Allan Bloom
From Wikiquote
Allan David Bloom (14 September 1930 in Indianapolis, Indiana – 7 October 1992 in Chicago, Illinois) was an American philosopher, essayist and academic. Bloom championed the idea of 'Great Books' education, as did his mentor Leo Strauss, and became famous for criticism of contemporary American higher education in his bestselling 1987 book, The Closing of the American Mind.
[edit] Sourced
[edit] The Closing of the American Mind (1987)
- There is no real teacher who in practise does not believe in the existence of the soul, or in a magic that acts on it through speech.
- Preface
- Only Socrates knew, after a lifetime of unceasing labor, that he was ignorant. Now every high-school student knows that. How did it become so easy?
- Introduction
- Fathers and mothers have lost the idea that the highest aspiration they might have for their children is for them to be wise ... specialized competence and success are all that they can imagine.
- From Socrates' Apology to Heidegger's Rektoratsrede, pt. 3
- Education in our times must try to find whatever there is in students that might yearn for completion, and to reconstruct the learning that would enable them autonomously to seek that completion.
- Books, pt. 1
- We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great civilizations once flourished. The shepherds play with the fragments that pop up to the surface, having no notion of the beautiful structures of which they were once a part.
- Our Ignorance, pt. 2
[edit] External links
- DePauw University News "Closing of the American Mind Author Allan Bloom Calls on DePauw Students to Seize "Charmed Years". Ubben Lecture Series : 11 September 1987, Greencastle, Indiana. (Accessed 16 May 2007).
- Patner, Andrew. Chicago Sun-Times, "Allan Bloom, warts and all" 16 April 2000. (Accessed 16 May 2007).
- West, Thomas G. The Claremont Institute, The Claremont Institute Blog Writings. "Allan Bloom and America" 1 June 2000. (Accessed 16 May 2007).
