Liberal arts mass education generalizes the leisured ruler’s freedom to all citizens

Evidence

The political significance of the provision of a liberal arts education to the many might be compressed this way: if, historically, a liberal arts education pertained to a leisured class that was also a ruling class, the extension of such an education to the general citizenry configures an ideal of this leisure and power as widely shared. Extending such an education to the masses draws a utopian vision in which freedom from toil is generalized and political rule is widely shared. Crucially, citizens educated in the liberal arts are being prepared for what Aristotle called “the good life,” which he understood as cultivating the higher human faculties for thoughtful civic engagement and eudamonia, that special Greek term for happiness comprising rich fulfillment through the elaboration of human possibility. The notion of the “good life” may sound arcane, effete, or even decadent. Thus, it is important to remember that for Aristotle, it signifies the capacity for human pursuits beyond toiling for survival. “Mere life” (mere existence) is the good life’s opposite, and the difference between them is marked by the difference between freedom and necessity and even between freedom and enslavement. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 381

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Aristotle’s ‘good life’ (eudaimonia) as cultivation of higher faculties beyond survival — the grounding definition for Brown’s critique.
• XREF: Aristotle’s freedom-versus-necessity binary connects to Arendt’s labor/work/action distinction and republican political theory literature. — connects to: Generalizing liberal arts education was a radical democratic event preparing the many for freedom. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 375; The liberal arts originated as an education exclusive to free men, not the many. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 374; Liberal arts education is the prerequisite for democratic rule itself — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 397 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Liberal arts education is the prerequisite for democratic rule itself #expands (0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 397
• Mass higher education was meant to cultivate knowingness and humility for democratic citizenship #qualifies (0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 380