Google's automatic transcripts of Donald Kagan's Farewell Address (in five parts on YouTube) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMQGDdTQImo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHGFYDg7SQw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86GD522oQYk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMrS-t3XM8k http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T91Pdp2MfL4 [Part 1] 0:06 thank you all so much for coming 0:08 uh... to this 0:10 buckley program but they were so happy whole but also quite heartbroken to be 0:13 doing so 0:15 uh... my name's harry graver pro-ltte so many new faces share the present about 0:18 the program 0:19 buckley program of the started by lor noble 0:23 whose presence a 0:25 two-and-a-half years ago or so just it's kind of a 0:27 speaker series lucy 0:29 defined idearc up 0:31 rolling stuff around and looking for someone on the faculty gibson 0:35 perspectives as the venice particularly special for us 0:38 because professor cagan as it was a so many people here was the puppy program a 0:41 huge inspiration 0:43 he was cut that with their every step of the way with his guidance and kindness 0:47 in 0:47 sense of purpose and that is kind i guess whispering evelyn 0:51 here ted is no greater testament to that 0:54 than people here from his 0:55 for seminar to his last to all in between 1:00 it's really 1:00 quite impossible to us some rise 1:03 professor cadence contribution e_l_ which is 1:06 uh... beneficial to me and i could outsource that task 1:09 to professor hill who's been so kind to do that 1:14 uh... for someone to attempts impossible this is appropriate pastor hill 1:18 this biography is titled the man upon whom nothing was lost 1:21 it i will certainly be put to the test 1:23 and a few seconds 1:25 uh... vesicles 1:26 garnered go quite this deserving reputation from his service 1:29 and the state department to 1:31 at yale 1:32 uh... directed studies program 1:35 uh... as well as the grants tragic program 1:38 and along with presser katie most importantly he really has taken up the 1:40 mental what 1:42 h_ u_ liberal arts education is meant to be here will still be cheering about 1:45 this afternoon so that any further ado 1:48 professor bill 2:01 don't be alarmed are not a professor 2:06 i'm a friend of don king again 2:09 and 2:11 i was the second choice to make this introduction 2:15 i have my wife norma thompson was the first one asked to introduce professor 2:20 allocated 2:22 she could not do so 2:24 and is dismayed at being unable to take this opportunity 2:27 she's at this moment delivering up paper at a conference in canada 2:32 g devoutly wish is that you were here instead to pay tribute to her hero dont 2:36 keagan 2:39 in the electric anticipation of this hole 2:42 which is palpable we can all sense that this afternoon news and events and yells 2:47 history 2:48 intellectual history 2:50 and in american history 2:53 emerson said that institution is the length and shadow of a man 2:58 yell 2:59 the discipline of history 3:00 in the nation 3:02 all felt the impact of don king ken 3:05 in each of these institutions will come to recognize that impact in the years 3:09 ahead 3:10 even more than they do now 3:14 united states of america 3:16 has honored on cagan with the highest awards the federal government can confer 3:21 on intellectual achievements in the amenities 3:25 dont kagan has conferred upon the government has profound thinking on war 3:28 and peace 3:30 and on and myrna cake in have conferred upon the nation their own highest guests 3:35 the remarkable sons fred and bob 3:38 with their wives kimberly the military strategist 3:41 and victoria the prominent diplomat 3:45 the annals of historical scholarship have been a noble by what the leading 3:49 foreign critic 3:51 no friend of america called 3:53 the foremost a work of history produced in north america 3:57 in the twentieth century 4:00 that even close 4:03 keagan is the only historian of the modern era worthy of mention in the same 4:06 breath with her right at this 4:09 the cities of course he surpassed 4:12 cassidy's 4:17 taffeta sordid 4:20 ever given famously wrote that 4:23 it was that roma it on the fifteenth of october 4:26 seventeen sixty four 4:29 as i said musing amidst the ruins of the capitol 4:32 while the barefooted friars were singing desperation the temple of jupiter 4:37 that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my 4:41 mind 4:44 what would we not give to get done cajuns recollections of how and when and 4:49 where the idea of writing the peleponnesian war 4:52 first started to his mind 4:55 the world awaits his autobiography 4:59 and for help 5:02 what is cagan dot dot 5:05 chairman of classics dean of the aisle college 5:08 master of timothy dwight 5:11 athletic director 5:13 sterling professor 5:16 when you enter payne whitney gymnasium at our 5:19 confronted 5:21 by that's culture of the bulldog 5:24 you're seeing done take it 5:28 when you walk through wills the rotunda 5:31 that the feeding and warriors sculpted into the world is keagan 5:37 when you look across all campus nancy nathan hale 5:41 hands bound behind his back defying the enemies of freedom 5:45 that stockade 5:48 as was said another american patriot long ago 5:52 done kagan has been 5:54 on onto by opinion 5:56 unsatisfied flattery 5:59 on dismayed by disaster 6:01 and always 6:03 and inspiring exemplar 6:04 of antique courage 6:08 and then there's donned the cape 6:11 telling us stories of 6:13 which seem to do our minds to it 6:15 enable us to envision him playing stick ball on the evening streets of 6:19 brownsville brooklyn 6:21 it was he said kind of police 6:25 report off wonderful place to grow up 6:29 the kid who would grow up to a far table explain to you the infield fly rule 6:35 right allies whether ted williams was a clutch hitter 6:38 and in doing so explain why the study of history is superior to political science 6:46 the kid who would go up to be as paul kennedy