"The notion that books may so broaden and deepen one's knowledge of life, and so sharpens one's perceptions, that he can live more wisely and judge more intelligently, has dropped out of...to a large extent, out of Victorian, in fact the modern, mind." -- The Victorian Frame of Mind, Walter E. Houghton, 1957, p. 119. (Extracts from recent readings. Photo at sunset atop a Mt Scopus building.)
Thursday, October 24, 2013
professionalizing sub specie scientiae
"In the nineteenth-century colleges the study of society belonged to the benign amateurs who were not intimidated by cosmic questions or their own ignorance. The narrow competence and specialization of the economists, historians, political scientists, and others who took their places deflected the classroom from advocacy and conspicuous moral judgment to a style that bore the approved description -- 'scientific,' a style that was objective, cautious, and wary of judgment."
-- Curriculum: A History of the American Undergraduate Course of Study Since 1636, Frederick Rudolf, 1977, p. 156.
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