by Allan Bloom
value revolution of, 143, 146, 153–54, 228–29
war viewed by, 220–21
Weber on, 194–95
Nietzsche (Heidegger), 207
Night at the Opera, A, 70
Nixon, Richard M., 67, 329, 331
Odysseus, 40
One Dimensional Man (Marcuse), 78, 226
Ono, Yoko, 77
Parsons, Talcott, 151
Partisan Review, 224
Pascal, Blaise:
egalitarian denigration of, 251
French mind and, 52, 352
revelation chosen by, 37, 227–28
social science and, 215
Pericles, 188
Phaedrus (Plato), 133, 236–37
Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni, 180
Plato, 380
ambition viewed by, 329, 330
cave image of, 38, 264–65
city vs. philosophy in, 274
democratic youth viewed by, 87–88, 329
equality and, 161
eroticism viewed by, 61, 236–38, 305
gods viewed by, 197
Heidegger and, 310
modern contempt for, 311, 363
music viewed by, 70–72, 73
Nietzsche vs., 207, 310
political philosophy of, 218, 262–63, 286
psychological interpretation of, 375
real vs. ideal in, 67, 130, 381
Rousseau vs., 169, 305
sexual equality and, 97, 100, 102–3
Socrates viewed by, 265, 268–69, 281–82
student discussions and, 83, 332–33
Plutarch, 66, 256, 306
Poetics (Aristotle), 72–73, 280–81
Politics (Aristotle), 72–73, 112, 366
Pound, Ezra, 149
Preface to Democratic Theory, A (Dahl), 32
pre-Socratics, 297, 309, 310
Pride and Prejudice (Austen), 375
Profession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar (Rousseau), 196–97
Proust, Marcel, 367
Racine, Jean, 352
Rand, Ayn, 62
Ravel, Maurice, 73
Rawls, John, 30, 229
Reagan, Ronald, 76, 120, 141, 142
Red and the Black, The (Stendhal), 64
Reflections on Violence (Sorel), 221
Reich, Charles, 322
Republic (Plato), 381
cave image of, 38, 264
democratic youth described in, 61, 87–88, 275, 332–33
heroism in, 66
poetry discussed in, 207, 267
music discussed in, 70–71
psychological teaching of, 375
sexual equality in, 97, 100, 102–3
unity of power and wisdom described in, 266, 284
Riesman, David, 144, 146, 152, 155
Robespierre, Maximilien de, 190, 196, 328
Rogers, Will, 225
Roman Catholic Church, 264
Romantic dilemma, 40–41
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 30
Roosevelt, Theodore, 229
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 179
bourgeois viewed by, 185
civil religion advocated by, 196–97
classical knowledge of, 304–5
compassion and, 330
Enlightenment criticism of, 167–70, 181–83, 258, 267, 292, 298–300
French dualism and, 52
German influence of, 305
humanities and, 358–59
individual viewed by, 115–16, 117
modern social sciences developed from, 361–62, 366
music and, 73
property viewed by, 161
sex and, 66, 100, 107–8, 233
societal disintegration and, 118
statecraft vs. culture viewed by, 189–92
state of nature viewed by, 162–63, 167–70, 171, 172, 176–77, 178
Symposium viewed by, 133
Sakharov, Andrei, 297, 358n
Salinger, J. D., 63
Sartre, Jean-Paul:
bourgeois and, 159, 224
language of, 211
Nietzschean influence on, 219, 222n
Schiller, Friedrich von, 41, 306, 308
Schmitt, Karl, 259
Scholastic Aptitude Test, 50
Schopenhauer, Arthur, 368
Science as a Vocation (Weber), 194
Shakespeare, William:
egalitarianism and, 65
English mind and, 52, 256
modern education and, 374, 380
music viewed by, 69
natural scientists and, 350
rulership viewed by, 110–11, 329
sex roles in, 126
Shorey, Paul, 375
Sierra Club, 172
Skinner, B. F, 193
Smith, Adam, 73, 208, 259, 361
Snow, C. P., 182, 350
Social Contract, The (Rousseau), 189–90
Socrates:
ambition viewed by, 329
Aristophanes’ view of, 269–70, 273, 274–75
cave image and, 264–65
charges against, 275–76
Cicero vs. Nietzsche on, 154
death of, 71, 173, 268, 285
defense by, 265–66, 267, 276–77
dialectic of, 38, 229
eroticism viewed by, 132–33
goal sought by, 163
heroism and, 66
modern contempt for, 311, 363
modern philosophy vs., 264–68
music viewed by, 72
Nietzsche’s indictment of, 207–8, 307–8
