by Allan Bloom
Last year, the Association of College Trustees and Alumni surveyed the catalogs of more than one thousand colleges and universities. Fewer than 20 percent of the schools required courses in American government, only a third required a literature survey class, and 15 percent required anything more than a beginner’s level class in a foreign language. The “core curriculum,” as at BSU, is largely a sham: a math class may be offered, a science class may be offered, but seldom are both required, and often the content of each has only a glancing relation to the study of math or science. The results have been predictable. The authors of Academically Adrift—the most devastating book about higher education since Closing—found that nearly half of undergraduates show no measurable improvement in learning or “critical thinking” after two years of college.
Perhaps the most famous image in Closing—certainly the least appetizing—is a cartoonish word picture of an MTV-watching, Walkman-wearing thirteen-year-old boy, the flower of American civilization, the human culmination of centuries of learning and sacrifice, nonetheless brought low by a degraded popular culture: “a pubescent child whose body throbs with orgasmic rhythms; whose feelings are made articulate in hymns to the joys of onanism or the killing of parents,” and so on and so on, whose “life is made into a nonstop, commercially prepackaged masturbation fantasy.”
I thought of that boy of thirteen when I finished rereading The Closing of the American Mind not long ago. He is now thirty-eight. His parents, I hope, survived his childhood unscathed; I won’t speculate about the onanism. He likely has children of his own by now. And I hope by the time his own daughter is ready for college, he and all the youngsters he was meant to symbolize will have forgiven the author of this scandalous but all too realistic caricature. And when he disgorges tens of thousands of dollars to send his daughter to a school that has itself become a caricature of higher education, I am consoled to think that he will be able to consult Allan Bloom as to how such a thing could come to pass, thanks to a new edition of his maddening, haunting, towering book.
* * *
1 I’m aware that defenders of relativism defend it by denying it exists: no one, they say, truly believes that one idea is ultimately as good as any other. And of course they’re right that none of us act in our own lives as though we believed this. But most of us profess it nonetheless. In a genial but harrowing review of Closing, a teacher named Michael Zuckert told how he canvassed the students in his American Political Thought class at Carleton College. He asked whether they agreed that the truths in the first lines of the Declaration of Independence were indeed “self-evident.” Seven percent voted “yes.” On further conversation, he wrote, it turned out “that they were convinced there is no such thing as ‘truth,’ self-evident or otherwise, in the sphere of claims of the sort raised in the Declaration.” He would have gotten much the same response in a classroom today.
Index of
Proper Names
Achilles, 66, 274, 280, 281, 285
Adams, Henry, 55
Adler, Mortimer, 54
Adorno, Theodore, 146, 224, 225
Alcibiades, 268, 282
Alembert, Jean d’, 257
Alexander the Great, 281, 309
Allen, Woody, 125, 144–46, 154, 155, 173
American Association of University Professors, 325
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), 64, 108, 229
Apology (Plato), 265–67, 274, 276, 278, 281
Aquinas, Saint Thomas, 376
Arendt, Hannah, 152
Aristophanes, 381
Aristotle, 305
Aquinas on, 376
family relations and, 112
friendship viewed by, 75, 125
gentlemen educated by, 279–81
Great Books education and, 344–45
great-souled man of, 250
Heidegger and, 310
Hobbes vs., 255
Marsilius of Padua and, 283
medieval scholasticism and, 252–53, 264, 378
modern contempt for, 311, 363
musical education viewed by, 72–73
pity viewed by, 108
Plato and, 381
pleasure viewed by, 137
political distaste for, 253
political science of, 178, 262–63, 363, 366
science and, 300
slavery viewed by, 248
soul viewed by, 176
Armstrong, Louis, 151, 152
Assembly of Women, The (Aristophanes), 97, 99
Augustine, Saint, 249
Austen, Jane, 375
Bach, Johann Sebastian, 72
Bacon, Francis, 263, 265, 286, 292, 305
Bardot, Brigitte, 77
Barthes, Roland, 379
Battle of the Books, The (Swift), 373
Baudelaire, Charles, 205
Bauhaus movement, 152n
Bayle, Pierre, 294
Beard, Charles, 29, 56
Beatles, 350
Becker, Carl, 29, 55–56
