The Great Books show… that even those thinkers of the…

The Great Books show… that even those thinkers of the past who are now often looked upon as the most reactionary, the medieval theologians, insisted, as Aristotle had before them, that the truth of any statement is its conformity to reality or fact, and that sense experience is required to discover the particular matters of fact that test the truth of general statements about the nature of things.

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

Other Robert Hutchins Quotes

If many great books seem unreadable and unintelligible… it may be because we have not for a long time learned to read by reading them. Great books teach people not only how to read them, but how to read all other books. - View Quote Details on If many great books seem unreadable and unintelligible… it may…
There appears to be an innate human tendency to underestimate the capacity of those who do not belong to “our” group. Those who do not share our background cannot have our ability. Foreigners, people who are in a different economic status, and the young seem invariably to be regarded as intellectually backward… - View Quote Details on There appears to be an innate human tendency to underestimate…
Educators ought to know better than their pupils what an education is. If the educators do not, they have wasted their lives. The art of teaching consists in large part of interesting people in things that ought to interest them, but do not. The task of educators is to discover what an education is and then to invent the methods of interesting their students in it. - View Quote Details on Educators ought to know better than their pupils what an…
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. - View Quote Details on Is there any such thing as “an education”? The answer…
It is sometimes admitted that many propositions that are affirmed by intelligent people, such as that democracy is the best form of government or that world peace depends upon world government, cannot be tested by the method of experimental science. - View Quote Details on It is sometimes admitted that many propositions that are affirmed…
…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 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…
If any common program is impossible, if there is no such thing as an education that everybody ought to have, then we must admit that any community is impossible. All men are different; but they are also the same. As we must all become specialists, so we must all become men….The West needs an education that draws out our common humanity rather than our individuality. Individual differences can be taken into account in the methods that are employed and in the opportunities for specialization that may come later. - View Quote Details on If any common program is impossible, if there is no…
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…
Liberal education was aristocratic in the sense that it was the education of those who enjoyed leisure and political power. If it was the right education for those who had leisure and political power, then it is the right education for everybody today. - View Quote Details on Liberal education was aristocratic in the sense that it was…