Few men in America's intellectual history have sought as much as
Irving Babbitt to be a crucible for the cultural values that
America, expecially in its "progressive" epoch, had no inclination
to receive. Over sixty years after his death, Babbitt remains a
figure of controversy. He retains his reputation as a reactionary
defender of genteel morality and taste, yet, as Thomas Nevin
reminds us, he continues to be a scholar of importance and an
erudite, forceful teacher who influenced -- among others -- T. S.
Eliot, Van Wyck Brooks, Walter Lippmann, Austin Warren, and David
Riesman.
Nevin argues that the tradition Babbit represented did not so much
uphold class mores as it urged that literature embody and inculcate
discipline. In this book-length study of Babbitt's humanism, Nevin
examines the controversial critic's attacks on collegiate
educational reform, his literary and aesthetic criticism, his
political philosophy of an "aristocratic democracy" and his fusion
of humanism with Buddhism. Included in each chapter are substantial
portions of Babbitt's unpublished correspondence with Paul Elmer
More, letters that eloquently reveal points of agreement and
difference between Babbitt's humanism and the theism that More came
to espouse.
Although this study reflects the variety of Babbitt's concerns, it
concentrates on his major ideas: the need to maintain the dualism
that is the legacy of the Western philosophical tradition, the
imperative that critically sound standards of judgment be
maintained in the individual and in society, and the affirmation of
the human will against the reductive forces of materialistic
ideologies. Humanism, as Babbitt defines it, opposes the ascendance
of utilitarian science because the sciences, however legitimate in
the area of phenomenal inquiry, as a secular faith supplant the
traditional strength and appeal of cultural and religious
standards. Literature itself under the influence of naturalism
either reflects a mechanized, demoralized society or merely escapes
aesthetically from its ugliness.
With the reprinting of some of Babbitt's writings, scholars may now
reassess his thought.
Irving Babbitt should renew interest
in a major American thinker and vindicate many of his arguments
that apply to the problems of our own day.
Originally published in 1984.
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