We have established a working definition for “erudition”. What is essential to know is that “genius of erudition” does not mean the same thing as “genius of wisdom” or “genius of intelligence”. To be sure, there is overlap between the five proposed categories of genius, but there are also important differences. Consider for a moment: Who is more likely to win big on the television show Jeopardy? Someone with a high IQ? A wise person? Or someone with great erudition? For my money, the latter.
Erudition is defined as broad knowledge acquired from books, especially through studying literature. By contrast, having an IQ over 140 does not necessarily have to do with books or literary learning. IQ is a product of heredity, and when traced to its taproot it is a gift from God. IQ is beyond our control. You either have it or you don’t.
Wisdom has more in common with erudition. Wisdom may be enhanced through reading books but is not primarily about “bookish” knowledge. Wisdom springs from many factors. Socrates believed wisdom to be the product of a technique–the Socratic method–which in his case led to “epistemic humility” (which calls to mind Sergeant Schultz). According to King Solomon, wisdom is a gift from God. I prefer Solomon’s answer.
Erudition is different. It is neither a gift nor a matter of heredity, but rather the product of hard work. By any measure, “erudition” is a form of genius–different from, but in no way incompatible with “wisdom” or “intelligence.” While intelligence is measurable through the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, wisdom is not measurable. Since erudition is more like wisdom than IQ, will erudition prove to be unmeasurable as well?
I propose there are a set of “hard” metrics that we should consider. Should the metrics fall short, a set of softer “factors” may be the best we can do. So, what are the hard metrics? There are at least three that warrant consideration:
1) The number of books read.
2) The number of university-level courses taken.
3) The number of university degrees earned.
Let’s consider them one at a time. To be sure, the total number of books read is a reasonable metric for erudition–if only because erudition stems from literary learning. So, according to the internet, which person has read the most books? It is probably Umberto Eco, a great genius and, by any measure, an erudite person. Eco claimed to have a personal library of 50,000 books. That is far larger than Lewis’ personal collection of 6,000 books. But to own a book is not the same as understanding and recalling its content.
It is said the Communist dictator Joseph Stalin made extensive notations in 20,000 books held within the Kremlin Library. Now, who could have been so bold as to challenge that assertion? (Only poor souls who lived out their remaining days in Siberia.) But I am dubious. It takes a lot of time to devise a “Gulag Archipelago” system and to manage “forced collectivization” and to impose famine on citizens of the Ukraine. All that would have cut into his reading time. Might this report about Stalin be propaganda?
Then there is Chandra Mohan Jain (as also known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh or simply OSHO), an Indian spiritual leader active in 1970’s and 80’s. The Swami claimed to have read over 150,000 books. If we assume he read continuously for 50 years (he lived for 58), it comes out to be 3,000 books a year, or over 8.2 books each and every day. Yeah, right.
It is virtually impossible to validate self-reported numbers. The claimed number might be a flat out lie. In the case of the dictator and the Bhagwan, I’ll go with the big lie.
If literary learning is the defining criteria, then university coursework is a primary vehicle. Brian “Fred Worm” McGregor, a Scotsman, claims that he completed nearly 740 courses over approximately 20 years. Doing the math, that comes out to 36 courses per year. (And I thought 17 hours in a semester was a heavy load.) He has also written nearly 100 books. I cannot but wonder whether most of his courses and books were about fantasy literature.
Lastly, we come to academic degrees. Lewis had three “firsts” from Oxford, a rare achievement. But here in the United States we have Michael W. Nicholson, who turned 81 a few weeks ago. He is what is known as a “perpetual student” and has been in school for at least 55 years He holds the unofficial world record for most earned college degrees, at 30 and counting. The Chronicle of Higher Education has called him “the most credentialed person in modern history.
Benjamin Bradley Bolger (age 47) is another American “perpetual student”. He has earned 14 degrees, including a B.A. from the University of Michigan, and Masters degrees from Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Harvard, Brown, Stanford, Dartmouth, Columbia and Stanford, among others. It is reported that Benjamin’s mother accompanied him during all his academic pursuits. (How much fun was that?)
No doubt both these men are erudite. Still, neither of these “perpetual students” holds a candle to Professor VN Parthiban from Chennai, India. The professor holds 145 academic degrees earned over 35 years. When asked what his least favorite subject was, he replied “math.” You gotta like him for that . . . though I find his claim to strain credibility.
In the final analysis, these three criteria would seem to be meaningful metrics, but they are unverifiable. As for Umberto Eco and his collection of 50,000 books, did he read them all? And did he have perfect recall of everything that he read? The same question about retention applies to Michael W. Nicholson and Brian McGregor. We do not know the answer to that question.
I tend to think erudition means more than just passing something before your eyes or streaming it through your ears. True erudition means comprehending what you read and retaining that information. Equally important, I think, it is demonstrating that you have done something with that information.
In the next post, I will introduce the 12 factors that I consider to be meaningful in assessing Lewis’ erudition.
If you are enjoying this, I encourage you to join in the dialogue. Better yet please consider joining the C.S. Lewis Forum.
Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Erudition Series Index
