when thev enter college. And computer, which now seam lessly blends entertainment and educa tion, promotes illusion ? fatal to liberal education ? that world of knowledge consists exclusively of inert information devoid of personal interpretation or judgment. Though character of current undergraduate presents considerable challenges to liberal education, these challenges are not insuperable. To meet them, however, a college curriculum must be carefully designed to supply foundations of a liberal education