By Jennifer Jensen, Faculty and Trustee at JAC, first published in The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal
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.”