Summary Of Allan Bloom's Closing Of The American Mind

Allan Bloom advances a controversial thesis in his book The Closing of the American Mind. Bloom postulates that the American educational system is failing today’s students by perpetuating moral relativism while neglecting the “great books”. The great books for Bloom include those of Plato, Aristotle, etc. These books are considered great works of western thought as they approach questions of culture and morality and believe there is a correct answer. Contemporary American society no longer seeks answers to these questions as moral relativism destroyed the existence of an answer. This is the beginning of Bloom’s analysis and the conclusions drawn from it are important stern indictments of American society. While Bloom does create a memorable and condemning critique of American society, some of the conclusions are not strongly connected to moral relativism.

Bloom begins by stating that almost all university students he has encountered are moral relativists (Bloom 25). These students are not willing to rank cultural norms, believe that different cultures are equal and above judgment. These students have been conditioned by the liberal democratic education to believe their prepositions are just theirs and are a manifestation of the time and place they

Bloom blames historicism for destroying these founding myths. For instance, Charles Beard devalued the public spirit in favor of private interests thus devaluing our founding ideology and fathers (Bloom 56). This has created cynical individuals that are unwilling to place great stock in our founding to either be motivated by it or heavily critical of it (56). The lack of ideological superiority makes a moral education impossible to instill in youth as they do not understand the highs and lows thus leaving them without moral equilibrium (Bloom