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 72
Bellow, Saul, 11–18, 85, 237–38
Benedict, Ruth, 362
Bentham, Jeremy, 116
Bergson, Henri, 221
Berrigan, Daniel, 326
Bertolucci, Bernardo, 146n
Bettelheim, Bruno, 145
Bible:
American education and, 54, 56–57, 58, 60
humanities and, 374–75
influence of, 252
sexism and, 65–66
student knowledge of, 62
Birth of Tragedy, The (Nietzsche), 71
Black, Hugo, 62
Blue Angel, The, 151
Blum, Léon, 239
Bolero (Ravel), 73
Brecht, Bertolt, 151
British Royal Society, 294
Brown, Norman O., 322
Brown University, 84
Buddha, 211
Burke, Edmund, 85
Caesar, Julius, 281
Calvin, John, 208–11
Camus, Albert, 88
Capital (Marx), 217, 220
Carlyle, Thomas, 181
Carter, Jimmy, 119
Castro, Fidel, 331
Catcher in the Rye, The (Salinger), 63
Céline, Louis-Ferdinand, 239
Churchill, Sir Winston, 123, 256, 364–65
Cicero, 154
City of God, The (Augustine), 249
Clausewitz, Karl von, 290
Clouds, The (Aristophanes), 269–70, 281, 293
Cold War, 349
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 181
Coolidge, Calvin, 364–65
Coriolanus (Shakespeare), 110–11, 329
Cornell University:
affirmative action at, 94
curriculum reform at, 320, 339–40, 352
faculty reaction at, 347–48, 351–52, 354, 355
six-year Ph.D. program at, 339–40
student demands at, 95, 316n, 318–19, 325, 354
student rebellion at, 313, 315–18, 354
Critique of Pure Reason (Kant), 300, 302
Crito, 283
Dahl, Robert, 32
Dante Alighieri, 40, 52
Danton, Georges-Jacques, 286
Darwin, Charles, 367
Day After, The, 85
Death in Venice (Mann), 137, 230–32, 234
Declaration of Independence (1776), 54–56, 193, 248
Declaration of Independence, The (Becker), 55–56
de Gaulle, Charles, 77, 159, 187, 214
Democracy in America (Tocqueville), 115, 246
Derrida, Jacques, 379
Descartes, René:
doubt and, 42–43
ego viewed by, 177–78
French education and, 52
Gulliver’s Travels and, 294
reason and, 265
Rousseau on, 292, 305
science espoused by, 286
Dewey, John, 29, 56, 195
Dickens, Charles, 63–64
Dietrich, Marlene, 151
Discourse on the Arts and Sciences (Rousseau), 258
Discourse on the Origins of Inequality (Rousseau), 366
Dostoyevski, Fyodor, 206, 367
Dumont, Margaret, 70
Easton, David, 327
Economic Interpretation of the Constitution, An (Beard), 56
Eichmann in Jerusalem (Arendt), 214
Einstein, Albert, 264, 367
Eliot, T. S., 292
Emile (Rousseau), 66, 117, 167–68
Engels, Friedrich, 230
Epicureanism, 262
Eros and Civilization (Marcuse), 78
Escape from Freedom (Fromm), 146
Ethics (Aristotle), 125, 279–80, 373
Faust (Goethe), 302–3
Fear of Flying (Jong), 229
Federalist, The, 261, 330
Fichte, Johann, 149
Field, Marshall, III, 155
Flaubert, Gustave, 134–35, 205
Foucault, Michel, 379
Founding Fathers:
debunking of, 29, 56
democratic principles and, 28–29
minorities viewed by, 31–32
racism and, 335
religious freedom and, 28, 261
Fountainhead, The (Rand), 62
Franco, Francisco, 159
Freud, Sigmund:
American success of, 137, 155, 232–33
darker side of, 150
Hobbes and, 174, 330
Mann and, 230–31, 234, 237
Marcuse on, 78
Marxism and, 223
nature/society distinction and, 170
Oedipus complex and, 156
intellectual difficulty of, 203–4
popularization of, 107, 134, 136–37
reality principle and, 81
science vs. unconscious in, 193, 199–200
social science and, 361n
university view of, 148, 345, 367
women viewed by, 100
Fromm, Erich, 144, 146, 152
Galileo, 296, 345, 371
George, Stefan, 222
Ghosts (Ibsen), 108
Gide, André, 222, 232
Gilbert, William, 295
Glaucon, 61, 332–33
Glorious Revolution, 158, 328
Goebbels, Joseph, 348
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von:
German mind and, 52, 305, 323
scholarship viewed by, 302–4, 307
science and, 349
Goldmann, Lucien, 352
Goodman, Benny, 69
Gorgias (Plato), 263
Guevara, Che, 331
Gulliver’s Travels (Swift), 293–96
Hassner, Pierre, 155
Hegel, G. W. F.:
academic importance of, 314, 323, 368
Aristotle and, 253
fascism and, 149, 259
Marcuse and, 226
Marx and, 222, 222n
modern scholarship ridiculed by, 309
rational God of, 204
Rousseau and, 181
Heidegger, Martin, 152, 323, 377
American reconstruction of, 226, 310
antiliberalism and, 149
bourgeois and, 159
Hellenism of, 308, 309–10
leftists and, 222, 310, 315
Nazism and, 154, 311
Nietzsche and, 144, 207
translation viewed by, 54, 153
university youth viewed by, 315, 317
Herodotus, 36, 40, 204
Hitler, Adolf:
as bourgeois, 159
charismatic leadership and, 213–14
German thinkers and, 148–49, 259, 311
moral authority and, 326
natural science and, 297–98
psychological appeal of, 146
Rhineland occupation by, 239
rock videos and, 74