philosopher-kings or, 266
philosophic task defined by, 277
Plato’s presentation of, 265, 268–69, 281–82
poetry viewed by, 280–81
politics of, 278, 314, 358n
power viewed by, 285
Rousseau and, 298
self-knowledge and, 43, 143, 174, 179, 279–80
sexual equality views of, 102–3
society viewed by, 292–93, 381
university and, 267, 268, 272, 332–33
value of, 312, 382 see also Plato
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander, 187
Sorel, Georges, 221
Soviet Union:
cultural criticism and, 225, 226
democratic openness and, 32–33
malaise of, 197
natural science in, 297
Reagan on, 141
social science teaching on, 354
Spinoza, Benedict, 276
Stalin, Joseph, 67, 146, 214
Stranger, The (Camus), 88
Strauss, Leo, 167
Structure of Scientific Revolutions, The (Kuhn), 200
Swift, Jonathan:
classics viewed by, 373
Enlightenment questioned by, 293–98
natural science viewed by, 270, 358n
Symposium (Plato), 133, 169, 375, 381
Tartuffe (Molière), 328
Thales, 270–71, 288
Theory of Justice, A (Rawls), 30, 229
Thoreau, Henry David, 171, 279
Thrasymachus, 283
Threepenny Opera, The (Brecht and Weill), 151
Thucydides, 188, 197, 346
Thus Spake Zarathustra (Nietzsche), 151, 194
Tocqueville, Alexis de:
American Indian and, 171
American religion viewed by, 196
art and, 74
democratic family described by, 115, 116
democratic man viewed by, 225
democratic mind viewed by, 149, 235, 252, 254, 255, 378
democratic tradition and, 58
Descartes/Pascal opposition and, 51–52
doubts of, 160, 319
equality chosen by, 227–28, 248
freedom vs. equality in, 98
individualism viewed by, 84, 85–86
intergenerational relationships viewed by, 82
on Pascal, 251
Tolstoy, Leo, 64, 66, 173
Tonio Kröger (Mann), 231
Treatise on Civil Government (Locke), 366
Trotsky, Leon, 221
University of Chicago:
in fifties, 125
German influence at, 148–50, 156
Koyré at, 344
pseudo-Gothic buildings of, 243–44
Vietnam War, 364
Voltaire, 292
Wagner, Richard, 54, 68, 206
War and Peace (Tolstoy), 66
Washington, George, 29
Watson, Thomas, 167
Wealth of Nations, The (Smith), 259
Weber, Max:
atheistic religiosity of, 210–11
ethical distinctions of, 369
language of, 208, 209, 210–11, 212, 214
legitimate violence categories of, 212–13, 219, 225
Lukacs and, 222
Nietzsche viewed by, 194–95
pariah category of, 145
politics of, 213–14
popularization of, 147, 367
Protestant ethic of, 208–9
university view of, 148, 345
value relativism of, 150–51, 337–38
Weill, Kurt, 151
Weimar Republic:
nostalgia for, 151–52
popular culture of, 151
Right vs. Left in, 154–55
Xenophon, 268, 269, 274
Zelig, 144–46
Zilboorg, Gregory, 155
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Allan Bloom was Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the College and co-director of the John M. Olin Center for Inquiry into the Theory and Practice of Democracy at the University of Chicago. He taught at Yale, University of Paris, University of Toronto, Tel Aviv University, and Cornell, where he was the recipient of the Clark Teaching Award in 1967. His other books are Plato’s Republic (translator and editor), Politics and the Arts: Letter to M. d’Alembert on the Theatre (translator and editor), Rousseau’s Emile (translator and editor), and Shakespeare’s Politics (with Harry V. Jaffa). He died in 1992.
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Copyright © 1987 by Allan Bloom
Foreword copyright © 1987 by Saul Bellow
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30
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Bloom, Allan David, date.
The closing of the American mind.
Includes index.
1. United States—Intellectual life—20th century.
2. Education, Higher—United States—Philosophy.
I. Title.
LA227.3.B584 1987
378'.012'0973—dc20 86-24768
To My Students
ISBN 0-671-47990-3
ISBN: 978-0-6716-5715-4
eISBN: 978-1-4391-2626-4