Authorities on Literature and "True Liberal Arts"
Esteemed Voices on the Key Place of Literature in Academia
Christopher Wolfe
Last Updated: 12/29/09 Section: Opinion
Earlier this semester, I had the pleasure of attending a debate at the Athenaeum titled "Is CMC a True Liberal Arts College?" This was an interesting topic for debate, because the wording of the title implies two questions. First, what exactly is a 'true' liberal arts college? Second, should CMC be a 'true' liberal arts college? The debaters primarily discussed the second question, with conversation focusing on practical issues, mainly the possibility of getting a job after college. This discussion centered around the tension between the humanities, typified by literature, and the professionally-oriented disciplines, such as economics. From my vantage point, I did not think the debaters adequately answered the first question before they moved on to rejecting or accepting it as the purpose of CMC. This is completely understandable; the liberal arts is a difficult subject to give its full due. I myself cannot give a full account of the liberal arts, but by drawing upon authorities within the Tradition and within the Claremont community who are able to answer some of these questions, we may gain greater perspective on the role of literature within the greater whole.
Q. 1: Cliff's Notes, anyone? Well, Cliff's Notes do work well as shortcuts. The benefit of shortcuts is that they make exchanges quick, efficient, and cost-effective; unfortunately, the opposite characterizes the leisured discussion of free people. Leisure, as philosopher Josef Peiper says, is "the basis of culture," and as students we should keep this in mind. I refer the reader to a 1990 CSPAN interview with Mortimer J. Adler, co-founder of the Great Books Program. A caller from Canada phoned in and asked Adler what he thought of his idea for a speed-reading program of the classics. With a visceral reaction, Adler replied:
No! You can't speed read them. I think you have to read them word by word. You have to ponder the sentences. When I'm reading a great book I never read faster than 20 pages an hour, sometimes slower, because it's hard, hard work… I never read more than an hour or an hour and a half, because I get tired.
Q. 1: Cliff's Notes, anyone? Well, Cliff's Notes do work well as shortcuts. The benefit of shortcuts is that they make exchanges quick, efficient, and cost-effective; unfortunately, the opposite characterizes the leisured discussion of free people. Leisure, as philosopher Josef Peiper says, is "the basis of culture," and as students we should keep this in mind. I refer the reader to a 1990 CSPAN interview with Mortimer J. Adler, co-founder of the Great Books Program. A caller from Canada phoned in and asked Adler what he thought of his idea for a speed-reading program of the classics. With a visceral reaction, Adler replied:
No! You can't speed read them. I think you have to read them word by word. You have to ponder the sentences. When I'm reading a great book I never read faster than 20 pages an hour, sometimes slower, because it's hard, hard work… I never read more than an hour or an hour and a half, because I get tired.
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