THE MEANING OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION _The People’s Institute “Lectures-in-Print” Series_ PSYCHOLOGY by Everett Dean Martin $3.00 BEHAVIORISM by John B. Watson $3.00 INFLUENCING HUMAN BEHAVIOR by H. A. Overstreet $3.00 INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY by Charles S. Myers $2.50 THE MEANING OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION by Everett Dean Martin $3.00 MODERN SCIENCE AND PEOPLE’S HEALTH Edited by Benjamin C. Gruenberg $2.50 _Other Volumes in Preparation_ _W·W·NORTON & COMPANY, INC._ 70 Fifth Avenue New York THE MEANING OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION BY EVERETT DEAN MARTIN _Director, The People’s Institute, New York Lecturer, The New School for Social Research_ [Illustration] NEW YORK W·W·NORTON & COMPANY, INC. _Publishers_ Copyright, 1926 W·W·NORTON & COMPANY, INC. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOR THE PUBLISHERS BY THE VAIL-BALLOU PRESS To her who lovingly gave me the first and most important instruction, and inspired the desire for scholarship, MY MOTHER THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED PREFACE Most books that deal with the subject of education, and there are many, are concerned with the training of the young. Much is said about educational methods but very little about content. There is discussion, also, of the effectiveness of institutions, schools and colleges, and the interest of the State in education. This book does not deal with such matters. It is concerned with other problems. What is an educated person like? How does he differ from the uneducated? Does he think differently and, if so, why? We shall be empirical in our study. We shall study persons who are generally recognized as outstanding educated minds and ask what it is that characterizes them. Is an educated person one who is like Socrates, Erasmus, Montaigne, Goethe, Arnold, Santayana? The theme of this book is that education is more than information, or skill, or propaganda. In each age education must take into account the conditions of that age. But the educated mind is not a mere creature of its own time. Education is emancipation from herd opinion, self-mastery, capacity for self-criticism, suspended judgment, and urbanity. It is often believed that education, adult education in particular, is an avocation or an interest to occupy the individual in his leisure time, like music or stamp collecting. The work of The People’s Institute at Cooper Union, New York, where these lectures were given, is essentially that of adult education. I have tried to think through with those who attended the lectures what it is that for ten years we have been trying to achieve. Adult education is now becoming an important interest in American life, and the inquiry seems timely.