There appears to be an innate human tendency to underestimate…

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…

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

Other Robert Hutchins Quotes

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…
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 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. - View Quote Details on The Great Books show… that even those thinkers of the…
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…
The contemporary practices of scientific research, as well as the scientific efforts that the great books record, show beyond doubt that the method of controlled experiment under artificial conditions is not the only method used by men who regard themselves and are regarded as scientists….as the work of astronomers, biologists, and social scientists reveals, experiment in the strict sense is not always possible. - View Quote Details on The contemporary practices of scientific research, as well as the…
In the knowledge of nature,” Aristotle writes, the test of principles “is the unimpeachable evidence of the senses as to the fact.” He holds that “lack of experience diminishes our power of taking a comprehensive view of the admitted facts. Hence those who dwell in the intimate association with nature and its phenomena grow more and more able to formulate, as the foundation of their theories, principles such as to admit of a wide and coherent development; while those whom devotion to abstract discussions has rendered unobservant of the facts are too ready to dogmatize on the basis of a few observations.” Theories should be accredited, Aristotle insists, “only if what they affirm agrees with the facts. - View Quote Details on In the knowledge of nature,” Aristotle writes, the test of…
Because of experimental science we know a very large number of things about the natural world of which our predecessors were ignorant. In the great books we can observe the birth of science, applaud the development of the experimental technique, and celebrate the triumphs it has won. But we can also note the limitations of the method and mourn the errors that its misapplication has caused. We can distinguish the outlines of those great persistent problems that the method… may never solve and find the clues to their solutions offered by other methods and other disciplines. - View Quote Details on Because of experimental science we know a very large number…
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…
In education… whenever a proposal is made that looks toward increased intellectual effort on the part of students, professors will always say that the students cannot so the work. My observation leads me to think that what this usually means is that the professors cannot or will not do the work… When, in spite of the opposition of the professors, the change is introduced, the students, in my experience, have always responded nobly. - View Quote Details on In education… whenever a proposal is made that looks toward…
Recall the dictum of Rousseau: “It matters little to me whether my pupil is intended for the army, the church, or law. Before his parents chose a calling for him, nature called him to be a man…. When he leaves me, he will be neither a magistrate, a soldier, nor a priest; he will be a man.” - View Quote Details on Recall the dictum of Rousseau: “It matters little to me…