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el_entrenador_loco's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.25
with_freedom_and_books's review against another edition
3.0
I have waited years and years to read this. I knew there was good stuff in here, but now that I finally made time for it, I wasn't as excited to read about it now. Still, it was a provocative, intriguing, and historical read.
****
Published in the late 80s, Allan Bloom wrote a scathing and disappointing report about the decline of reason and rise of relativism in the American university system. He blamed the 1960s for the change. You think?
Bloom argued for a return to the Great Books in education, which help us to think about the ideas that matter: is there truth, freedom, and a God? -- something young people crave to know, but now never find out in higher learning because everything is relative.
****
A few final (truncated) quotes:
"A good program of liberal education feeds the student's love of truth and passion to live a good life."
"The only serious solution is the one that is universally rejected: the good old Great Books approach, in which liberal education means reading classic texts, letting them dictate what the questions are and the method of approaching them,...trying to read them as their authors wished them to be read."
****
Published in the late 80s, Allan Bloom wrote a scathing and disappointing report about the decline of reason and rise of relativism in the American university system. He blamed the 1960s for the change. You think?
Bloom argued for a return to the Great Books in education, which help us to think about the ideas that matter: is there truth, freedom, and a God? -- something young people crave to know, but now never find out in higher learning because everything is relative.
****
A few final (truncated) quotes:
"A good program of liberal education feeds the student's love of truth and passion to live a good life."
"The only serious solution is the one that is universally rejected: the good old Great Books approach, in which liberal education means reading classic texts, letting them dictate what the questions are and the method of approaching them,...trying to read them as their authors wished them to be read."
jaccarmac's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
2.0
Closing is a strange book; I am surprised at its reception and reputation after sometimes-slogging through it. For lack of a better word, it's a lumpy work: There are sections (notably when Bloom talks about - or refuses to talk about - slavery) which are narrow in ways even I can notice, and others that expand far beyond my modest ken. Up front, the reader is flattered by implication: Who doesn't see themself as a Seeker of Knowledge? The best sections are when one can join in the sneering, or when the author waxes poetic on the academy or city. Proposed answers ring hollow, as specific as they are to Bloom's areas of interest. There are frequent digressions to assign intention in convenient ways. Certain questions, though, are sparkling crystals in the book-length rant. "Vague insistence that without the humanities we will no longer be civilized rings very hollow when no one can say what 'civilized' means, when there are said to be many civilizations that are all equal.", claims Bloom. I don't think the givens there are obvious, but the challenge is a worthy one.
youvebeenangied's review against another edition
Says that people should be open-minded but then proceeds to be closed-minded himself. He makes sweeping judgements that are baseless e.g. rock music leads to pre-marital sex. I tried to persevere but was too awful and irrational to read.
holtfan's review against another edition
5.0
At times it feels like listening to your Republican grandpa at dinner. He begins by bewailing the modern tastes of young people (rock music and walkmans!) and how no one cares about getting a real education these days. The word curmudgeon comes to mind.
Unless you keep reading. Suddenly he begins to lay the groundwork for his complaints. It is rambling, to be sure, but profound and thought-provoking. It begins to shift the way you think. Then he is off on another tangent...Plato...Great Books...and once again forcing you to think about the purpose of education and how we educate.
Although I think many conservatives did--and do--consider this a politically useful work, it mostly focuses on philosophy and making the argument for how it went wrong in the universities. It talks about intellectual inheritances and how Americans, well, Americanized German thought.
If you are like me, the very names of Nietzsche or Hegel sound intimidating and incomprehensible. But Professor Bloom is clearly comfortable with both, as well as a great many other philosophers, and he expounds on them with enthusiasm. Although he often lost me in the middle of his point, by the end I always understood what he meant.
In this way, I guess, you could say Professor Bloom is very much the lecturer. Sometimes dry and incomprehensible, he yet pursues his subject with zeal and passion and forces you to really think about what he is saying. And what he says is not always comfortable. But it is worth pondering.
The crisp style and philosophical bend reminded me of [a:Thomas Sowell|2056|Thomas Sowell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1230424337p2/2056.jpg], but instead of getting at ideas in politics, Professor Bloom gets at ideas in philosophy and education. He particularly focuses on the danger of relativism. He also comments on many of the ways American students differ from their European counterparts which I found particularly fascinating in our modern discussion of citizenship and integration.
I suspect this one will take a couple re-reads for me to fully understand.
Unless you keep reading. Suddenly he begins to lay the groundwork for his complaints. It is rambling, to be sure, but profound and thought-provoking. It begins to shift the way you think. Then he is off on another tangent...Plato...Great Books...and once again forcing you to think about the purpose of education and how we educate.
Although I think many conservatives did--and do--consider this a politically useful work, it mostly focuses on philosophy and making the argument for how it went wrong in the universities. It talks about intellectual inheritances and how Americans, well, Americanized German thought.
If you are like me, the very names of Nietzsche or Hegel sound intimidating and incomprehensible. But Professor Bloom is clearly comfortable with both, as well as a great many other philosophers, and he expounds on them with enthusiasm. Although he often lost me in the middle of his point, by the end I always understood what he meant.
In this way, I guess, you could say Professor Bloom is very much the lecturer. Sometimes dry and incomprehensible, he yet pursues his subject with zeal and passion and forces you to really think about what he is saying. And what he says is not always comfortable. But it is worth pondering.
The crisp style and philosophical bend reminded me of [a:Thomas Sowell|2056|Thomas Sowell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1230424337p2/2056.jpg], but instead of getting at ideas in politics, Professor Bloom gets at ideas in philosophy and education. He particularly focuses on the danger of relativism. He also comments on many of the ways American students differ from their European counterparts which I found particularly fascinating in our modern discussion of citizenship and integration.
I suspect this one will take a couple re-reads for me to fully understand.
mastercabs's review against another edition
2.0
Great analogy. How can every college student know what it took Socrates (maybe Plato, it's been a while) a lifetime to know: I know nothing.
Hmmmmmm...
How come our species all knows that a wheel will spin when it took so long to come up with?
Hmmmmmm...
How come our species all knows that a wheel will spin when it took so long to come up with?
epictetsocrate's review against another edition
3.0
Relativismul e necesar pentru deschidere; si aceasta este virtutea — singura virtute — pe care s-a straduit s-o imprime intreaga educatie elementara, vreme de mai bine de cincizeci de ani. Deschiderea — si relativismul care face din ea singura instanta plauzibila in fata diverselor pretentii la adevar si a diverselor feluri de viata si tipuri de fiinte umane — este marea intuitie a vremurilor noastre.
stevereally's review against another edition
3.0
I should probably read it again one of these days. All I really remember from 15 years ago is that Bloom offers a Platonic argument about why the tendency of modern young people to listen to lots of rock music is a really terrible thing.