Is there any such thing as “an education”? The answer…

Is there any such thing as “an education”? The answer that is made by the devotees of the dogma of individual differences is No; there are as many different educations as there are different individuals; it is “authoritarian” to say that there is any education that is necessary, or even suitable, for every individual.

Great Books: The Foundation of a Liberal Education (1954)

Other Robert Hutchins Quotes

The Great Conversation began before the beginnings of experimental science. But the birth of the Conversation and the birth of science were simultaneous. The earliest of the pre-Socratics were investigating and seeking to understand natural phenomena; among them were men who used mathematical notions for this purpose. Even experimentation is not new; it has been going on for hundreds of years. But faith in experimentation as an exclusive method is a modern manifestation….it is now regarded in some quarters… as the sole method of obtaining knowledge of any kind. - View Quote Details on The Great Conversation began before the beginnings of experimental science…
The more logical and determined… critics will confess that they believe that the great mass of mankind is and of right ought to be condemned to a modern version of natural slavery. Hence there is not use wasting educational effort upon them. They should be given training as will be necessary to enable them to survive. - View Quote Details on The more logical and determined… critics will confess that they…
So Bertrand Russell once said to me that the pupil in school should study whatever he liked. I asked whether this was not a crime against the pupil….Should he be allowed to grow up without knowing Shakespeare?…Lord Russell replied that he would require a boy to read one play of Shakespeare; if he did not like it, he should not be compelled to read any more. - View Quote Details on So Bertrand Russell once said to me that the pupil…
Because the bulk of mankind has never had the chance to get a liberal education, it cannot be “proved” that they can get it. Neither can it be “proved” that they cannot. The statement of the ideal, however, is of value in indicating the direction that education should take. - View Quote Details on Because the bulk of mankind has never had the chance…
The products of American high schools are illiterate; and a degree from a famous college or university is no guarantee that the graduate is in any better case. One of the most remarkable features of American society is that the difference between the “uneducated” and the “educated” is so slight. - View Quote Details on The products of American high schools are illiterate; and a…
The facts are indispensable; they are not sufficient. To solve a problem it is necessary to think. It is necessary to think even to decide what facts to collect. Even the experimental scientist cannot avoid being a liberal artist, and the best of them, as the great books show are men of imagination and of theory as well as patient observers of particular facts….critics have themselves frequently misunderstood the scientific method and have confused it with the aimless accumulation of facts. - View Quote Details on The facts are indispensable; they are not sufficient. To solve…
…all should be well acquainted with and each in his measure actively and continuously engaged in the Great Conversation that man has had about what is and should be… - View Quote Details on …all should be well acquainted with and each in his…
The rise of experimental science has not made the Great Conversation irrelevant…. Science itself is part of the Great Conversation. - View Quote Details on The rise of experimental science has not made the Great…
The great books… afford us the best examples of man’s efforts to seek the truth, both about the nature of things and about human conduct, by methods other than those of experimental science; and because these examples are presented in the context of equally striking examples of man’s efforts to learn by experiment… the great books provide us with the best materials for judging whether the experimental method is or is not the only acceptable method of inquiry into all things. - View Quote Details on The great books… afford us the best examples of man’s…
The business of saying, in advance of a serious effort, that people are not capable of achieving a good education is too strongly reminiscent of the opposition of every extension of democracy. This opposition has always rested on the allegation that the people were incapable of exercising the power they demanded. Always the historic statement has been verified: you cannot expect the slave to show the virtues of the free man unless you first set him free. When the slave has been set free, he has, in the passage of time, become indistinguishable from those who have always been free. - View Quote Details on The business of saying, in advance of a serious effort,…