Comments
Just a brief note on comments. As some of you have noticed, comments from new commentators are not immediately posted. Instead, they go into a “moderation” queue, along with 20 times their weight in comment spam. I, or another administrator, check the queue somewhat regularly and approve things. If we did not approve your comment, it is probably because we made a mistake and confused it with the payday loan spam which plagues us. Once you have been approved once, your comments go in immediately. I don’t know how Wordpress knows that you are you, whether it is by IP or name or e-mail address.
I know that we have had extensive discussions in the past about how best to handle comments, whether we should allow anonymous comments, whether we should force anonymous commentators to pick meaningful pseudonyms and so on. Alas, we are currently just using what Wordpress provides by default. I couldn’t even change it if I wanted to!
Anyway, all that is just an update. And a request for volunteers! Surely there is an Eph out there who is experiences with Wordpress (or eager to learn about it) and would like to be our main Wordpress administrator. Let us know.
What I Said
Just back from a fun speech and dinner. More details later. In the meantime, here is a copy of my prepared remarks. I will probably take these down in a couple of days (since I plan to give the same talk next year), but feedback on the substance is always welcome. (Apologies for the formatting.)
Also, for those interested, I will be speaking to the Purple Bull Investment Club at 1:00 PM Sunday in the Rogers Room at the top of Hopkins Hall. I don’t have prepared remarks but will be happy to talk about whatever the members are interested in. I will certainly try to sell them on the idea of working more closely with EphBlog to create a forum at which students and alums might discuss finance.
Listen to Me
For those who want to see me rant in person rather than read my rants from a distance, here is my agenda for the week-end at Williams, starting today.
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FROSH mom on Chapter 3: The Research Ideal
Thanks to FROSH mom (an anonymous mother of a current Williams student) for providing the below discussion of Chapter 3: The Research Ideal from Education’s End by Anthony Kronman ‘68 for our CGCL.
2020
The College is currently involved (big pdf) in a major planning process which focuses on the future to 2020.
President Schapiro has initiated a conversation with the multiple Williams constituencies to map out a vision for the College in 2020. While this process is just underway, we found his approach imaginative, timely, and inclusive. The senior management team and the trustees are comfortable using sophisticated models to predict evolving trends in higher education and these tools are used effectively to inform their planning. As the College moves forward
with this process over the next couple of years, it will develop plans to ensure that Williams is well placed to meet the challenges of 2020.
Nothing wrong with a little planning, although I have real doubts about what sorts of “sophisticated models” (read: Excel spreadsheets) are in use. But that’s not today’s rant.
I have heard that Morty and a large portion of the senior staff were just on (still on?) a boondoggle to England for some off-site discussion and planning relating to 2020. True? I have nothing against such trips, but don’t tell me that the College is really concerned about carbon emissions when it schedules meetings across the Atlantic that could happen just as well in Williamstown. Is it too late to buy some more offsets from Owl Feather War Bonnet Wind Farm? Just asking. Related rants.
If I were a member of TNG, I would make a big deal of this sort of hypocrisy.
This should be fun
Markos Moulitsas, author and creator of the political commentary weblog “The Daily Kos” will speak at Williams on Wednesday, Jan. 16, at 8 p.m. in the ‘62 Center for Theatre and Dance. The title of his talk is “The State of the Nation.”
Moulitsas is famous for his weblog “The Daily Kos” which publishes news and opinions from a progressive point of view for a wide audience.
The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Call the ‘62 Center box office at (413) 597-2425, Tues. - Sat., 1 -5 p.m. for reservations.
If you’re attending, let us know how it goes.
Education’s End, Chapter 2, “Secular Humanism”
In the second chapter of the book, Tony Kronman gives us a 53 page (pp.37-90) summary of the three phases of the life of the humanities in American higher education and he certainly doesn’t leave the reader in suspense about his assessment of the current relationship between the humanities as taught and the meaning of life.
It has been stripped of its legitimacy as a question that teachers of the humanities feel they may properly and competently address with their students in a formal program of instruction. It has been exiled from the classroom and kicked out of school, so that today it survives only in private, in pianissimo, in the extracurricular lives of teachers and students, even those in liberal arts programs whose distinctive purpose presupposes the vital importance of this question itself (p.45)
Phase 1, which I like to call “The Christian Gentleman Phase”, started in 1636 at that other college at the Eastern end of Route 2. The Puritans were quite keen on education, but it was much more focuses on shaping the character of their students than producing original scholarship. Everybody pretty much memorized the same thing (Latin, Greek, the classics, the Bible), and were to use these works and the men in them as sterling examples of behavior. (Given my limited knowledge of the classical world, I do wonder if Aristophanes, Catullus, Terrence or Petronius got much play in these classrooms. Also, the lives of Alcibiades and Caligula were probably what financial analysts like to call contrary indicators) There wasn’t much distinction between areas of study, the faculty were the staff, and generally the president of the college taught the senior capstone of the course. (More on this in a moment) Dr. Kronman lays out the two assumptions that girded this world.
