Classical Education Needs a Better Defense

As a professor of the classical liberal arts, I began reading Bob Pepperman Taylor’s new book, Liberal Education and Democracy, with interest. Taylor, who teaches law and politics at the University of Vermont, surveys a wide range of thought leaders, describing their foundational ideas in detail. One notable example is Taylor’s paraphrasing of Michael Oakeshott: “Liberal learning is learning to understand and perhaps even participate in a conversation that transcends a particular moment, a conversation that reflects on the human condition from a wide variety of times, places, and perspectives.” That’s well said.

Taylor’s thesis begins with liberal-arts authors and then quickly expands to the relationship between liberal-arts education and society. He argues that this relationship is “essential, intimate, complex, and fraught. […] Liberal learning frequently and inevitably finds itself in tension with the common sense of democracy. […] Liberal learning promotes individual freedom but democracy promotes the will and interests of majorities.”

Taylor’s thesis begins with liberal-arts authors and then quickly expands to the relationship between liberal-arts education and society. The trouble is that Taylor’s definition ultimately obscures the distinctive purpose of the classical liberal arts: the cultivation of independent thought.

This tension Taylor refers to, between individual freedom and the pressure to accept commonly held beliefs, has been debated for centuries. Tocqueville recognized the same dilemma when he visited the United States in the early 1800s. However, Tocqueville went further, warning that routine conformity to majority views is undesirable. Writing in Democracy in America, he stated, “You can predict that faith in common opinion will become a sort of religion whose prophet will be the majority. […] I see very clearly in equality two tendencies: one that leads the mind of each man toward new thoughts and the other that readily reduces him to thinking no more.”

The trouble is that Taylor’s definition ultimately obscures the distinctive purpose of the classical liberal arts: the cultivation of independent thought. Each of Taylor’s chapters is divided roughly in two. The first section covers various authors with a discussion of their works. Initially, Taylor refers to classical-liberal-arts writers, but he gradually introduces other thought leaders, such as John Dewey, who have never been considered part of the liberal arts.

By “classical liberal arts,” I refer to the traditional study of disciplines aimed at cultivating reason: history, literature, rhetoric, philosophy, and engagement with primary texts. Taylor, by contrast, uses “liberal education” in a far broader sense, encompassing nearly all modern academic fields, including vocational and technical training and all sciences and STEM subjects. In doing so, he removes any meaningful distinction between the liberal arts and other forms of education.

The remaining portion of each chapter is where Taylor establishes his own views on education, as well as his conclusions concerning an individual’s education in contrast with the will of society. In these latter sections, it becomes apparent that Taylor’s term “liberal education” is much more aligned with modern progressive education, with its emphasis on social awareness and deference to expert opinions, than with the classical-liberal-arts tradition.

One example is his advocacy that society should look to his expert class, college professors, for guidance on contemporary issues: “How can we expect our own citizens today to be responsible if they know nothing about Islam, or about contemporary China, or about the effect of climate change on the political stability of the developing world?” Taylor appears much more concerned with pressuring students to conform rather than with teaching them to reason through current issues for themselves.

At times, Taylor devotes significant attention to disparaging political opponents rather than engaging their arguments in depth. In doing so, he echoes what many critics identify as a central problem in modern universities today: hostility to both traditional values and mainstream religious or cultural views.

Although Taylor is calling all education “liberal” and encouraging deference to expert positions, these are not typical classical-liberal-arts positions. Acquiring uniquely liberal-arts skills, such as analyzing complex problems and using sound reasoning, gives students the tools they need to subsequently look at current events and decide for themselves where they stand.

My late colleague Gordon Jones, a founding trustee of John Adams College, which teaches in the classical-liberal-arts tradition, taught the importance of respecting students enough to allow them to choose for themselves:

I taught Political Science for many years. I provided information on the structure of the U.S. government, and shared with my students my knowledge of how it works in both theory and practice. Invariably, towards the end of the semester, a student would come up to me and ask me what my political affiliation was. My response was always, “If you cannot tell from what I have said in class, then I have done it right.”

A liberal-arts education prepares students to think independently and evaluate evidence with care. Equipped with these strengths, they can form reasoned judgments grounded in analysis rather than emotion or the beliefs of others.

Recent campus controversies provide clear examples of how quickly students can adopt prevailing views without careful examination. At their core, the classical liberal arts aim at the discovery of enduring truths. Students pursue this goal through Socratic discussion with others engaged in the same inquiry, testing ideas and refining their understanding. Close reading of original texts, combined with sustained dialogue, develops essential intellectual skills—critical thinking, clear communication, thoughtful problem-solving—and deepens their understanding of human nature.

A classical-liberal-arts education is the education that ensures that freedom in our democracy is maintained. In this respect, Taylor’s emphasis on regard for expert opinion risks reinforcing the very tendency Tocqueville warned against. Rather than fostering independent thought, this approach risks encouraging conformity. The presence of freedom means choices—and differences—will necessarily exist. Studying all sides of an issue along with thoughtful class discussions helps train students to make wise, reasoned choices on their own. This is the only way to ensure the next generation will know how to maintain freedom under the intense pressure to conform. As Michael Oakeshott taught, the liberal arts are to teach general principles that “transcend a particular moment” and should apply to a “wide variety of times, places, and perspectives.”

Recent campus controversies provide clear examples of how quickly students can adopt prevailing views without careful examination. Those students who have been taught to reason wisely and thoughtfully through their liberal-arts education will search for facts amidst the emotionally charged arguments. They are cultivating the ability to discern truth from error and will not immediately jump on the bandwagon with all their peers. A classical-liberal-arts education is the education that ensures that freedom in our democracy is maintained.

After deciphering Taylor’s various definitions, equivocations, ambiguities, and indignations at those who disagree with him, I returned to his account of Socrates’ trial and how Socrates described his accusers: “‘I do not know what effect my accusers have had upon you, gentlemen, but for my own part I was almost carried away by them; their arguments were so convincing. On the other hand, scarcely a word of what they said was true.’”

To recognize truth and be able to act upon it is the purpose of a classical-liberal-arts education in a nutshell. Rather than accepting an overly expansive definition of “liberal education,” students should return to the primary sources themselves. Only through that process can they cultivate the intellectual independence the classical liberal arts were designed to form.

Jennifer Jensen, Ph.D., is a founding trustee and president of John Adams College in Provo, Utah, where she and her colleagues educate their students in the classical-liberal-arts tradition.