Allan Bloom

Allan Bloom
Bloom in 1989
Born
Allan David Bloom

(1930-09-14)September 14, 1930
DiedOctober 7, 1992(1992-10-07) (aged 62)
EducationUniversity of Chicago (BA, PhD)
École normale supérieure
Notable workThe Closing of the American Mind (1987)
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolContinental philosophy
ThesisThe Political Philosophy of Isocrates (1955)
Doctoral advisorLeo Strauss
Main interests
Greek philosophy, history of philosophy, political philosophy, Renaissance philosophy, Nihilism, continental philosophy, French literature, Shakespeare
Notable ideas
The "openness" of relativism leads paradoxically to the great "closing"[1]

Allan David Bloom (September 14, 1930 – October 7, 1992) was an American philosopher, classicist, and academician. He studied under David Grene, Leo Strauss, Richard McKeon, and Alexandre Kojève. He subsequently taught at Cornell University, the University of Toronto, Tel Aviv University, Yale University, the École normale supérieure, and the University of Chicago.

Bloom championed the idea of Great Books education and became famous for his criticism of contemporary American higher education, with his views being expressed in his bestselling 1987 book, The Closing of the American Mind.[2] Characterized as a conservative in the popular media,[3] Bloom denied the label, asserting that what he sought to defend was the "theoretical life".[4] Saul Bellow wrote Ravelstein, a roman à clef based on Bloom, his friend and colleague at the University of Chicago.

  1. ^ Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, Simon and Schuster, 1987, p. 42.
  2. ^ Hitchens, Christopher (2002). Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere. Verso. p. 226.
  3. ^ Sleeper, Jim (September 4, 2005). "Allan Bloom and the Conservative Mind". The New York Times. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
  4. ^ Bloom, Allan. Giants and Dwarfs: Essays 1960–1990, Simon & Schuster, 1990 pp. 17–18

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