The Modern University: A Reply to Nate Hochman

“What makes Hochman’s essay far more interesting than the usual screed against academics and critical theory is his effort to locate the cause in the history of Western rationalism and ultimately nihilism.”

Introduction

Nate Hochman’s Merion West recent article “The Predicament of Contemporary Academia” is one of the better contributions to the minor literature that is conservative commentaries on post-secondary education. Its quality stems from a willingness to actually probe beyond surface controversies about curricula and examine where Hochman believes we went wrong. This requires a deep survey of some foundational issues within Western culture, which he believes contributed to the emergence of critical theory and the propensity to denigrate the tradition as fundamentally oppressive. As Hochman puts it:

“In the modern liberal arts, the Western tradition is increasingly regarded as a symbol of oppression and suffering, and its major achievements are all thought to be emblematic of this inherently oppressive character. When the Stanford protestors petitioned their university to abolish any mandated engagement with the intellectual inheritance of the West, this was the underlying objection: the conviction that Western civilization, particularly for historically marginalized groups, is irredeemably marred by a history of racism, sexism, and any number of other mortal sins. In the context of the modern liberal arts, the consequences of this tectonic shift are difficult to overstate.”

In this piece, I will briefly examine some of the points Hochman makes about the state of the academy before moving on to the more important issues raised in his article.