{"title":"A College Fetich?","authors":"E. Adler","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197518786.003.0004","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"For part of Harvard’s graduation ceremony of 1883, Charles Francis Adams, Jr., delivered a fiery address lambasting the college for its continued insistence on ancient Greek as part of its admission examinations. This chapter analyses Adams’s speech and the spirited reactions it engendered. It probes the arguments proponents of the classical humanities made for their subject during this consequential debate over the shape and purpose of the nation’s higher education. The chapter demonstrates that skills-based arguments dominated the appeals offered by supporters of collegiate requirements in ancient Greek. Almost entirely failing to invoke the tenets of humanism, such supporters anchored their apologetics in the concept of “mental discipline.” Their opponents, sensing the weaknesses of these appeals, ably countered this defense. At a crucial point in time for the classical humanities in American higher learning, skills-based rationales proved a dismal failure.","PeriodicalId":107188,"journal":{"name":"The Battle of the Classics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2020-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"The Battle of the Classics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197518786.003.0004","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
For part of Harvard’s graduation ceremony of 1883, Charles Francis Adams, Jr., delivered a fiery address lambasting the college for its continued insistence on ancient Greek as part of its admission examinations. This chapter analyses Adams’s speech and the spirited reactions it engendered. It probes the arguments proponents of the classical humanities made for their subject during this consequential debate over the shape and purpose of the nation’s higher education. The chapter demonstrates that skills-based arguments dominated the appeals offered by supporters of collegiate requirements in ancient Greek. Almost entirely failing to invoke the tenets of humanism, such supporters anchored their apologetics in the concept of “mental discipline.” Their opponents, sensing the weaknesses of these appeals, ably countered this defense. At a crucial point in time for the classical humanities in American higher learning, skills-based rationales proved a dismal failure.
1883年哈佛大学毕业典礼上,小查尔斯·弗朗西斯·亚当斯(Charles Francis Adams, Jr.)发表了一篇言辞激烈的演讲,猛烈抨击哈佛大学继续坚持将古希腊语作为入学考试的一部分。本章分析了亚当斯的演讲及其引起的热烈反响。它探讨了古典人文学科的支持者在这场关于国家高等教育的形式和目的的重要辩论中为他们的学科所做的论证。这一章表明,在古希腊,以技能为基础的论点主导了大学入学要求支持者的诉求。这些支持者几乎完全没有援引人文主义的原则,而是将他们的辩护锚定在“精神纪律”的概念上。他们的对手意识到这些诉求的弱点,巧妙地反击了这种辩护。在美国高等教育中古典人文学科的关键时刻,以技能为基础的理论被证明是一个可悲的失败。