The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent

The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent is an influential essay, part of the essay collection The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent, and Other Essays published in 1915 by John Erskine, English professor at Columbia University.[1][2]

The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent

Author	John Erskine
Country	United States (New York, Duffield)
Language	English
Subject	philosophy
Published	1915
Text	The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent at Wikisource

The essay was first read before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Amherst College, where Erskine taught before joining Columbia. [3] Later, it was published in quarterly magazine The Hibbert Journal in 1914. [4][3] During his tenure at Columbia from 1909 and 1937, Erskine formulated General Honors Course. In the early 1920s he started teaching a great books course at Columbia, which later founded the influential Great Books movement.[5]

History

In 1963, the essay was published in the Gateway to the Great Books - Volume 10: Philosophical Essays, a 10-volume book series published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. in 1963.[6]

Subsequently it was also included in the book of selected essays also titled The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent: Selected Essays (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux) published posthumously in 2000), edited by Lionel Trilling, another Columbia faculty and literary critic, and had an introduction by critic Leon Wieseltier.[7] Trilling was one of Erskine's students and later taught the "Great Books" course himself; he chose the essay as the lead and the title as it characterized the essence his selection. [8][5]

Work

• Erskine, John (1915). The Moral Obligation to be Intelligent: And Other Essays. Duffield.

References

1. Graff 1989, p. 278.
2. Rubin 1992, p. 161.
3. Erskine 1992, p. vii. sfn error: no target: CITEREFErskine1992 (help)
4. Trilling 2008, p. x.
5. Richard Gilman (September 24, 2000). "The Foremost Authority". New York Times. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
6. "Gateway to the Great Books". Centre for Study of Great Ideas. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
7. Andrew Delbanco (January 11, 2001). "Night Vision by Andrew Delbanco". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
8. Kimmage 2009, p. 322.

Bibliography

• Erskine, John (1921). The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent and Other Essays. BOBBS-MERRILL Company.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Graff, Gerald (1989). Professing Literature: An Institutional History. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-30604-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Rubin, Joan Shelley (1992). Making of Middlebrow Culture. Univ of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-6426-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Trilling, Lionel (2008). The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent: Selected Essays. Northwestern University Press. ISBN 978-0-8101-2488-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• 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.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

External links

• The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent and Other Essays (Online). BOBBS-MERRILL Company. 1921.