Garrett Mikulka's Reviews > Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life

I personally really enjoyed this book. Not something to be taken as a sole authority on the matter, but a really nice reminder about the dangers of viewing education in purely utilitarian terms.

I find most compelling the reminder that the intellectual life is a human good in its own right, and one that should be available to all, not just the intellectual elite. It is the property of cab drivers and farmers as much as professional scholars.

I can imagine Hitz’s arguments about social reform being overemphasized, however, which may not be a problem with the book as much as with how academics tend to think about education (at least that’s how Hitz would see it). Hitz is not arguing against social reform as a product of the intellectual life; although she is arguing against social reform as the only product of the intellectual life. She is also arguing against a narrowing range of opinions on social issues in higher education, particularly in the humanities. Some of her statements to this end can seem rather harsh, but in context of the book as a whole, none of them seem to be a wholesale rejection of social reform as a goal in higher education. I think this is clearest in her comparison of social reform as intellectual exercise and social reform as lived experience. Her discussion of Simone Weil was especially poignant to that end.

I think the proper way to walk away from this book is to consider it evidence for a personal reevaluation of a personal outlook on intellectualism. It’s a reminder to love learning for its own sake. Readers can, I suppose, follow Hitz’s principles of education to varying degrees, but regardless of where any one reader lands in relation to Hitz, this book is an important voice in a debate about the importance of the university and of private intellectual endeavors, endeavors that may have limited utility.