“If you look up a word in the dictionary, you find it defined by a string of other words, the meanings of which can be discovered by looking them up in a dictionary, leading to more words that can be… — Louis Menand Copy Share Image
“For Peirce, inquiry is always communal—it is the median of many observations that gives the position of the star—and the last analysis really is… — Louis Menand Copy Share
If time is a staircase, reality is a Slinky. Decades can be parsed. Television, frequently accused of destabilizing life, is actually what stitches the… — Louis Menand Copy Share
Basically what you want in any profession - I would say the same thing if I were a lawyer or a doctor - is… — Louis Menand Copy Share
“In modern societies, the reproduction of custom is no longer understood to be one of the chief purposes of existence, and the ends of… — Louis Menand Copy Share
One of the functions of literary criticism, or reviewing, generally - and I, most of my reviews actually are not about literature - but… — Louis Menand Copy Share
You have to have students wanting to take the courses, otherwise you're not going, they're not going to be very effective. — Louis Menand Copy Share
“We do not (on Holmes’s reasoning) permit the free expression of ideas because some individual may have the right one. No individual alone can… — Louis Menand Copy Share
Literature is being taught as though it were only political medicine or political poison-a view that is not only illiberal but illiterate. — Louis Menand Copy Share
“[According to Holmes], ‘Every year if not every day we have to wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge. While that… — Louis Menand Copy Share
It's difficult to get a job and people stay in school longer because they're employed as teaching assistants or instructors by their schools, by… — Louis Menand Copy Share
Just in higher education alone, more people go to college now, by enormous amounts, than went to college in the '50's and '60's. So… — Louis Menand Copy Share
Obviously input is helpful to faculty in trying to come up with a curriculum, but ultimately it's the faculty's job to know what students… — Louis Menand Copy Share
Universities are set up to get people to work together by having them disagree with each other. — Louis Menand Copy Share
“What [Peirce] meant was that since nature evolves by chance variation, then the laws of nature must evolve by chance variation as well. Variations… — Louis Menand Copy Share
Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic. Never, btw, ask that androgynous paper clip anything.… — Louis Menand Copy Share
