johnapril, you'll want to read this

[Manton]

You may not like, but you'll be glad you read it:

http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/Mansfield/HMlecture.html

 

[oscarthewild]

.

To be taught by such a person would be an incredible experience.

Plato's Symposium and Montesquieu's Persian Letters. .... What we admired most, however, was how he read the texts. Ours was an intellectual generation for whom the greatest books could still be among the greatest things and Mansfield gave form and purpose to this inclination. He taught us to see problems and contradictions we had not known were present and encouraged us to believe we might discover still deeper matters. Montesquieu taught us more about politics than did a thousand articles by journalists and scholars. Plato on love was the gateway to understanding the phenomenon itself, not a dead man's musty opinions. We learned something of what Mansfield once called the truly "natural attraction of the hidden."

So what has happened?

From this wonderful situation, we get to a rabid anti-intellectualism? My kids go to a "good" school district. Neither they, nor their friends show much interest or even sadder a capacity to read.

Don't mean to highjack your thread, but the review by Mark Blitz brought back memories of the time when learning for the sake of learning appeared important.

-

 

[Lucius]

Is one not personally responsible if his children are not curious? Case in point, it seems Mansfield feels responsible for not only his own scholarship but the state of scholarship in his profession. Note this is the thought of someone without any children. But I think that in large part the foundation of my intellectual curiosity was built by my father. It wasn't necessarily pretty, it involved lots of nagging, to among other things read, and the uncomfortable idea that some people (those who waste their mind) are worth comparatively little. I am sure the process was just as difficult for me as for my father. In hindsight I am thankful for it. First post

Have been lurking for years, pre NYTimes article, but the lockout from the power... forum finally lit the fire.

This is a smilie of mourning for the late great ernest.

 

[LabelKing]

An interesting piece but if such interest were not rooted in such hubris, it would be more endearing. If, as he claims, that humanity's political gains are for the purpose of creating some form of civil society with a high level of intellectual and abstract introspection, then how does one reconcile that with the whole "group mentality" which he notes: "But if you are in a class you are part of a whole; your own is part of the good, the common good". Thomas More wrote, "One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled but few are educated”, and while that is an apt observation, that was--and is--also the tension that existed between the whole idea of a well-educated, indeed intellectually superior, populace and the notion of extensive "control" per se. An extensive intellect does not lead to ready control--or is the present implication something of a Platonic conviction that the baser elements need to be controlled by an enlightened few? If I am to be presumptuous to recall a private message between us, you mentioned that you felt there was a need to control the "baser elements;" I do not disagree with the general idea of that, but there does seem to be an apparent dichotomy between what Mr. Mansfield notes as a superior political "utopia" and the human impulses behind it. I also find this book, Manliness, that Mr.Mansfield authored to have a rather odd and dare I say it?, politically incorrect, thesis behind it. I am not familiar with Mr.Mansfield's politics, but he mentions Hemingway. Now, most conservatives I have met--really most people I've met- do not consider suicide a particularly honorable way of death; or is he a fan of Schopenhauer? Indeed, Camus in his Myth of Sisyphus was the converse of Schopenhauer, citing suicide as a particular absurd but is this also what Mr.Mansfield subscribes to?

 

[dah328]

Originally Posted by LabelKing

Thomas More wrote, "One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled but few are educated"
Quoted for irony.

 

[Augusto86]

Originally Posted by dah328

Quoted for irony.

??

What are you trying to say?

 

[LabelKing]

Originally Posted by Augusto86

??

What are you trying to say?

Our genius is attempting to be searing , but rather like his woman, it's cold.

 

[johnapril]

Where was this guy when I was in college?