said 6:49 accommodation of winston churchill 6:52 and john wayne 6:55 plays a gentleman could give you professor donald j 7:26 thank you 7:27 so much charlie 7:29 thank you 7:30 ladies and gentlemen for your very warm 7:33 greeting 7:35 my subject 7:37 liberal education 7:39 and today more than ever 7:43 that term requires definition 7:47 especially as to the questions 7:50 what use electrolytic pickling 7:53 and what does it for 7:55 from cicero 7:57 is uh... our case libre all a sissy call them 8:01 to the attempts 8:03 common curricula 8:05 in more recent times 8:07 through the chaotic cafeteria 8:09 that passes for curriculum 8:11 in most american 8:13 universities and colleges today 8:16 the concept has suffered from vagueness 8:19 confusion 8:21 and contradiction 8:23 from the beginning the champions of a liberal education 8:26 i've thought of it as seeking 8:29 at least 8:30 four r 8:31 kinds of gold 8:34 one was 8:35 as an end 8:36 itself 8:38 or at least as a way of achieving that 8:41 contempt with contemplative life 8:44 that aristotle thought 8:45 was the greatest happiness 8:48 knowledge 8:49 and the acts of acquiring 8:52 considering kit 8:53 with the ends of this 8:55 education and they were good 8:57 in themselves 8:59 a second 9:01 as a means of shaping the character 9:05 style 9:06 the taste 9:07 of a person 9:09 to make him 9:10 good himself 9:13 better able to fit in well with and to take his place again 9:18 the society of others 9:22 farid 9:23 was to prepare him for a useful career 9:25 in the world one that was appropriate to his stages 9:29 as a free met 9:32 process a rope and quintile ian 9:35 among the romans this meant 9:37 a career 9:38 as a set of an origin that would allow a man 9:41 to protect 9:42 the private interests of himself and his friends 9:45 in the law courts 9:47 and to advance the public interest 9:49 in these semblance consent 9:52 and in the majesty sees 9:54 and finally the fourth 9:56 weight by the first for the goal was to contribute 9:59 to the individual citizens freedom 10:03 in agents aside 10:05 servants 10:07 they thought 10:08 work ignorance and parochial 10:11 so freemen 10:13 must be learned that and cosmopolitan 10:16 servants 10:18 were ruled by others 10:20 so freemen must take part in their own government 10:24 servants 10:25 that's a lot 10:26 to become competent 10:28 at some specific and limited tax 10:31 so freemen must know something of everything 10:35 and understand general principles 10:38 without yielding to the narrowness 10:40 of expertise 10:42 the romans recommended course of study 10:46 literature 10:47 history 10:48 philosophy 10:50 and red 10:53 now it was once common 10:55 to think of the medieval university is very different 10:59 as a place that focused on learning for its own sick 11:04 but in fact the medieval universities whatever their commitment to learning 11:08 for its own site 11:10 were institutions good 11:11 trained their students four professional careers 11:15 graduates in the liberal arts or or war did a certificate that was a licensed to 11:20 teach 11:21 to teach others what they had learned 11:24 and to make a living in that way 11:27 for some 11:28 the study of liberal arts was really preliminary 11:31 to professional study 11:33 in medicine me theology 11:36 and law 11:37 as part of the road two important positions in church 11:44 now the seven liberal arts of the middle ages 11:47 consisted of 11:50 to uh... kinds of groups one was the trivium 11:53 consisting of grammar 11:55 rhetoric and lodged 11:57 and the other was the quadra vehement 11:59 which consisted of arithmetic 12:01 geometry 12:02 astronomy 12:03 and music 12:05 the discovery an absorption of aristotle's works 12:09 in medieval europe in the twelfth century 12:12 quickly led to the triumph 12:14 of logic 12:15 and dialectic 12:16 over the other arts 12:18 they word of the glamour subjects of the time 12:23 believed to be the best means 12:25 for training 12:27 disappointing 12:29 the mind and to provide the best tools 12:31 for successful careers in both church and instead 12:37 the dominant view of knowledge intrudes 12:39 was that they were 12:40 both already in place 12:43 they needed to only to be learned of organized and harmonize 12:48 there was nothing still to be discover 12:51 knowledge and truth 12:53 had only to be system at times 12:55 and explain 12:57 an ambitious scholar 12:59 could hope to achieve some semblance 13:02 of universal naal 13:05 and this was good in itself 13:08 for to the medieval man god was the source of all truth 13:13 uh... to comprehend it 13:15 was to come closer to divinity 13:19 they also plays great value on the practical rewards of their liberal 13:22 education 13:23 and rightly so 13:25 for their logical dialectical mathematical and rhetorical studies 13:30 with the best available training 13:32 for the clarks notaries lawyers 13:35 cannons 13:36 and managers 13:37 who was so badly needed to akita middle ages 13:43 but that was not quite enough 13:45 for the humanists 13:48 of the renaissance 13:49 who made a conscious effort to return to the idea is 13:53 and values of the classical age 13:56 as christians 13:57 they continue to study the church father 14:00 but rejected the commentaries of the medieval school man 14:04 and went directly to the sources themselves 14:07 applying 14:09 the powerful new tactic 14:11 of philological 14:12 analysis 14:14 their greatest innovation and delight however 14:17 was the study 14:18 of classical texts written by the pagan 14:22 offers 14:23 whose focus on the secular world and the salvation 14:26 i'm sorry elevation of the importance of mankind 14:30 powerfully appeal to them [Part 2] 0:05 their idea of a liberal acre education the 0:07 studio who money talks and says they called it 0:11 continued to include grammar and rhetoric 0:13 from the old curriculum 0:16 it added 0:17 a strong 0:18 dose of uh... canon of classical authors 0:22 wrote poetry 0:24 history 0:25 and treatises on politics 