Very interesting recent comments of a UChicago student

marlowe1
Thu, 25 Jan 2024 13:30:34 +0000

Why, you ask, @gablesdad ? Here’s a shot at it.

The provocative bravura of the student’s post obscures a serious point. I could get all solemn and say that it’s the satisfaction that comes of learning hard things and of being with others who also want to do that. Training the mind can be as humbling and painful as training the body, perhaps more so inasmuch as the aches and pains are of the psyche, not merely the muscles. That’s not going to appeal to everyone, of course, no more than some other hard and painful activities - climbing cliff faces, training as an opera singer, enduring boot camp. The mystery to me is that while we understand the appeal of these latter activities, even if they’re not for us, we have a hard time understanding the intellectual version of them. Socrates noticed that a long time ago.