1) Teachers have an unassailable authority on matters moral thanks to their experience.
2) Every branch of study is connected to everything else, so don’t leave out anything.
Williams was, at this time, more or less a little po-dunk college out in the sticks of the Berkshires, but it did have one Mark Hopkins of “the log” fame, who pretty much lived up to all of this. He was the president of Williams, he taught the capstone course and it is fair to say that he was much more interested in the character of his students than their (or his to be honest) intellectual accomplishments.
His (Hopkins’) triumph as one of the old-time college presidents must be attributed, in no small degree, to the success with which he refused to permit learning to assume an ascending importance in his life. (p.27, Mark Hopkins and the Log, Yale, 1956)
I must admit that the thought of a 19th century Christian madrassa came to mind while reading this part, though the greater tension was probably between the education itself, based on the liberal arts, those subject fit for the study of “free” men, which meant the gentry in Europe, and the useful arts, for the study of artisans, which was championed by Ben Franklin and probably quite a bit more useful in the development of the continent. This leads to the second phase in the life of the humanities, “The Secular Humanist Phase”.
As the 19th century progressed, America saw the ideal of the German research university transferred to its soil (Dr. Kronman will go into more detail on this in the third chapter. Here’s a bit of foreshadowing, the research ideal has a lot to answer for). Cornell, Johns Hopkins, even Harvard got the fever under President Eliot, and, boom, out goes character formation as the goal of a college education and in comes learning and scholarship. The explosion of knowledge in the 2nd half of the 19th century put to bed any idea that a student could come out in four years with a grasp on the totality of knowledge, which meant that some things had to be left out, which eventually led to the ideas of majors and electives and to the formation of distinct academic disciplines.
If we use Williams nomenclature and say that knowledge was being divided into divisions 1,2 and 3, then 2 and 3 were prospering in the new world thanks to their use of the scientific method. Div 1, however, doesn’t use the method, so it had to pay its way in this new world by continuing to talk about the purpose and value of human life. What separated these new humanists from the Mark Hopkins type? Well, each believed there is a common human nature, but the secularists:
1) Thought that a common human nature did not preclude pluralistic beliefs about the meaning of life.
2) Thought that human nature, though open and malleable, still followed a discrete number of life paths (warrior, artist, priest, etc) and that these paths could be studied.
3) Thought that transcendence could no longer chalked up to the supernatural, but to rather Platonic values that were larger than any one person.
The great conversation among western thinkers, from Biblical to current time is essentially how each person was trying to sort out how their lives and thoughts related to these timeless values. Unfortunately, while the age of secular humanism was advancing, forces were gathering that led to Phase 3, The Death of the Dead White Male (my terminology, not Dr. Kronman’s)
In Phase 3, the Great Conversation itself is attacked as the limits it proscribes: a singular core human nature, a limited number of patterns to human life, and an elite, though slowly growing canon, are held up as illusory and masked expressions of power used to marginalize other cultures and ideals. This, accompanied by the spread of the research ideal from the sciences into the humanities, sounded the death knell for the search for life’s meaning in the humanities department. Chapters 3 and 4 will go into this in far more detail.
I would have liked Dr. Kronman to spend a bit of time talking about how this change in higher ed mirrored the economic changes going on in the country as a whole, since Phase 1 to Phase 2 rather neatly follows the model of artisan/apprentice work in antebellum America to the rise of the factory and mass production in the second half of the 19th century and Phase 2 to Phase 3 from mass production/consumption to customized production/consumption in the second half of the twentieth century. Were the humanities just following the money?
The sound you hear is an Eph’s heart breaking
Hers is the face that launched a thousand blog posts, drawn rapturous praise from Rush Limbaugh and drew the ire of George Bush supporters by referring to him as a slightly less evolved mammal. Yet, through all these times, including her unfortunate Wish list in Men’s Health, there has always been one place EB could come for a digital hug and pat on the head. Alas, she may have now gone beyond the pale even here. Two words: Donald Trump. EB, time for the dreaded five words, Where is this relationship going?
Young. Smart. Sexy
“A new breed of broadcaster is taking the airwaves by storm.”
Thirty-five years ago, Rolling Stone writer Timothy Crouse released his best-selling book The Boys on the Bus, glorifying and skewering the small group of all-male road warrior-journalists who covered the 1972 Nixon-McGovern presidential campaign.