0:27 political an end on fossil 0:31 they sought these studies themselves were delightful 0:36 but also they were essential for achieving the goals of the liberal 0:39 education 0:41 which were 0:42 to become lockneys 0:44 and to speak eloquently 0:47 the emphasis was on use 0:50 and action 0:51 the beneficiary 0:53 of a humanistic liberal education was meant to know 0:56 what is good 0:58 so that he could practice virtue 1:01 ka still yawning 1:02 and in his book of the cordia 1:05 set forth the ideal 1:08 of the well-rounded man 1:10 who united him his person 1:13 analogy of language 1:14 literature and history 1:17 with athletic 1:18 military and musical skills 1:21 all framed by good manners 1:24 and good moral character 1:27 these qualities with what the pictures are below in themselves 1:31 but they would also be most useful 1:33 to a man 1:34 seeking his way 1:36 in the world of 1:38 a renaissance italy 1:41 the civic humanist looked to the liberal education of the humanistic train 1:45 good men 1:46 for public service 1:48 for leadership in the cultural and political life 1:51 of their city 1:53 such humanists as 1:55 uh... this aka lucio solid dot the land of abruni put your brought showing me 2:00 each of them served as chancellors of their city 2:04 florence 2:06 and they use their skills and an ability to defend it 2:09 against aggression 2:11 uh... of different kinds 2:13 they also found time to write histories 2:16 of their city 2:18 which wasn't who were meant to celebrate its virtues 2:21 and to win for it 2:23 the devotion of its citizens 2:25 which they thought are no less important contribution 2:28 to its survival 2:30 and to it's flourishing 2:34 one of these uh... 2:36 uh... florentine humanists 2:39 ph gopal over genteel 2:41 summarize the humanists 2:43 ideas meekly as follows 2:46 we call those studies liberal 2:48 which are worth the 2:50 of eight freeman 2:53 those studies by which we attain and practices virtue 2:56 and wisdom 2:58 that education 3:00 which calls for us 3:01 trains 3:02 and develops those highest gifts of body and mind 3:05 which in nobleman 3:07 and which are rightly judged 3:09 next indignity 3:11 to virtue 3:13 for to a folder temper 3:16 gain 3:17 and pleasure 3:18 are the one that came of existence 3:21 to a lofty nature 3:23 moral worth 3:28 for detail you humanists 3:30 freedom meant 3:31 to put aside 3:32 concern for gain 3:34 and to devote oneself 3:35 to the training 3:37 of mine body and spirit 3:39 for the sake of higher things 3:42 no more than the entrance to the humanists think that liberal 3:46 education should be 3:48 uh... remote from the responsibilities and rewards 3:51 of the secular life 3:53 mankind 3:55 they're studying 3:55 should lead to a knowledge of virtue 3:59 but that knowledge should also lead to virtuous 4:04 in the public interest moral 4:06 and such actions 4:08 should bring fame 4:10 as 4:11 reward 4:13 now the idea of a liberal education came to america 4:17 by way of the english colleges 4:20 and universities 4:22 with the approach of the renaissance humanists gain favor only and the 4:26 eighteenth century 4:28 the seventeenth century 4:30 the study of a broad range of classical texts 4:33 on a variety of subjects had no institutional home 4:39 but in georgian england 4:41 the humanistic education so-called 4:46 english version 4:47 of a humanistic liberal education 4:49 showed very little interest in the heart training 4:53 that turned fell while a g 4:54 into week hoon 4:55 and powerful tool for the critical examination 4:59 of primary sources 5:00 and the discovery 5:02 of troops 5:03 nor was it meant as preparation for an active life 5:07 of public service 5:09 it was 5:10 an education 5:12 really of one of constantly on east courtiers 5:15 rather than one 5:16 of the civic humanists 5:18 chancellors 5:20 the result was an education that suited english society 5:25 in the eighteenth century 5:28 where the landed aristocracy was still powerful 5:32 and where connections and favor 5:35 were important 5:37 a liberal education 5:38 was one suitable 5:40 to a free man who 5:42 it was a sarong 5:44 was well born 5:45 and rich enough 5:46 tool ford 5:48 it was to be a training and that gaining command of arts 5:52 after a liberal 5:54 and then i quote as uh... contemporary dictionary 5:58 such arts 6:00 that were liberal 6:01 such as set forth gentleman and scholars 6:05 and not for those who were server that is to say 6:09 mechanic traits and handicrafts 6:12 suited for 6:13 meaner people 6:15 it was not 6:16 an education meant to prepare 6:19 it's recipients 6:20 for a career 6:21 or some specific function 6:23 but it was an education for gentleman 6:27 the goal is to produce a well-rounded man 6:31 who would feel comfortable 6:33 and who accepted the best 6:35 scott who could be would be upset at sorry 6:38 accepted in the best circle 6:41 of society 6:42 and so to get on 6:44 in the world 6:45 place specific emphasis special emphasis 6:49 preparing young men 6:51 to make 6:52 the kind of educated conversation 6:54 that was required and polite society 6:58 there was no fixed canon of authors 7:02 on which one was examined at school 7:04 or university 7:06 their main contribution 7:08 to the current idea of liberal education 7:12 was to give their students the opportunity 7:15 to make the right sort of friends 7:19 and friendship as one schoolmaster put it 7:22 is known to heighten howard joys 7:25 and to soften 7:27 our care 7:29 but no less important he said 7:31 by the attachments which informs 7:34 is often the means of advancing a man's fortune 7:37 in the world 7:40 such an education 7:42 prize soc ability 7:44 above 7:45 the solitude of hard study 7:49 it took a dim view of solitary study and that acquiring knowledge for its own 7:53 sake 7:54 which was called pecan tree 7:56 a terrible term of abuse 8:01 pence was thought to be fosse 8:04 self-absorbed engaged 8:06 in this study 8:07 of knowledge 8:08 that was useless 8:10 sort of like