Academic Program
On Tocqueville
A conversation with St. John's Graduate Institute students, conducted in Annapolis, Maryland, April 8, 2003
On Tocqueville and the St. John's program
Tocqueville's position in Democracy in America is that whatever the sources, the result is that Americans are narrow-minded and somewhat closed. They use their own judgment and stick by it. They don't look outward and check themselves by other things with two exceptions: religion and a sort of civic commonality. In everything else, they go by their own lights. Does that sound like the America you know? - Mr. Pastille
Is it possible that in this program we're rectifying part of the problem that Tocqueville is discussing here? We still stress every person thinking things through for himself, but we also give credit to the authorities. - Ms. Neal
What Tocqueville is saying doesn't seem to me to square with what we do here. Because if we were merely going to internalize our own judgments we wouldn't have conversations with other people. The St. John's program assumes an externalization of your thoughts. You need to support your ideas with evidence in the text, then you need to see whether others find some truth in what you are saying. - Mr. Bergquist
What's always struck me about my experience at St. John's is how much reading all these books has made me realize how formed many of my opinions are. On one level it would have been easy for me to simply read the texts, listen to what everybody else had to say, and move on. And that seems relevant to Tocqueville's comment about people's lack of openness. I think you could potentially be here and read all these books and still have that lack of openness. That's something I've made an effort to eradicate in myself. - Ms. Saia
What I found about St. John's that surprised me is that it's been more of an internalizing experience than I expected. Talking to people about these authors has helped me to realize who I am and what I thought. Apparently external activity was necessary for it to become internal. - Ms Carrieri
On the civic and personal dimensions of the St. John's program
It is interesting to see how your ideas match up against other people's ideas. There's another step that is equally interesting, especially in the context of being civic minded, that is the process whereby you recognize your own ideas and then how far can you go in your ability to understand someone else's ideas. Can you transcend your own opinions? Not just recognize what they are but actually transcend them so you can understand the premises of someone else's thinking? - Ms. Saia
I did find a lot of truth in what Tocqueville said in these lines: "Americans don't read the works of Descartes because their social condition deters them from speculative studies." It does seem like a lot of the people I encounter on the street are not interested in talking about philosophy; they don't have time or they're just not interested. If you start to talk with them, you can watch their eyes glaze over. In that sense, it does seem that St. John's is somewhat bucking a trend. But I wouldn't say that it's flying in the face of the American spirit. I think it is part of the American spirit to do what we're doing, having these conversations and exposing ideas to other people and see what they think of them. - Mr. Bergquist
"In the midst of the continual movement that agitates a democratic community, the tie that unites one generation to another is relaxed or broken. Every man there readily loses all trace of the ideas of his forefathers or takes no care about them." I think our program is in a sense bridging that gap. We're looking back in order to look forward. - Ms. Carpenter
On careers and St. John's
I had fully thought about changing jobs when I started at St. John's, but now that I'm almost done with the Program I find that I like my job better. I feel more analytical so I get more out of my work. I feel more productive and I'm not unhappy with it anymore. I used to feel that my work was way outside my true interests and I don't feel like that anymore. - Ms. Neal
The ironic thing that I've found about the Graduate Institute program is that it's actually been quite good professional training. I find that in my professional life, when I compare the way I conduct conversations with the way that my co-workers conduct conversations, that there's a significant difference. I've learned how to listen to people. It's ironic because I'm an engineer. My company has a tuition reimbursement policy but they won't pay for St. John's because they say it's not relevant to my work. If you ask my boss, I think he'd probably tell you that he doesn't think this is a worthwhile use of my time. But I disagree. Not only has this program personally enriched me, but it's turned out to improve my work performance. - Mr. Bergquist
To me, the most unexpected benefit of coming here was that I didn't expect to have that kind of skill building. I expected to come and read the books and talk about them and learn a lot. I didn't expect what I got. - Ms. Carrieri
Participants:
Beth Neal, Washington, D.C.
Rachel Darrow, Riva, Maryland
Nina Carrieri, Berkeley, California
Shannon Saia, Indian Head, Maryland
Jan Carpenter, Annapolis, Maryland
Jay Bergquist, Annapolis, Maryland
William Pastille, tutor
Note - In St. John's seminars, students and tutors address each other by their last names to maintain constant level of decorum in a tightly knit community.
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