My how things have changed.
The revolution of a 24/7 news cycle, coupled with the explosion of cable news channels, has shifted the power and electricity from print to TV. Those boys on the bus now have a backseat — to the women of cable TV.
Men haven’t entirely disappeared from the picture. There’s Blitzer, Hannity, Olbermann and Matthews on cable and the three grandfatherly figures anchoring the evening network newscasts.
But from sun-up to sundown, the national anchor desks are dominated by women — highly educated young pros with the gift of gab, who duke it out with pundits, grill candidates, chew over the polls, and size up the races for millions of viewers. And if they show a little leg while doing it, so be it.
Mika Brzezinski’s ‘89 refusal to report the news on Paris Hilton is mentioned.
Hank Payne: Some Remembrances
A very nice obituary was published on Hank Payne in The Boston Globe over the weekend. The part I liked was the fact that he had started taking piano lessons:
“He had this sort of infectious desire to learn that manifested itself in him, and by example in other people,” Johnson said. “I tell people he’s the kind of person who takes piano lessons at 59. He took up piano lessons just like a first-grader. I told that at the graveside service, and a woman walked up after and said: ‘I want to introduce myself. I’m the piano teacher.’ I said, “Was he doing well? And she said, ‘Very well.’ “
Another nice comment was:
“He would have a national search [at Woodward Academy] and could get the very best,” he said. “People would come from wherever they were because they wanted to work for Hank Payne. People loved to work for him because they learned so much, and they loved to work for him because he had such a light touch in terms of management style.”
Other comments I’ve seen over the past several days include:
Nancy McIntire said, “He was a wonderful boss. I liked working with him a lot. He was very accessible. He had a wonderful sense of humor. And he was very, very smart.”
‘Here is this bright, funny, thoughtful guy, great job, broad interests, lovely family; he’s got everything going for him,’ ” said Jane Leavey, the Breman Museum’s executive director.
“I tell people I never in my life met anybody who was that smart who was as modest, self-effacing, fun,” said Johnson, the managing partner of the law firm Alston & Bird.
Cluster Cup Update
There are many Cluster Cup events this week-end. Has anyone participated? How has attendance been? Reports from the scene are always appreciated. My prediction that the Cluster Cup competition is doomed to failure remains unchanged.
Homophobiaphobia
Reason #107 why I miss hanging around Williams during Winter Study.
My sophomore year ACE organized a Dating Week during Winter Study and I can honestly say that was when I started to seriously consider transferring.
My two favorite parts of dating week both involved accusations of me being homophobic:
1. Finding couples for our “kissing lecture” and having our bisexual boy insist on bringing both a male and a female partner so he could make out with both. Last time I checked, bisexual doesn’t mean you get to make out with two people at once…
2. Having the school chaplain tell me that the posters for our “Snow Ball” used homophobic clip art because the couple dancing was heterosexual.
Ah, Rick Spalding. I wonder what sort of clip art he would have found acceptable?
Stories Wanted
I am coming to Williams next week-end to interview intern candidates and give a talk on Saturday at 4:00 PM in Brooks-Rogers on “How to Make Williams the Best College in the World.” More on that later. I need your help. As part of the talk, I want to tell a few stories about outstanding Williams professors and how they have affected students’ lives, mostly in the context of their intellectual growth. So, tell me some (true!) stories, perhaps like the ones that I told about professors Lipton and Burns.
Vincent Op-ed
Thought that Herb Allen’s ‘62 op-ed was the worst by an Eph in December? Perhaps. But Fay Vincent’s ‘60 effort in the Wall Street Journal is almost as bad. (Previous discussion here.) Endless rant follows.
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Williams vs. Amherst: Hoops Edition
As much hype as College GameDay provided for Williams-Amherst football, the schools have an even better men’s basketball rivalry: unlike in football, each is often a national championship contender featuring one or more Division-I caliber players, and the rivalry is dead-even. Consider:
Williams vs. Amherst all-time favors Williams 111-83. But since 1996, Williams’ overall record vs. Amherst: 14-18. Amherst has the edge overall during that time period, but Williams has the edge in big games: 3-0 in NCAA tourney play, and 3-2 in NESCAC tourney games (including 3-0 in NESCAC title games).
The two teams have combined since 1996 for seven final four appearances (Williams with four, Amherst three), two national titles, three national coach of the year awards, two national player of the year awards (former Eph Mike Nogelo ‘98 and current Jeff point guard Andrew Olson ‘08), one win at Division I Holy Cross, the Division III record for consecutive home court wins, and all seven NESCAC tournament wins (Amherst with four, Williams three) (the tourney started in 2001).
