On Aims of Education

On Aims of Education

As I introspect on what I learnt in the University of Chicago, I was reminded of the Aims of Education address given to all incoming students during matriculation in September 24, 2004. The Aims of Education address is a tradition in my university, which tells all bright-eyed students the aims of a liberal arts education. In trying to understand the value of my education, it is probably a good idea to view it in the context of the original aims of the education itself.

Life of the Mind: I don’t think one can call himself a graduate from the University of Chicago if he has not heard of this phrase -life of the mind. Don Randel, the president of my University and the speaker of this address, pointed out two key attributes of the life of the mind, namely- imagination and curiosity. But I think he missed out an important attribute- healthy skepticism, which is the first step to challenge established dogmas and enhance human understanding and knowledge (although it is implicit in his plea to students to improve public discourse by asking hard questions and demanding answers from elected and aspiring officials).

Let’s take the controversial example of slavery. The traditional view of slavery is that it is a backward and an inefficient production system. Slave owners are portrayed as brutal and irrational. But, this has been debunked by Fogel, who showed that the South was practicing agriculture not because it was technologically backward, but because it had a comparative advantage in agriculture through superior organizational techniques. Moreover, slaveholders were economically rational for they were among the first to adopt new technology, respond quickly to profits and maximize returns to investment. Contrary to popular beliefs, slaves were not far behind free workers in terms of diet, health and housing measured using statistical indicators like life expectancy and infant mortality rates. In terms of economic prosperity, slave South’s per capita income was growing faster than the North’s and was the fourth most prosperous nation in the world in 1860.

Of course, there is no easy way to quantify the price of freedom and I am not an apologist for slavery. However, in the fuzzy mind of most people, after being indoctrinated that slavery is “bad”, which is a moral judgment, they automatically assume that slavery has “bad economic attributes”-economically inefficiency and irrationality. I think it is very important to understand that economic efficient institutions can produce outcomes that are contrary to our moral principles and values. So when you hear someone complaining about income inequality rising in Singapore, give him a fuzzy hug and let him know that while rising income inequality is deplorable, it does not make sense to oppose the underlying economic forces causing it. The market is merely an amoral allocation mechanism; it is up to the state to change the distributive outcome of a phenomenon like income inequality.

I think that there is a certain herd instinct in Singapore; I am not sure to what extent it is an outcome of our education system, to a societal emphasis on the collective or even whether it is an inevitable outcome of some primitive cognitive predispositions. To be fair, there is a fair amount of herd instinct in the United States as well, but there are multiple “herd instincts” , if only a reflection of the size and diversity of the population. Even critics of the government often display the same kind of herd instinct. This herd instinct is characterized by a rigid adherence to some fundamental principles with endless reiteration of the same basic arguments to drill the point home. Take for instance, the call for democracy in Burma. I am always amazed by how people hold the same unquestioning attitude to the alleged superiority of certain beliefs like freedom and equality, not unlike the insistence in the past on the merits of an ascriptive hierarchy, divine rights and the patriarchal order. Repetition of the virtues of democracy does not constitute an argument. I am also amazed by the lack of basic understanding of the different forms of democracy: direct democracy, representative democracy, liberal democracy, social democracy and other variants. What about sound economical and social institutions that determine the viability of any nascent democratic state? I am not pretending that I know how to ameliorate living conditions of ordinary Burmese and I don’t want to speculate on the best road to democracy in Burma due to space constraint. I am only against the impulse of the herd instinct that every well-educated person should be conscious. Champions of democracy love to view themselves as enlightened, civilized men of conviction. But what is the Enlightenment? And I quote from Kant:

Perhaps a revolution can overthrow autocratic despotism and profiteering or power-grabbing oppression, but it can never truly reform a manner of thinking; instead, new prejudices, just like the old ones they replace, will serve as a leash for the great unthinking mass.

One of the mindless prejudices of our age is the championing of liberal democracy without understanding the country’s economic foundations, historical development and cultural milieu. I think one of the best things that the University of Chicago has given me is the resolve and the courage to use my own understanding without guidance from another. This is not to say that I don’t think for myself before my University experience, but the laissez-faire environment and the freewheeling professors make it easier. Every student has an opinion and contributes to class discussion (of course, the quality of the discussion depends a lot on the level of intelligence of those in class and the moderating skills of the professors). But I don’t think anyone cares what you say as long as you do not engage in direct, personal attacks. At the same time, I enjoyed the tremendous freedom and independence given to me in my learning. I don’t have to go through stages of stupid drafts and cut through administrative crap to do my honors thesis. All I have is an idea, talk to my professor, and see him whenever I feel like it and presto, I finished my thesis.

To the extent that one of the main aims of education is to develop the life of the mind, I have not wasted my time in Chicago.