This is a good article! Its actual title leaves something to be desired.
Against Academentia
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8 responses to “Against Academentia”
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Yes, a very good article!
A couple of snippets:
““I think” takes the place of “I feel,” and leaves itself open to rebuttal.”
” .. digital technology pushes us to misunderstand education simply as the transfer of information, not, as Plato argued, “a turning around of the whole soul.” (WOW)
I should snippet the entire article. -
Hi Dave,
Finally, the monsoon hit down here. A very dry summer so far.
Those very same quotations caught my eye as well.
Hope you are well. -
Bill and Dave,
I noticed those quotations as well. I’ll make a brief note about the reference to digital technology.
“… digital technology pushes us to misunderstand education simply as the transfer of information, not, as Plato argued, “a turning around of the whole soul.”
I’m afraid that many current students fail to reach the level of such misunderstanding. How so? Given the availability of AI bots that can ‘write’ essays and perform related tasks, the ‘learners’ don’t even seek the transfer of information. The bots handle the information. The students seek the grade, and ultimately the degree, without bothering much with the information.
If students were to value information, some of them might, as a result, come to see the value of soul-turning. But many students don’t care about the information. They want only the grade and degree. Why? Because grades and degrees are means to higher-paying jobs.
If you were to ask them, as I sometimes do, why money is desirable, they struggle to answer. And here’s where a grasp of the humanities would help: if students were to study the humanities, they’d be prepared to answer such questions. They’d be more likely to understand the differences between instrumental and final goods, between extrinsic and intrinsic goods. -
Hi Elliot,
Brian B was up here yesterday afternoon, so we met for conversation and chess. He gave me another lecture on AI and how it works. He’s going deep into it. We discussed how the CPA’s in his accounting firm may be out of a job before long. A lot of people in these and related fields are pollyannas who refuse to see what’s coming.
>>if students were to study the humanities, they’d be prepared to answer such questions. They’d be more likely to understand the differences between instrumental and final goods, between extrinsic and intrinsic goods.<< I can only agree, but most people lack the intellectual eros to study the humanities. Higher education is for the few. What is called 'higher ed' nowadays is remedial bullshit wasted on people who ought, after high school, to learn a trade. Higher Ed is dead and has been for a long time. It's scam. People spend money they don't have for something of little or no value served up by functionaries in a leftist seminary. Trump is right to crack down on the decadent Ivies. A long story. I said the kids should learn a trade. But how many trades jobs will there be with the spread of advanced robotics? Brian told me about a gall bladder operation performed entirely by an AI-driven robot. No need for surgeons. No need for lawyers to sue surgeons for malpractice. The bots don't screw up and they don't get distracted by the pretty robotic nurses . . . You get the picture. -
Bill,
I’m glad to hear that you and Brian met again and that AI is still a topic of discussion. I agree that many folks are pollyannaish about the topic. I see it w/ colleagues who seem unwilling to admit that AI is making blatant what already should have been obvious, namely, that many students in higher education don’t care about learning. What an oxymoron: a higher ed student with no interest in higher ed! (In my experience, though, I usually have five to ten students in each class who care about philosophy and the other humanities; the rest seem to be there only or primarily for the grade, which for them is a mere means to more money.)
I also agree that most people lack the intellectual eros to study the humanities. There’s no way to force a student to have intellectual eros. Perhaps there is a way to motivate it, though, at least in some students.
>>How many trades jobs will there be with the spread of advanced robotics?<< I suspect that, eventually, AI will force masses of people to come to terms with their own leisure, and most will be unprepared for it. Here’s an article on the gall bladder surgery. “The robot performed unflappably …” https://hub.jhu.edu/2025/07/09/robot-performs-first-realistic-surgery-without-human-help/ -
Elliot,
>>I suspect that, eventually, AI will force masses of people to come to terms with their own leisure, and most will be unprepared for it.<< That's exactly the problem. Most people need exogenic structure: they need a structure imposed upon them from without by, say, economic necessity. They need a job. That job gives them money but it also structures their time and keeps them out of trouble. If the State gives them money, but they have no job, they will piss away their time drinking, gambling, fornicating, taking drugs and descending into every abyss of depravity. This is the problem with a guaranteed annual income state-provided. -
Elliot,
A good society make it easy for people to be good. By that criterion, ours is not good.
Drive down any main drag: tattoo parlors, strip joints, bars, liquor stores, marijuana dispensaries, etc. Human nature being what it is, many will succumb to the lures, especially when religion, the delivery mechanism of moral/ethical training for most, is on the wane. -
>>A good society makes it easy for people to be good. By that criterion, ours is not good.<< This point has occurred to me as well, probably while reflecting on Aristotle's Nic. Ethics and Politics. He makes a similar point in those texts, though he emphasized a good state rather than a good society.
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