Williams has not won a regular season game at Amherst since 1996. Williams has won two NESCAC tournament games against the ‘herst on its home court during that period, including last year’s dramatic upset over a Jeffs squad that went on to win the National Championship. You can see that game here and read about it in Tim Layden’s great SI.com article.
For a taste of the drama that is Williams-Amherst, listen to this clip from D3hoops.com announcers of a game that Williams eventually won in overtime. That same Williams team went on to beat Amherst in the Final Four.
This year, defending NESCAC champion Williams is 12-0 and ranked fourth in the country. Defending national champion Amherst’s 9-2 record is deceptive: the two losses came against number two Brandeis and a non-Division III team; hence Amherst is ranked just above Williams, at third. The men’s game is at 4:00 on Saturday, following the women’s game which is at 2:00.
The women’s game also features an interesting story line: Amherst women have not beaten Williams since 2001 (giving Williams a 14 game winning streak vs. the Jeffs), but Amherst enters this game undefeated, and they are favored to break their streak against a very young Williams squad that starts two first-years. The Eph women lead the all-time rivalry 41-20.
You can listen to the games here. Go Ephs.
Updated 1/11/08. Thanks to an interested Eph fan who emailed me some additional information as well as a correction!
Weekly Erin Burnett update: Brave journalist under fire for telling the truth
The New York Post reports higher-ups at CNBC are shocked, SHOCKED that Erin Burnett ‘98 would admit to liking nice things, fancy trips, and rich men:
In the jaw-dropping piece, first revealed on this page Monday, Burnett says guys can “unlock” her heart by giving her round-trip, business-class tickets to Australia and New Zealand, sending a yoga instructor and personal chef to her apartment, and treating her and her sisters to a long-weekend spa getaway, among other suggestions.
“This has caused a lot of hand-wringing at the network,” an insider told us, suggesting Burnett comes off as a trite, gold-digging hussy. “There’s worry she’s damaged her brand. Everybody’s talking about it and asking, like, ‘Why did you do this?’ Everybody think it’s a major [bleep]-up.’ “
And, of course, this is just as bad as a conflicted journalist taking advantage of corporate perks at shareholder expense:
Burnett’s boo-boo takes even more heat off Bartiromo, who last year survived an ethics scandal over globetrotting on Citigroup’s private jet with its then-wealth-management chief Todd Thomson, who later got the ax. She also had animal-rights activists screeching for posing in a $3,695 Michael Kors wool coat and gushing about its fluffy fox-fur cuffs.
Our source said: “For the moment it looks like Maria’s off the hook. Erin’s the problem child now.”
Blatt ‘85 on Chapter 1
Dan Blatt ‘85 provides the following discussion of Chapter 1 of Education’s End as part of our CGCL. Note that this discussion is an new version of Dan’s original post on the book.
When I graduated from Williams, I was determined to pursue a Ph.D in Comparative Literature, hoping to expose myself to the best of European & American literature so that I might teach students to appreciate great books where they could find insights to guild them in their lives’ journeys. Not only that, I hoped to write about literature, showing how those great writers of the past addressed themes that we confront in our lives today.
Inspired by such Williams professors as Kurt Tauber (Political Science), George Pistorius (French), Lisa H. Wright (English), Gail Newman (German) and Anson Piper (Romance Languages), I saw the profession of university teaching as one where a scholar helps students relate literature to their own lives. These works would, I hoped, remind students that there is more to life, to quote my favorite poet, than “getting and spending.” They would see the study of literature as a life-long avocation, something to pursue alongside their professional endeavors.
I abandoned my study of literature for a great variety of reasons, notably because I became increasingly aware that graduate programs in the humanities were increasingly replacing study of the great works or literature themselves with a focus on criticism. Professors of literature scoffed at the notion that the books under study were any more than texts, with some even dismissing the notion of their greatness.
As I made that decision, I recalled how Lisa Wright, well aware of my passion for literature (it was she who had seen the spark in my eye when we studied Beowulf in English 301), had reminded me that literary scholarship often had little to do with passion. During my senior year, she had directed me to the section of Sawyer Library where the literary journals were shelved, telling me to familiarize myself with their contents.
And those journals frequently contained dry articles, frequently addressed obscure points in the works of literature under consideration or tried to relate them to the latest literary fad, where that fad’s jargon seemed more important than the contents of the various literary works.
My love for literature and ideas would not leave me. Just over three years ago, I decided to study mythology at Pacifica Graduate Institute because that quirky program seemed less focused on criticism and more devoted to studying ancient stories and rituals and considering their real-world meaning. I’m just now beginning work on my dissertation where I intend to explore how understanding the role of the goddess Athena in the lives of Greek heroes can help men realize the importance of the non-sexual feminine in their own lives.
