The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent (1914), by John Erskine, is an essay first presented to the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Amherst College, where Erskine taught before working as a professor of English at Columbia University. [1][2] [3] Originally, “The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent” was published in the quarterly magazine The Hibbert Journal, in 1914, and a year later was published in the essay collection The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent, and Other Essays (1915). [4][3]
| Author | John Erskine |
|---|---|
| Country | United States (New York, Duffield) |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Philosophy |
| Published | 1915 |
| Text | The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent at Wikisource |
Moreover, during his twenty-eight-year tenure (1909–1937) at Columbia University, Erskine formulated the General Honors Course. In the early 1920s he taught a great books course at Columbia, which later founded the influential Great Books movement.[5]
History edit
In 1963, “The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent” was published in the Gateway to the Great Books, Volume 10: Philosophical Essays, a ten-volume book series published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc..[6]
In the 21st century, Erskine’s essay was the titular essay of the book The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent: Selected Essays (2000), edited by the literary critic Lionel Trilling, of the Columbia University faculty, and featured an introduction by the literary critic Leon Wieseltier.[7] Trilling had been a student of Erskine’s, and later taught the "Great Books" course; Trilling chose Erskine’s essay as the thematic basis and title for the book The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent: Selected Essays. [8][5]
Work edit
- Erskine, John (1915). The Moral Obligation to be Intelligent: And Other Essays. Duffield.
References edit
- ^ Graff 1989, p. 278.
- ^ Rubin 1992, p. 161.
- ^ a b Erskine 1921, p. vii.
- ^ Trilling 2008, p. x.
- ^ a b Richard Gilman (September 24, 2000). "The Foremost Authority". New York Times. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
- ^ "Gateway to the Great Books". Centre for Study of Great Ideas. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
- ^ Andrew Delbanco (January 11, 2001). "Night Vision by Andrew Delbanco". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
- ^ Kimmage 2009, p. 322.
Bibliography edit
- Erskine, John (1921). The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent and Other Essays (Revised ed.). Bobbs-Merrill.
- Graff, Gerald (1989). Professing Literature: An Institutional History. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-30604-9.
- Rubin, Joan Shelley (1992). Making of Middlebrow Culture. Univ of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-6426-5.
- Trilling, Lionel (2008). The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent: Selected Essays. Northwestern University Press. ISBN 978-0-8101-2488-2.
- Kimmage, Michael (2009). The Conservative Turn: Lionel Trilling, Whittaker Chambers, and the lessons of anti-communism. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-05412-7.
External links edit
- Erskine, John (1921). The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent and Other Essays (Online ed.). Bobbs-Merrill.