professors today 8:14 we finding fathers writing to warn their sons at the university 8:19 against the dangers 8:21 of working too hard 8:24 and becoming pets 8:26 ruining their health any and damaging their socialite 8:31 education was meant to shape character and managed 8:35 much more 8:36 then until 8:38 the in the first decade of the nineteenth century 8:41 the numbers of undergraduates 8:43 entering the university's group rapidly 8:47 though the new generation came from the same social class 8:51 as its predecessors 8:53 its members thought and acted differently 8:57 for the world of change 8:59 long years of war agence france 9:03 the arrival of the radical ideas of the french revolution 9:07 the vote of romantic individualism 9:10 and the revival 9:11 of serious interest in religion 9:14 that came 9:15 uh... 9:16 uh... in there 9:17 awake unsettle the easygoing society of eighteenth-century england and its 9:23 emphasis on 9:24 polite behavior 9:26 the pressures of war 9:28 made the government take at least a few steps toward filling important posts 9:32 on the basis of would you believe competence 9:36 instead of connections 9:39 the response of the university faculties 9:41 was to revive 9:43 a medieval device 9:44 that had fallen into disuse 9:47 competitive 9:48 examinations 9:51 these examinations had the desired effect 9:54 absorbing the time and energy of the undergraduates 9:57 and turning their minds away from 9:59 dangerous 10:01 they also 10:02 enhanced respect for the universities 10:05 and the teachers in that 10:06 the idleness of the eighteenth century 10:08 and all you have to do to understand that is to get hold of givens 10:12 what a biography in which he describes 10:14 his years of oxford to get some grip on the idleness that was characteristic at 10:18 the eighteenth century university 10:20 uh... 10:22 for most of us a liberal education came to me now 10:25 in the nineteenth century the careful study 10:28 of a limited list 10:29 of latin and greek classics 10:31 with emphasis on mastery of the ancient languages 10:35 but it was now justified on anew basis 10:39 this kind of learning 10:41 it was said 10:42 cultivated and strengthen the intellectual 10:47 commissions investigating oxford and cambridge in the eighteen fifties 10:50 concluded 10:52 that is the sole business of the university 10:55 to train the powers of my 10:59 their definition 11:01 the defying curriculum 11:04 and the examination system that connected them 11:07 greatly improve off the performance 11:10 and the self-confidence 11:11 of university faculty 11:14 river along however if the they came under attack 11:17 from two directions 11:19 the growth of industry in democracy led to a demand 11:22 for a more practical education 11:25 that would be useful 11:27 in ways 11:28 that the oxford's liberal education 11:31 it would be train the students four particular vocations 11:35 on the one 11:37 and it would provide the expertise of the new kind of leaders needed in the 11:42 modern world 11:45 at same time critics indeed mid-nineteenth century complained of the 11:49 lost of old values 11:51 of liberal 11:53 education 11:54 undermined by these limited classical correctly 11:58 the sentence parsing 12:01 cramming imposed by the examinations 12:05 liberal education they insisted 12:07 must not be narrow 12:09 pedantic 12:10 one site 12:11 in short 12:13 it must be more than merely useful in a pragmatic sense 12:18 it must train the character and the whole mac 12:21 not merely the mock 12:23 but the restless tumultuous industrial society of the nineteenth century 12:28 increasingly lacking agreements and a common uh... core values 12:34 needed leaders who were trained in more than style unmet 12:38 such leaders must understand the magnitude 12:41 the new problems 12:43 liberal education must become 12:46 general education 12:47 including languages 12:49 literature 12:50 history 12:51 and the natural science 12:55 the words of one writer 12:57 a man of the highest education ought to know something of everything 13:02 everything of something 13:05 my teachers were still telling me that when i was a freshman in college 13:11 now the answer of some 13:13 universal knowledge 13:16 these people urged a broadening of the field of learning right to include all 13:20 that was no 13:22 and an attempt to to synthesize and integrate the information 13:26 collected by discovering the philosophical principles that unrelated 13:31 or 13:32 as one victorian writer put it 13:34 this summits of a liberal education 13:38 philosophy 13:40 meaning life a las affly 13:42 the sustained effort to frame a complete and reason 13:46 synthesis of the facts of the unit [Part 3] 0:04 universal education remain 0:06 intellectual an academic 0:09 not practical 0:10 and profession 0:13 in the last decades of the century 0:16 the idea of knowledge for its own sake 0:19 and the whole concept of universal knowledge for the purpose 0:23 a philosophical education of understanding rather 0:26 was swept away by eight great 0:29 tidal wave 0:30 from across the channel 0:32 whose chief source was 0:36 all the educational ideas i have mentioned so far 0:40 had this income 0:41 very regarded knowledge 0:43 as something that existed already 0:47 there was little thought of discovering anything 0:50 troop 0:51 that had not previously been up 0:54 but by the nineteenth century 0:56 the power of natural science 0:58 and the scientific method to discover new knowledge 1:01 have become so obvious that it could no longer be prevented 1:05 from influencing universities 1:08 originality 1:09 and discovery 1:11 became the prime 1:12 values 1:13 the idea of the university as a museum 1:17 uh... crisp repulsive tory of learning 1:20 gave way to the notion 1:21 that it should be 1:24 a place where knowledge was discovered 1:26 and generate 1:28 scientific method in the new values one not confined to the natural 1:33 uh... sciences but were in fact applied 1:36 to humanistic studies as well 1:38 in