Given this appreciation of literature and myth, this belief that this great stories can help us lead rich and more fulfilling lives, it’s no wonder I ordered Anthony Kronman’s Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life soon after reading upon it on Instapundit. The very title encapsulated the primary reasons behind the decision I made not to pursue a Ph.D. in Literature.
When I received the book, I was delighted to discover that Kronman is an Ephman. While an undergraduate he too had a professor, Nathaniel Lawrence (Philosophy) who led animated discussions where they considered important questions about life. But, as Kronman pursued his own career in academia, as a professor and dean at Yale Law School, he found the question of life’s meaning
exiled from the humanities, first as a result of the growing authority of the modern research ideal and then on account of the culture of political correctness that has undermined the legitimacy of the question itself and the authority of humanity’s teachers to ask it. I have felt puzzlement and anger at the easy sweeping aside of values that seem to me so obvious and important. And watching these developments, I have been moved to wonder about their causes and consequences and the likelihood of a cure.
In his book, he explores just that. And I found myself nodding my head in agreement with many of his observations. While coming from a different political background than I (he had volunteered for the left-wing Students for a Democratic Society in college; I had served as state president of the College Republicans), he had reached the same conclusion about the state of the humanities in colleges and universities as had I.
Proof that the humanities can serve to bring together people with different political views, even different backgrounds as they remind us of our common humanity.
Inexplicable
Hank Payne’s death on Monday was a suicide.
Woodward Academy president Hank Payne wrote a suicide note before taking his life Monday afternoon, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday morning.
The note was left in his eighth-floor Midtown hotel room before he jumped to his death, said Investigator Tami Schroder, who would not disclose the letter’s contents.
Payne’s death came only hours after he gave a rousing speech at a faculty and staff luncheon to kick off 2008 at the College Park school. Ben Johnson, a close friend and the school’s chairman of the board, said Tuesday that “I’ve never seen him more upbeat.”
The death has shocked and saddened the community of the prestigious school.
Said Johnson, “It is as close to totally inexplicable as anything I’ve ever dealt with.”
The Eagle provides more background on Payne’s time at Williams.
While Payne was at Williams, construction began on the college’s $45 million science center project, planning started on the ‘62 Center for Theatre and Dance, and a new student center opened in Goodrich Hall. He also initiated three major planning processes focusing on the curriculum, on student life outside the classroom and on the college’s major financial priorities, according to the college.
In 2000, Williams College renamed the Great Hall in Goodrich the Harry C. Payne Hall. He also is commemorated with the Harry C. Payne Williams College Professorship in the Liberal Arts, designed to promote and support interdisciplinary teaching and research.
Condolences to all.
Payne, RIP
Former Williams President Hank Payne died yesterday.
Students at Woodward Academy in College Park returned from winter break Tuesday to news that the private school’s president, Harry C. “Hank” Payne, had died on Monday.
Payne, 60, was found dead Monday afternoon in Midtown Atlanta. The cause of death was being investigated by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office.
His death was announced on the Woodward Academy web site.
“The school has flourished over the past seven years under Dr. Payne’s leadership,” the note on the Web site reads. “We have become a community in every sense. Now our community faces the most difficult of tasks — to mourn a great man, a visionary leader and a loyal friend.”
Payne was named president of Woodward in July 2000 after serving as president of Williams College in Massachusetts from 1994 to 1999.
I met Payne only once, at the class of 1988’s 10th year reunion. Judging from Record coverage at the time, he was doing a fine job. I congratulated him on his performance as president. He graciously acknowledged the compliment while pointing out the working at Williams was “easy duty.” Indeed. While President Payne’s time at Williams ended on an awkward note, with the faculty and town in open revolt over the proposed new theatre, there can be no doubt that he loved Williams and served her well.
Condolences to all.
White on the Introduction
Professor Alan White provides this discussion of the Introduction (pdf) for Education’s End by Anthony Kronman ‘68. Today is the first meeting of our CGCL. The next meeting will be Thursday. Let the conversation begin!
I suggest the following questions for the ephblog discussion of Kronman’s Introduction:
(1) Must life have a meaning? Or might it be that life has no meaning, but lives can and perhaps even must have meanings?
(2) What could it mean to lead “a life with no meaning at all” (3)?
(3) Does living a meaningful life presuppose that there be an answer to “the question what living is for”?
(4) Assume that I am among the “people [who] make discoveries that help them to say, ‘My life has a value I recognize and cherish’” (6); does it follow that my life is meaningful, in any important sense?
(5) Assume that life has no meaning; does it follow that it is not worth living?
(6) Was the question of life’s meaning once central to the humanities? What evidence supports the thesis that it once was?
