Allan Bloom and Essentialism

Allan Bloom is the late-twentieth-century philosopher who carried the perennialist commitments into a sharp public confrontation with American higher education. His 1987 book The Closing of the American Mind became a controversial bestseller and reshaped debate about what universities are for. The chapter works through his life, his educational philosophy, his defence of liberal education and the teacher’s role, his diagnosis of the closing American mind, and an introduction to essentialism as the educational theory closest to his commitments.

Who Bloom Was

The Plato scholar who championed the Great Books, was influenced by Strauss and Nietzsche, and wrote the most controversial book on American higher education of his century

Bloom's Educational Philosophy

Education as response to felt need, the timeless questions of humanity, the education of openness, and the contrast with democratic education

Liberal Education and the Teacher

Reading the classic texts and letting them dictate the questions, the perennialist teacher who produces independent minds, and the threat to philosophy

Higher Education and the Closing of the American Mind

Bloom’s diagnosis of self-centeredness, the failure of love, and the social dilemmas that close young minds before they have opened

Criticisms of Bloom and an Introduction to Essentialism

The charges of reaction and elitism against Bloom, alongside essentialism as the educational theory of back-to-the-basics and the disciplined core curriculum