a certain sense the 1:40 triumph of the sides of the idea of science says that 1:44 what should be behind in education 1:47 triumphed across the board to some considerable degree 1:50 now the new knowledge required specialized asian 1:54 heart 1:55 narrowed training 1:57 at the expense 1:58 of broad general education 2:00 for the purpose of philosophical understanding aimed at by the advocates 2:05 of universal 2:06 now me 2:08 champions of the new order therefore 2:11 change the definition 2:13 of liberal education 2:15 an oxford classical full all it is 2:17 put it this way 2:20 it is the 2:21 essence of the liberal education 2:23 that it should stand in constant relation 2:26 to the advance of now 2:29 the search 2:30 and discovery 2:31 other processes by which truth 2:33 is directly acquire 2:35 education is the preparation of the mind 2:38 for its reception 2:40 and the creation 2:43 loving 2:46 do you believe 2:47 that knowledge obtained by 2:50 rigorous research 2:52 would produce 2:53 troops n 2:54 and that only truth could lead to morality 2:59 research therefore keep could provide 3:01 and would provide 3:03 and new basis for morality 3:06 useful knowledge good examples of the 3:08 and wisdom 3:10 we're not to be fought in the past 3:13 but in the future 3:15 that require the application of scientific method to all subjects 3:19 which he intern 3:21 demanded again 3:22 specializes 3:24 no knowledge moreover did not fit neatly into the small number of all packages 3:29 that made up the traditional 3:31 university organization 3:34 science and social science 3:37 treating 3:37 i'm sorry creating 3:39 new fields 3:41 new subfields 3:43 all of which 3:44 had equal claim to attention 3:46 and to a place in liberal like education 3:49 since everyone of them applied to correct method 3:53 the scientific method 3:55 and all claim to produce new knowledge 3:59 no one 4:00 could or dared 4:02 to rank subjects 4:03 according to an idea 4:05 of their intrinsic value 4:07 or usefulness 4:09 practitioners unique each field 4:11 came to have more in common 4:13 with their fellow investigators 4:15 in auburn university than they did 4:17 through their colleagues 4:19 in fields other than their own at their own universities 4:23 both they and their students became more professional 4:27 in their allegiances 4:28 and in their attitudes 4:31 preparation for an advancement uh... in a career 4:34 became the chief 4:36 concern of both 4:38 the distinction between a liberal 4:40 and a professional education became evermore phadke 4:46 these developments seem to me 4:48 to have been the forces that have shaped our own universities 4:52 and remain 4:53 dominant today 4:55 now i have uh... made a acquit dash 4:58 through this uh... 5:00 inadequate capsule history 5:02 of the idea of liberal education 5:05 because i think it 5:06 maybe useful basis 5:08 for examining the status of liberal education today 5:13 and for considering 5:15 what direction it might need to take 5:17 in the future 5:19 i'm struck by the fact 5:22 at every 5:23 claim ever made on behalf of liberal education 5:27 is being made at some college or university 5:31 at least some of the top 5:34 at some places and sometimes 5:37 all the benefits are claimed 5:38 at the same time 5:42 in evaluating the performance of major american universities in meeting 5:46 the various goals of liberal education 5:49 sought over the centuries d 5:51 i come to conclusions 5:53 that surprise 5:56 it seems to me 5:57 that the education provided a typical liberal arts college today 6:02 comes closest 6:04 to achieving the goals sought by 6:07 english gentleman 6:08 in the eighteenth century 6:12 to be sure 6:14 success in that world did not require any particular set of studies 6:20 or specialize age 6:23 if they had done so i'm sure the trainings and would've contain some 6:27 equivalent 6:28 of the modern 6:29 departmental major 6:32 in most other respects power curricula today 6:36 with their lives 6:37 of any collection of works 6:40 or even subjects 6:42 studied income 6:44 the absence of of agreement on any particular method of training them on 6:50 of a culminating examination 6:52 testing the acquisition 6:54 of a fixed body of knowledge 6:57 the emphasis on well-rounded nis 7:00 he finds only 7:02 as the opposite of narrowness 7:05 and achieved 7:06 by taking a few courses 7:07 in some specified number of different for you 7:11 seems to me all outfits 7:13 eighteenth-century england very nicely 7:17 if we examine the full reality 7:20 rather than only the formal 7:23 i think the similarities are even more 7:26 uh... striking 7:28 i submit that in america today the most important social distinction 7:33 one almost as significant as the old one 7:36 between gentle 7:38 and simple 7:40 is whether or not one has ecology education 7:46 within the favorite group 7:47 finer distinctions 7:49 plays a liberal education as opposed to a vocational 7:53 or merely professional at the top 7:55 of the social period 7:58 graduates 7:59 of the better liberal arts colleges 8:02 are most likely to marry 8:04 the most desired part 8:06 and to hold the best positions and appointments in business 8:11 and in the professions 8:13 and in government 8:15 that is true and widely understood and that is shown by the fact 8:20 that each year 8:21 there are great numbers of applicants for everyplace 8:25 in the freshman class 8:27 above 8:28 such colleges 8:30 at a cost of perhaps 8:32 sixty thousand dollars 8:34 each year 8:36 show that figure is already obsolete 8:40 a phenomenon that is otherwise 8:43 absolutely inexplicable 8:46 apart from any pre professional training they may obtain 8:51 successful applicants gain about the same advantages 8:54 as those that was sought by young englishman 8:57 from this somewhat 8:58 less formal eighteenth-century education 9:02 they sharpened useful skills 9:04 in writing and speaking 9:06 they pick up another of subjects thought interesting in their circle 9:11 and the style of