(7) What are “the humanities”?
At Williams, we don’t have them. Our divisions are I. Literature and the Arts, II. Social Studies, and III. Science and Mathematics. Somewhat paradoxically, we classify Political Science and Cognitive Science as Social Studies, and Maritime Studies and Environmental Studies under Science and Mathematics (that we have Social Studies, plural, but Science, singular, is also interesting – as is the fact that Math isn’t a science, but Computer Science is). When I was an undergrad at Tulane, Math was in the Humanities division. (For the basis of an argument that philosophy, as the universal science, has a transdivisional status, see here.)
(7) What does it mean to have the “authority to lead the search for an answer to the question of life’s purpose and value” (8)? Is this the same “authority” that “our churches now monopolize” (7)? If not, how do the two differ?
(8) Are great philosophical works best described as “great works of … philosophical imagination” (6)? Are there no great works of philosophical reason – or, if there are, are they less deserving of “careful but critical reading”?
(9) Should “the exploration of life’s mystery and meaning through the careful but critical of the great works of literary and philosophical imagination” be restricted to those works “that we have inherited from the past”? If so, how old should works have to be in order to qualify as “past”?
Thanks to Professor White for this contribution.
Comments:
1) The Introduction (linked to above) provides a good overview of Kronman’s argument. Even if you don’t have time to read the whole book, you will find those 8 pages interesting, not least for their specific mentions of Williams. Perhaps an even better overview of the book is this interview with Kronman.
2) My initial thoughts, based on just the publishers description, are here.
Fish on Kronman
Our 4th annual Winter Study seminar starts tomorrow. Because EphBlog is at the center of the media universe, we arranged for Stanley Fish to write in yesterday’s New York Times about Education’s End. (Thanks to Professor Stephen Fix for the reference. Although the press of Williams business keeps Steve from being a discussant during the seminar, we hope that he will keep an eye on our conversation over the next few weeks.)
At one time justification of the arts and humanities was unnecessary because, as Anthony Kronman puts it in a new book, “Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life,” it was assumed that “a college was above all a place for the training of character, for the nurturing of those intellectual and moral habits that together from the basis for living the best life one can.” It followed that the realization of this goal required an immersion in the great texts of literature, philosophy and history even to the extent of memorizing them, for “to acquire a text by memory is to fix in one’s mind the image and example of the author and his subject.”
It is to a version of this old ideal that Kronman would have us return, not because of a professional investment in the humanities (he is a professor of law and a former dean of the Yale Law School), but because he believes that only the humanities can address “the crisis of spirit we now confront” and “restore the wonder which those who have glimpsed the human condition have always felt, and which our scientific civilization, with its gadgets and discoveries, obscures.”
As this last quotation makes clear, Kronman is not so much mounting a defense of the humanities as he is mounting an attack on everything else. Other spokespersons for the humanities argue for their utility by connecting them (in largely unconvincing ways) to the goals of science, technology and the building of careers. Kronman, however, identifies science, technology and careerism as impediments to living a life with meaning. The real enemies, he declares, are “the careerism that distracts from life as a whole” and “the blind acceptance of science and technology that disguise and deny our human condition.” These false idols, he says, block the way to understanding. We must turn to the humanities if we are to “meet the need for meaning in an age of vast but pointless powers,” for only the humanities can help us recover the urgency of “the question of what living is for.”
The humanities do this, Kronman explains, by exposing students to “a range of texts that express with matchless power a number of competing answers to this question.” In the course of this program – Kronman calls it “secular humanism” – students will be moved “to consider which alternatives lie closest to their own evolving sense of self.” As they survey “the different ways of living that have been held up by different authors,” they will be encouraged “to enter as deeply as they can into the experiences, ideas, and values that give each its permanent appeal.” And not only would such a “revitalized humanism” contribute to the growth of the self, it “would put the conventional pieties of our moral and political world in question” and “bring what is hidden into the open – the highest goal of the humanities and the first responsibility of every teacher.”
Here then is a justification of the humanities that is neither strained (reading poetry contributes to the state’s bottom line) nor crassly careerist. It is a stirring vision that promises the highest reward to those who respond to it. Entering into a conversation with the great authors of the western tradition holds out the prospect of experiencing “a kind of immortality” and achieving “a position immune to the corrupting powers of time.”
Sounds great, but I have my doubts. Does it really work that way? Do the humanities ennoble? And for that matter, is it the business of the humanities, or of any other area of academic study, to save us?
Good questions! See the rest for Fish’s answers. Join us at EphBlog for continuing conversation.
