Do we need the Classics? Theory and Practice of Finding a Canon

Abstract

The core of the education given in Western schools was until recently unmistakably classical and literary. People believed that one couldn’t become a gentleman and take places of responsibility if one didn’t have a liberal education. The past two centuries, however, have seen the gradual erosion of the classical ideal. At the same time, the very term ‘classic’ has triumphantly entered commercial language and the spirit of consumer society. Rescuing the classics from the wax museum to which they have been confined, also with the acquiescence of too complacent teachers, might prove far more important than expressing a mere aesthetic preference for some books over others.