discussing them to permit agreeable an acceptable 9:15 conversation 9:17 they learn the style and manner 9:19 the political opinions 9:21 and the prejudices 9:22 to make them comfortable 9:24 in a similarly educated side 9:27 they have excellent opportunities to make friends 9:31 who may be advantageous to them 9:33 later in life 9:36 this education of course 9:38 purely sector 9:40 there is more over no attempt 9:42 to shake good character 9:45 for the better universities 9:46 leave the country in the direction of a kind of education a kind of 9:51 relativism 9:52 i would go so far sicily even nihilism 9:56 the message that seems to get through is this 9:59 do your own thing 10:01 and demand that everyone else in the world behave according to the strictest 10:05 possible moral called 10:09 as it is that uh... as edsa 10:13 uh... 10:14 refund as by the way as it is currently understood 10:17 in the halls 10:18 of the most favored colleges 10:21 no doubt the absence of religion and the failure to shape character 10:25 would disappoint in eighteenth century gentleman 10:28 but in other respects 10:29 i think 10:30 he would not be dismayed 10:32 by what is called 10:33 illiberal education today 10:36 other definitions and objects are i think 10:39 less well-served 10:41 for instance the searched 10:42 ford general universal now 10:45 and for the philosophic principles 10:47 on which it may be based 10:49 has long since 10:51 and event 10:52 it shows i think it never had much hope 10:55 of support anyway 10:57 nor do i think that 10:58 most modern attempts at liberal education 11:01 encourage the pursuit of learning 11:04 and knowledge 11:05 as an industry itself 11:07 i doubt that many students whatever deeply impressed by that goal 11:11 but when there was general agreement that there was a core of knowledge 11:17 worth one 11:18 one that all educated people could share 11:22 and wonderful 11:24 that could read only serve as the basis for that 11:27 serious discussion 11:29 of important question 11:31 and thereby perhaps deal with it 11:34 i think then there was a far greater chance of success 11:37 then there is today 11:40 it might be thought at least 11:43 those values produced by the study of the natural sciences 11:46 of research 11:48 and of scientific method 11:50 flourish in today's version of liberal education 11:53 i mean the rigorous training of the mind 11:57 the inculcate shin avi truth loving habits 12:00 and the universal triumph of the scientific method 12:04 but i'm inclined to think 12:08 in liberal arts colleges today the study of mathematics a natural sciences is 12:13 separated from other studies in important ways 12:17 the study of the hard sciences is committed to rigorous training of the 12:20 mind in a single message the scientific 12:25 teachers me of science continued to believe in the cumulative and 12:29 progressive character of knowledge 12:33 and in the possibility of moving towards truths 12:37 students to major in these subjects are likely to acquire 12:42 had to share these beliefs 12:45 so teachers and students are interested in the practical 12:48 uses of science i think many of them come to value learning and knowledge as 12:53 good in themselves 12:56 but we have to face the fact 12:58 that only a minority of students in liberal arts colleges major in 13:03 mathematics 13:05 the natural sciences 13:07 in some programs students who do not major in these subjects are required to 13:12 study neither 13:14 and others there is a minimal requirements that rarely achieves the 13:19 design go 13:22 but hasn't the scientific method made its way into other disciplines and can't 13:26 get benefit 13:27 its benefits be obtained 13:30 where the attempt has been made most seriously 13:33 is the social sciences 13:36 and their it has been a failure 13:40 it is increasingly ob 13:43 that trying to deal with human beings 13:46 creatures of independent we'll and purpose 13:50 as if they want objects like adams 13:53 molecule selves and tissues 13:57 that produces unsatisfactory results [Part 4] the social font-size is far from producing 0:07 a progressive narrowing 0:09 of differences me 0:11 and of growing agreements 0:13 on a common body of knowledge 0:15 and of principles capable of explanation 0:19 and prediction 0:21 be natural sciences 0:23 has seen each generation 0:26 undermined the beliefs of its predecessors 0:29 rather than building on a and refining 0:33 what we see 0:34 is a war of methodologies 0:37 within 0:37 and between fields 0:40 in fact the fundamental idea of the whole enterprise 0:42 the attempt to remove values from the consideration of human behavior 0:47 and simply to apply the scientific method 0:50 has seen the most 0:52 implausible 0:55 today however 0:56 the greatest shortcoming of most attempts at liberal education today 1:00 with their individualism 1:03 or individualized unfocused and scattered curriculum 1:08 is their failure 1:09 to enhance the students understanding of their role 1:13 as free citizens 1:15 of a free society 1:17 and the responsibilities 1:19 that imposes 1:20 upon its citizens 1:22 every successful civilization 1:25 must possess a means for passing on it's basic values 1:31 tutsi you can write 1:33 when it no longer dot cell 1:36 hits days our number 1:38 the danger is particularly great in a society such as our hong 1:43 the freest the world has ever known 1:46 who special character 1:48 is to encourage doubt 1:49 and questioning 1:51 even of its own values 1:52 and assumptions 1:54 such questioning has always been and remains 1:57 a distinctive 1:59 i would say 2:00 admirable and salutary part 2:03 our education 2:05 and our way of life 2:08 as long as there was a shared belief 2:10 in the personal and social 2:12 morality 2:13 taught by 2:14 the judeo-christian 2:16 tradition 2:17 and so long as there was a a belief 2:20 in the excellence of the tradition 2:22 and institutions 2:24 of western civilization 2:26 and of this nation 2:28 so long as those values