Thanks for your generosity
A few months ago, Jonathan Landsman posted a nice tribute and request for donations to thank me for all of my Photo IDs and other Williams photos. Jonathan’s idea was to give me a “pro” account at flickr so that I could upload all of my pictures and have more flexibility in organizing and storing them, and possibly also allow me to get other photography equipment. Thanks to readers’ generous gifts, I now have a pro account and enough money to renew this account in the future (it is $25 a year).
I have been working on uploading all of my Williams photos to flickr. When I upload them, I can give them tags, which describe what is in them. Here are some that might interest you (you may have seen some of the photos before if you are a frequent EphBlog reader):
EphBlog, Williams, Track, Student Center, Williams-Mystic, Photography winter study class. Here is a list of all my tags.I am working on uploading all of my Williams pictures. Some of the categories are woefully incomplete right now, especially the running ones — I have hundreds of running pictures, of which only a tiny fraction are on flickr. I think I have put up all of my EphBlog pictures and scenic pictures of Williamstown, which you can access from the links above.
What to do with the rest of the money? I was planning to pool it with some of my own in order to buy myself a camera — the camera I have been using belonged to my parents and I knew I was going to have to give it back to them this vacation. But then for Christmas, they gave me a wicked awesome camera all my own. So now I don’t need a camera. And I received 3 GB of memory cards, so that should be enough. Thus, I am planning to use the rest of the money to buy:
1. A tripod. As in this picture of the Congo church, readers pitied me for lying on the ground to take nighttime pictures, and suggested EphBlog could provide me with a tripod. This may occur.
2. More years of being a pro on flickr. If I fail to renew my pro account, I can only see my most recent 200 pictures. This would be sad. I will probably pay flickr $25 a year from now on, and it makes sense for this money to come from EphBlog for a few years after I graduate, as long as I keep posting pictures of Williams and occasionally link from EphBlog to those pictures.
I’ll let you know when I have a full set of photos up, and when I spend more of the money. Thanks again, everyone.
Happy Birthday
EphBlog is five years old today. Happy Birthday to us!
Working for The Man
Professor Shanti Singham supports Obama?!
The NH primary is on Tuesday. I spoke to Shanti Singham, who is working for Obama, and she is looking for students to go up there for one or two days this weekend or early next week.
I am shocked by this news. Oh, and isn’t Professor Sam Crane always telling me that I don’t need to worry about professor “proselytizing” students? Indeed, he is. So, Singham is “looking” for students to go campaign for Obama. What, exactly, would she have to do to meet Sam’s definition of proselytizing? Just asking!
Now, to be fair, this is mostly New Years snark. I love it that engaged and engaging professors like Singham teach at Williams. The College needs more professors like Singham, not fewer. And it is a good thing that a professor would invite students to go with her, campaigning or anywhere else. The more time that students spend with professors, in Williamstown or elsewhere, the better.
The problem, as always, is that there are no Williams professors campaigning (or event supporting?) anyone on the Republican side. Looking to go to NH and work for Thompson? Sorry. You are out of luck. Williams does not value ideological diversity among its faculty. This is just the latest example.
Not Easy With
Reason #137 was Professor Ralph Bradburd is a credit to Williams.
Econ 110
For some sections: there are daily homework assignments, but you can actually complete them during the class that it’s due. You’ll probably have time to finish the next day’s assignment, too. There were no projects or papers; just a mid-term and final exam.Estimated weekly workload: 0-2 hours
Mandatory attendance? NoNot easy with Ralph Bradburd.
Great stuff! It is safe to say that Professor Bradburd is no fan of my writing at EphBlog. I, however, was a fan of the rigor that he brough to ECON 251 20 years ago and the seriousness with which he teaches students today. Good classes are never easy.
Home School
Publishing house St Martins is about to release the novel Home School by Charles Webb ‘61, a sequel to his autobiographical tale The Graduate, which he wrote during his time at Williams. Although that early novel was made into a classic film, Webb received only $20,000 for both the film rights and the future film rights to the characters, and he has had a hard life since then:
In April 2006, Jack Malvern, a reporter for the London Times, tracked Webb down to Hove, in Sussex, England. He discovered that Webb, at 66, was about to be evicted from his apartment and that he had written a sequel to “The Graduate” but was reluctant to publish it because the film rights to the characters were owned by Canal Plus. Sidey, an editor at Hutchinson Books in London, immediately reached out to Webb, and within a month a deal was in place. “I read about his plight, and I tracked him down,” Sidey said, adding, “It is very easy for people of quality to slip through the cracks, especially in publishing.” The book is dedicated to Malvern.
The reports on Webb’s life read like a cautionary tale of early success — he has moved almost constantly during his adult life, he has held a series of menial jobs to support himself, he’s been homeless to the point that the check for his advance for “Home School” was mailed to him at a Salvation Army shelter, and he is still in debt while caring for his lifelong partner, who recently suffered a nervous breakdown. Despite the easygoing charm of his novels, one expects to meet a shivering wreck.
