This is John Batchster, a conversation with my colleague Peter Berkowitz, the Hoover Institution,

about the state of liberal education here in the 21st century. It has slipped back into a concern

for those who understand it and teach it and read it, but not for the people setting the curriculum for younger students today.

Liberal education is no longer what it was in the 21st century, the goal of a well-educated

young American. Peter begins to describe what happened, and the first thing that happened

with something called scientism,

here he explains what that is.

Much more of this tonight about the slipping away of liberal education as a goal.

Here's Peter.

Well, scientific materialism or scientism has roots that you can trace back at least to the 19th century.

Let's call the view that crystallized in the 19th century positivism.

The positivists taught that there was only one kind of knowledge.

It was scientific knowledge.

It dealt with facts.

Everything else dealt with values, literature, journalism, all the humanities that it do with values.

It might be entertaining to some people, might move some people, but it's not real knowledge.

Only science is knowledge. Eventually, this view grew it expanded it becomes

scientism when it becomes an official doctrine that only that which is obtained through the kind

of analysis appropriate to the physical world only that kind of knowledge deserves the name knowledge the kind of analysis appropriate to the physical world, only that kind of knowledge deserves the name knowledge.

The study of literature and history and philosophy,

oh well, that's again,

that's something that you can amuse yourself with.

...