were communicated to the schools 2:31 and such questioning 2:33 of everything 2:35 i think was also safe 2:37 our traditions of free critical enquiring 2:41 counteract that the tendency for received moral and civic teachings from 2:45 becoming s no centric 2:47 complacency 2:49 and intolerance 2:50 uh... and 2:51 prevented a proper patriotism 2:54 from degenerating 2:55 into arrogant chauvinism 2:58 when students get a college they found their values and prejudices challenge 3:02 by the books they read 3:04 by their fellow students from other places and backgrounds 3:08 by which you believe their teachers 3:11 i suggest to you that the situation is far different today 3:16 whatever the formal religious attachments of our students may be 3:21 i find that the firm belief 3:23 in the traditional values and the ability to understand 3:27 and the willingness to defend them 3:29 are rare 3:31 still rare is an informed understanding of the traditions and institutions 3:36 of our western civilization 3:38 and of our country 3:40 an appreciation 3:41 of this special qualities 3:43 and values 3:45 the admirable even the uniquely good elements 3:48 are taken 3:49 for granted 3:51 as if they were universally available 3:53 had always existed 3:55 and required no special effort 3:57 to preserve 3:59 also a cloak cummings however 4:01 how quickly noticed 4:03 and harshly condemn 4:05 our society is judged 4:07 not against the experience of human societies 4:10 and other times 4:12 in place 4:13 but against the kingdom of heaven 4:17 there is greater danger in this 4:19 for our society no less than others 4:22 now and in the past 4:25 requires the allegiance and the devotion 4:28 of its members 4:29 if it is defend itself 4:30 and to make progress 4:32 towards a better life 4:35 traditional beliefs however are not replaced by a different set of values 4:39 resting on different traditions 4:42 instead 4:43 i find that kind of 4:45 cultural voi 4:47 and ignorance 4:48 of the past 4:50 a sense of ruthlessness 4:52 and endless 4:54 as though not only the students 4:56 but also the whole world 4:58 was born yesterday 5:01 a feeling that they are attached to the society in which they live 5:05 only incidentally 5:07 and accidentally 5:10 having little or no sense of the human experience through the ages 5:14 of what has 5:16 been tried 5:17 of what i've succeeded and what has failed 5:20 of what is the price 5:21 of cherishing some values 5:24 as opposed to others 5:25 or how values relate to one another 5:29 the leap from acting as though anything is possible without 5:34 to this barren 5:35 that nothing is possible 5:38 they also are inclined to see other people's values 5:42 as mere prejudices 5:44 one know better than the other 5:46 while viewing their own 5:48 as in tire leaves out 5:51 for they are themselves 5:52 as or thailand as entities in title 5:56 to be free from interference 5:58 by society 5:59 and some any obligation 6:03 because of the cultural vacuum 6:05 in their earliest 6:06 and earlier education and because of the informal education they receive 6:11 from the communications media 6:13 which both shape 6:14 and reflect 6:15 the larger society 6:17 today's liberal art students 6:19 come to college it seems to me 6:22 bearing 6:23 a sort of relativism verging as i say on nihilism 6:28 a kind of individualism 6:30 that is really isolation from community 6:34 the education they receive in college these days i believe 6:38 is more likely to reinforce this condition 6:41 than to change 6:42 in this way too 6:44 it fails in its liberating function 6:46 and its responsibility to shape freemen 6:51 earlier generations who came to college with traditional beliefs 6:55 rooted in the past 6:57 had been challenged 6:58 by a hard question 6:59 and the requirement to consider alternatives 7:02 and with their body 7:03 unearthed 7:05 and in the process 7:06 liberated 7:07 by the need to make 7:08 reason 7:09 choices 7:11 students of today and tomorrow deserve 7:13 the same opportune 7:15 they too must be freed from the tyranny that comes from the accident of being 7:20 born 7:21 at a particular time in a particular place 7:25 but that liberation can only come from a return to the belief 7:29 that me we may have something to learn 7:31 from the past 7:34 the challenge to the relativism nihilism in private to some of the present and 7:38 past the present 7:40 by careful 7:41 and respectful examination 7:44 of early right 7:46 ideas that have not been rejected 7:49 by the current generation 7:51 but are simply unknown to 7:54 when they have been allowed to consider the alternatives 7:59 to who can enjoy the freedom of making an informed 8:02 and reasoned 8:05 they can't do it 8:06 if they are 8:07 left indeed 8:10 liberal education needed for the students of today and tomorrow i suggest 8:14 d 8:15 should include a common core of study 8:18 for all hits two u 8:21 that would have many advantages 8:22 for would create an intellectual 8:25 community 8:26 among students and teachers 8:28 that does not now exists 8:31 and it would encourage the idea 8:33 that learning and knowledge are good things in themselves 8:39 it would also affirmed that some 8:41 questions are all fundamental importance to every 8:46 regardless of his arrtrans 8:48 and his personal plan 8:50 that we must all think about our values responsibilities and relationships with 8:55 one another 8:56 and with the society 8:58 in which we live 9:00 the core high personally would propose 9:03 would include 9:04 the studying of the literature 9:06 philosophy 9:07 and history 9:09 in which i included history 9:10 of the arts and of the 9:12 physical sciences 9:15 of our culture from its part 9:18 it would be a study 9:19 that tries to meet the past on its own terms 9:23 examining it critically 9:25 but also a respectful 9:27 always keeping alive the possibility 9:30 that the past may contain wisdom 9:32 that can be useful to us today 9:35 it would be a study that was consciously and deliberately