Allan Bloom

Allan Bloom was an influential American philosopher, classicist, and academic whose work centered on the history of political philosophy and the role of the Great Books in higher education. A student of the German-born philosopher Leo Strauss, he became a prominent public intellectual following the massive success of his 1987 critique of American higher education, The Closing of the American Mind. Bloom argued that the rise of cultural relativism and the abandonment of the Western canon had impoverished the souls of students and undermined the mission of universities like his own University of Chicago.

Early life and education

Born in Indianapolis to Jewish parents, he was raised in a household that valued intellectual pursuits. He enrolled at the University of Chicago at age fifteen, entering its famed Hutchins undergraduate program centered on the Great Books curriculum. There, he fell under the decisive intellectual influence of the émigré scholar Leo Strauss, who was then teaching in the Committee on Social Thought. After completing his bachelor's degree, Bloom traveled to Europe for graduate study, earning his doctorate from the University of Chicago under the supervision of classicist David Grene, with a dissertation on the political philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. He also spent formative years at the University of Paris, deepening his engagement with continental philosophy.

Academic career

Bloom's teaching career began at the University of Chicago, followed by positions at Yale University and Cornell University. His time at Cornell University during the late 1960s, particularly the Willard Straight Hall takeover, profoundly shaped his critical view of campus radicalism and the decline of liberal education. He later returned to the University of Toronto before accepting a prestigious role as a professor on the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, a position he held until his death. Throughout his career, he was renowned as a charismatic and demanding teacher, mentoring a generation of students including future scholars and policymakers like Francis Fukuyama and Paul Wolfowitz.

The Closing of the American Mind

In 1987, Bloom published The Closing of the American Mind, a surprise bestseller that ignited a fierce national debate about the state of American universities. The book argued that the pursuit of openness in contemporary culture had devolved into a dogmatic cultural relativism, leaving students intellectually adrift and incapable of reasoned judgment. He blamed this on influences from German philosophy, particularly Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger, as filtered through the counterculture of the 1960s. Bloom contended that universities had abandoned their core mission of transmitting the Western canon—from Socrates to Shakespeare—thereby creating a spiritual vacuum filled by the shallow values of rock music and facile political commitments.

Other works and thought

Beyond his famous polemic, Bloom was a respected scholar and translator. His early work included Shakespeare's Politics, co-authored with Harry V. Jaffa, and a widely used translation of Plato's Republic. His philosophical project was deeply informed by his teacher Leo Strauss, focusing on the careful exegesis of foundational texts to recover perennial questions about the good life and just society. Posthumously published works like Love and Friendship and his essays on Jean-Jacques Rousseau further elaborated his critique of modern philosophy and his defense of the philosophical life as depicted by the ancients.

Legacy and influence

Bloom remains a controversial but seminal figure in debates over liberal education and the culture wars. His arguments provided intellectual fuel for the subsequent canon wars and helped inspire the neoconservative movement in American intellectual life, with many of his students taking prominent roles in publications like The Public Interest and institutions like the American Enterprise Institute. Critics, such as Martha Nussbaum in her review "Undemocratic Vistas," accused him of elitism and nostalgia, while defenders saw him as a courageous defender of intellectual standards. His work continues to be a touchstone for discussions on the purpose of the university and the transmission of the Western tradition.

Category:American political philosophers Category:University of Chicago faculty Category:American translators