Instead, the living sequel to “The Graduate” greeted me not long ago at the train station at Eastbourne, a small town on the south coast of England. At 68, Webb is tall, thin and elegant, with a full head of gray hair, the picture of Southern California languid bonhomie set amid the drizzle and overcast skies of small town Britain. Gulls were flying overhead, the only sign that we were near the sea.
He asked if we could run an errand before talking, and we walked to the local supermarket where he spent $3 on produce (a sweet potato, broccoli and two apples) before calling for a taxi. He talked for a while about a play he is writing, concerning a celebrity journalist who slowly discovers that artists are the minority. He asked about virtual reality and second sight. We taxied to his current home, an old-age hostel of sorts.
Webb explained that the place has been a great help to him and his lifelong partner, a woman named Fred. “It’s a lot like a college dorm, except people keep dying here. Two people have died in the last 10 days,” he said with a shrug. He left me in the communal area — a row of a dozen electric wheelchairs lines one wall — to check on Fred. He came back down to tell me she was not feeling well enough for visitors today. Then he mentioned sunnily that he was wearing his “dead man walking jacket,” an item he recently received from a “deceased farmer.”
It’s a perfectly pleasant and friendly facility, but one can’t imagine Mike Nichols or Dustin Hoffman or Buck Henry even making a movie here, let alone residing here. The fact remains that the film version of “The Graduate” made over $120 million, that Webb received a flat fee of $20,000 for the rights to his book and his characters (in perpetuity) and an additional $10,000 after the initial success. And reading the original novel of “The Graduate,” it is striking to see how much of the novel’s dialogue ended up in the screenplay. Indelicate though it may be, surely he must at times wonder where his mansion is.
Nananana
Chap Petersen’s ‘90 top ten list of movies does not include Caddyshack!?! Surely this is a simple oversight, caused by the rigors of his recent (and successful) election campaign . . .
Way to an Eph’s heart
As a practical follow-up to David’s exhortation, Bess Levin (Amherst ‘07) at DealBreaker summarizes how to woo Erin Burnett (Williams ‘98):
1. Buy me a vacation.
2. Let me pick a vacation, and then buy it for me.
3. Buy my parents a vacation.
4. Buy me a yoga instructor.
5. Buy me an expensive stationary bike.
6. Buy me a couple of famous authors to dine with (simultaneously).
7. Buy me a personal chef.
8. Buy me a vacation.
In case you’re interested, you can read Erin’s original list. And here’s Bess in a more forgiving mood:
There comes a time in every Amherst student’s life when she must put aside the feelings of hate that stir in her body for the vile weed that is Williams College and say, in the face of Williams alum Erin Burnett: this chick is hot.
And as a Williams grad, I must admit that Amherst alum Bess Levin is probably the funniest writer in the financial world. Here is a marvelous interview with Ms. Levin.
No Country for Old Men?
We’ll see, as I try my first post to this new world.
OK! The Post tool bar beats blogger.
I am now trying out some of the choices available.
and here’s my ee cummings
buffalo bill’s defunct
(first poem analyzed in then new method.
george steiner and his green harvard book bag went on to bigger things.)
NoK. I don’t see how to get rid of double spacing.Old Guy feels uncomfortable doing a direct post without the benefit of preview. Saved for editing saves but with formatting gone when I re-open. But apparently must do this to get Preview. But Preview command fails to connect, so I am still flying blind. However, single spacing has appeared in this para and I have no idea why.Yeah, I know this is about as interesting as owl shit to be reading This Boy’s Big Adventure in Blogging.But for those who wonder what getting old is about, I think, I hope, I’m going attempt to post a picture or two:
At the former Saint House untitled-1copy.jpg Kirt Gardiner leads the parade!HELP - this is too hard for me! I can upload pix from my computer following instructions but insert in text seems to be hit-or-miss with pix going between insert and edit with no apparent results. And I never found the menu for positioning pictures mentioned in Help (Yes, I actually went to Help). And I had really wanted to get sombodys goat by juxtapositioning these two pictures:gwb.jpg crash_test_dummy2.jpg The moment of truth as I click on Publish. Dave, it may be harder to do some tricky posting for those of us in the Old Guard. Meandering in Hood River, Dick Swart
In honor of love and the Iowa Caucus
Since true love and politics seem to be the order of the day, here is an interview I did with Margaret Hogan of the Massachusetts Historical Society about the letters of Abigail and John Adams, both of whom had the misfortune of living before the founding of Williams, thus banishing John to that school at the other end of Route 2.
