Vices of the Learned - (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History) by Sjang Ten Hagen & Herman Paul (Hardcover)

About the Book

Why are professors still warning their students against dogmatism, prejudice, pedantry, and other centuries-old vices? What explains the persistence of these scholarly vices across the ages? Vices of the Learned answers these questions with case studies from medieval Europe to twenty-first century America.

Book Synopsis

Why are professors still warning their students against dogmatism, prejudice, pedantry, and other centuries-old vices? What explains the persistence of these scholarly vices across the ages?

With case studies from medieval Europe to twenty-first century America, Vices of the Learned offers a panoramic overview of qualities, habits, and inclinations that scholars at various times and places saw as detrimental to their work.

Innovative is the volume's longue durée approach. The volume breaks new ground in highlighting the importance of "low" genres (aphorisms, proverbs, anecdotes) and stereotypical figures (the pedant, the charlatan, the mammon) in transmitting vices over time.

About the Author

Sjang ten Hagen is Assistant Professor in Liberal Arts and Sciences at Utrecht University. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the project Scholarly Vices: A Longue Durée History at Leiden University.

Herman Paul is Professor of the History of the Humanities at Leiden University. From 2019 to 2025, he led the project Scholarly Vices: A Longue Durée History, out of which this volume has emerged.