Monday, January 08, 2007

The Interpretation of Needs

"There is no difficulty in securing enough agreement for action on the point that education should serve the needs of the people. But all hinges on the interpretation of needs; if the primary need of man is to perfect his spiritual being and prepare for immortality, then education of the mind and the passions will take precedence over all else. The growth of materialism, however, has made this a consideration remote and even incomprehensible to the majority. Those who maintain that education should prepare one for living successfully in this world have won a practically complete victory...[Such an education] neither encourages reflection nor inspires a reverence for the good."
- Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1954), 49.

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