morrow 9:40 and civic 9:42 in its purpose 9:43 eager to examine the values 9:45 discussed 9:47 private and public personal and political 9:51 such an education 9:52 what allow i would rather which shows a modern 9:56 times and worlds 9:58 with a common understanding 10:00 was quite different from his own 10:03 where it was believed 10:04 that man had capacities 10:07 and and nature 10:08 that are different 10:09 from those of the other adams 10:12 that his nature is a great gary 10:15 and that is flourishing requires 10:17 and ordered 10:18 the nafta since the site 10:20 that is nature can reach its highest perfection 10:24 only by living a good life 10:26 you know well ordered society 10:29 it would reveal that a good society requires citizens 10:32 who understand and share its values 10:36 which includes 10:37 examining it 10:38 and then 10:40 and accept 10:42 their own connection with it 10:44 and dependents on it 10:46 that there must be mutual respect among citizens 10:49 and common effort by them both 10:52 for their own flourishing 10:53 and forget survival 10:56 students in joining such an education would encounter the idea 11:00 that freedom is essential 11:03 to have a good and happy life of human beings 11:07 that freedom 11:08 cannot exist 11:10 without good laws 11:12 and respectful 11:15 aristotle rightly observer 11:17 that in matters other than scientific 11:20 people 11:21 learned best not by precept 11:24 but by example 11:26 let me conclude therefore by making it clear that the colleges who claim to 11:29 offer a liberal education today and tomorrow 11:33 must make their commitment to freedom 11:35 clear 11:36 by their actions 11:38 tui o to a university even more than two other institutions in a free society 11:45 the right of free speech 11:47 the free exchange of ideas 11:50 the present asian of a variety of opinions 11:54 especially of unpopular points of view 11:58 the freedom to move about and to make use of public facilities without 12:03 interference 12:05 our flight 12:07 discussion argument and persuasion 12:10 other devices 12:12 appropriate 12:13 to the life of the month 12:15 not selective exclusion 12:18 suppression 12:19 obstruction 12:21 and intimidation 12:23 and yet in my time 12:25 power colleges and universities have often seen speakers shouted down 12:31 or prevented from speaking 12:33 buildings forcibly occupied in access to them tonight 12:37 different modes of intimidation employed with much excess 12:43 most of the time 12:44 the perpetrators have gone unpunished 12:48 in any significant way 12:50 these assaults typically have come from just one section of a pen 12:54 and they have been very successful 12:58 over the years few advocates of use that challenged the campus consensus have 13:03 been invited 13:04 and fewer still 13:06 sometimes victims of such behavior 13:09 have chosen to come 13:11 colleges and universities that permits such attacks on freedom 13:15 and take no firm ineffective action to deter and punish those who 13:19 carry them out 13:20 uh... will carry out the sabotage the most basic educational 13:25 freedoms 13:28 to defend those freedoms 13:30 is the first obligation of anyone who claims 13:35 engaged in liberal education [Part 5] 0:05 everlast moreover can students benefit from different opinions and approaches 0:10 offered by their teachers 0:13 for faculty members with atypical views grow ever 0:18 on the campus 0:20 some years now i've been asking students to name professors who seem 0:24 not to share the views common among the fact 0:28 and it's something like seven hundred members of the fact of arts and sciences 0:32 at yale 0:33 but the largest number 0:35 ever named to me invasion choir is was somewhere between ten and fifteen 0:41 this year the highest number right been able to get from anybody is three 0:48 now i say this has no small significance 0:52 for the chance of a liberal education 0:55 for the opportunity not only to put 0:57 uncomfortable questions to the teacher 1:01 but to challenge him on the authority of one of his peers 1:05 is vital 1:07 through the end 1:09 that's how things were early in my career 1:12 when i taught of another university 1:14 in the critical fields of history and government there are a few teachers 1:18 who did not conform to the standard 1:22 there were few 1:23 but they were excellent teachers and they had a great effect 1:27 for the students regarded them so well as features that they feel their classes 1:32 in great numbers 1:33 then challenged other teachers with what they heard in their classes 1:40 might late student dear friend 1:43 alvin bernstein 1:45 was teaching a course in the history of western civilization 1:49 in the same semester me 1:51 that allan bloom was teaching his famous course and political philosophy 1:56 al was discussing plato's republic 1:59 when the subject of some of socrates less pleasant recommendations 2:04 came to him 2:06 he student object 2:08 that alleles present ation was incorrect 2:11 that played out did not mean for these 2:14 to be taken at face value 2:16 that there was a deeper ironical 2:19 in fact 2:20 opposite meaning to the dialogue 2:22 that was not for the ordinary reader but for the more intelligent and worthy 2:29 al asked 2:30 who told you that 2:34 provides a blow said 2:36 oc set out 2:38 without missing a beat 2:40 that is what he told you 2:42 but the deeper ironically 2:44 is not revealing pit for the more intelligent than working people 2:52 elapsed 2:54 your faculties separate teachers like for instant blue 2:57 in a number 2:59 but colleges must work hard 3:02 choir 3:04 and to keep 3:05 such talented teachers 3:07 with such diverse append 3:10 if they're it's to be any help 3:13 for a truly liberal education 3:16 thank you ladies and gentlemen for coming to hear my last efforts as an 3:20 active member of the yale fact 3:23 it has been 3:25 great joy 3:27 anna privilege 3:28 to be with you these many years as colleagues 3:32 students and alumni 3:35 and phil