social science view of, 154
student attitudes on, 67
Hobbes, Thomas:
Aristotle vs., 255
faction viewed by, 286
feeling viewed by, 174
idea of rights from, 165
indiscriminate freedom and, 28
influence of language of, 141–42
political order viewed by, 110, 111, 286
rationalism of, 73, 251
Rousseau vs., 167–70, 190, 299
state of nature viewed by, 162–63, 218
vainglory viewed by, 330
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 28
Homer:
heroes and, 188
inspiration of, 252, 280
modern education and, 374
Schiller on, 41, 306, 308
Humboldt, Wilhelm von, 161
Hume, David, 300
Husserl, Edmund, 323
Ibsen, Henrik, 108
Iliad (Homer), 308
Isocrates, 274
Jackson, Michael, 76
Jagger, Mick 78-79
Jefferson, Thomas, 349
Johnson, Lyndon, 331
Johnson, Virginia, 99
Jong, Erica, 229
Journey to the End of the Night (Céline), 239
Joyce, James, 367
Kafka, Franz, 146, 367
Kant, Immanuel:
culture viewed by, 185–87, 190–91, 305
Enlightenment viewed by, 299–300
freedom viewed by, 193, 358
French Revolution viewed by, 158
humanities and, 301–2, 323
liberal democracy viewed by, 162
moral choice views of, 229, 325
natural science and, 349
rational principles and, 53
Kepler, Johannes, 371
Kerr, Clark, 316
Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruhollah, 131
Kierkegaard, Søren, 368
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 333
Kojève, Alexandre, 222n
Kolakowski, Leszek, 224
Koyré, Alexandre, 344–45
Kramer vs. Kramer, 64
Kuhn, Thomas, 200
Lacan, Jacques, 193
Lawrence, D. H., 107
Lederberg, Joshua, 350–51
Lenin, V. I., 219, 348
Lenya, Lotte, 151, 152
Lessing, Gotthold, 80
Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 40–41, 362
Lincoln, Abraham, 29, 59
Locke, John:
apparent superficiality of, 293
capitalism and, 208
Enlightenment and, 163–64, 167
family relationships viewed by, 114–15
indiscriminate freedom and, 28
modern economics developed from, 361–62, 364
property defined by, 161
rationalism of, 73
rights viewed by, 165, 190
Rousseau vs., 167–70, 172, 190, 292, 299
rulership viewed by, 110
self-preservation and, 175–76, 178
self viewed by, 173, 177
social science and, 358, 363–64, 366
state of nature viewed by, 162–63, 171, 232
Lonely Crowd, The (Riesman), 125, 144
Lukacs, Georg, 222
McCarthy, Mary, 152
McCarthyism, 322, 324
Machiavelli, Niccolò:
classical scholarship and, 34–35, 285–86, 304
Enlightenment realism and, 259, 291
Italian mind and, 52
Marlowe on, 292
political effectiveness advocated by, 263, 293
soul viewed by, 173–74
travel and, 63
war and peace viewed by, 364
“Mack the Knife,” 151
Madame Bovary (Flaubert), 134–35, 205
Maimonides, Moses, 271
Mann, Thomas:
American influence of, 230–32
man’s desires viewed by, 137, 234
Plato viewed by, 236–37
Mansfield, Harvey, 287
Mao Zedong, 221, 331
Marcuse, Herbert:
American popularity of, 147
Marx and Freud combined by, 78, 223
scholarship of, 226, 322
Maritain, Jacques, 292
Marlborough, John Churchill, 1st Duke of, 256
Marlowe, Christopher, 292
Marsilius of Padua, 283
Marx, Groucho, 70
Marx, Karl:
atheism of, 195–96
dialectic of, 229
Hegel and, 222, 222n
historical necessity of, 208–9, 313
Nietzsche vs., 143
university view of, 148, 367
Masters, William, 99
May, Elaine, 125
Mead, Margaret, 33, 367
Mencken, H. L., 55
Merchant of Venice, The (Shakespeare), 69
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 222n 224
Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig, 152n
Mill, John Stuart, 29, 116, 161
Molière, 328
Montesquieu, Baron de:
French consciousness and, 160n
morality viewed by, 327–28
selfishness viewed by, 178
More, Sir Thomas, 325
Moses, 199, 211
Mussolini, Benito, 221, 315
Napoleon I, Emperor of France, 79, 211, 281
National Council of the Churches of Christ, 65
Newton, Sir Isaac, 264, 292, 295, 305, 345, 371
New York Times, The, 350
New York Times Magazine, The, 318
Nichols, Mike, 125
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 377
ancient gentlemen viewed by, 279
anthropology influenced by, 362
artists viewed by, 204–7
atheism of, 195–96
bourgeois viewed by, 157
classical scholarship and, 304, 305, 307, 309, 375
cultural decay and, 51
cultural relativism of, 202–4
egalitarianism attacked by, 201
extremism and, 214
fascism and, 149
id concept of, 200
modern study of, 345
music viewed by, 71, 72, 73
newspapers and, 59
passions viewed by, 156
popularization of, 148, 151–52, 225–26, 379
radical historicism of, 153–54, 219
religiosity of, 197–99
sex viewed by, 231, 232
social sciences influenced by, 148
Socratic rationalism attacked by, 267–68, 307–8, 310