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Vices of the Learned
Towards a Long-Term History of Scholarly Vices
Reihe: - Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, Band: 362
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 volumeâs longue durée approach. The volume breaks new ground in highlighting the importance of âlowâ genres (aphorisms, proverbs, anecdotes) and stereotypical figures (the pedant, the charlatan, the mammon) in transmitting vices over time.
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 volumeâs longue durée approach. The volume breaks new ground in highlighting the importance of âlowâ genres (aphorisms, proverbs, anecdotes) and stereotypical figures (the pedant, the charlatan, the mammon) in transmitting vices over time.
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.
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.
Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
1 Introduction: towards a Long-Term History of Scholarly Vices
âHerman Paul
Part 1 Vice Terms
2 Tracing the Development of curiositas in Early Condemnations of the University
âFrom Academicsâ Useless Curiosity to Education for Productive Action
âRichard Newhauser
3 Notes towards a History of âPrejudice,â Early to Late Modern
âSorana Corneanu
4 Dogmatism: the Persistence of an Umbrella Term
âAlexander Stoeger
5 Scholasticism as a Scholarly Vice Term: from the Middle Ages to the Twenty-First Century
âSjang ten Hagen
Part 2 Figurations of Vice
6 The Persistence of the Pedant
âArnoud Visser
7 The Many Lives of the Charlatan: on the Persistence of an Embodiment of Scholarly Vices
âMarian Füssel
8 From the Novum Organum to the Forensic Crime Lab: the Modern Afterlives of Francis Baconâs Idols of the Mind
âEdurne De Wilde
9 The Mammon Metaphor in American Science: Continuities and Discontinuities, 1890â2010
âPieter Huistra and Herman Paul
Part 3 Media of Circulation
10 Medical Vices and Proverbial Expressions in Eighteenth-Century Medical Dissertations on Moderation, Patience, and Trust
âSari Kivistö
11 Mocking Medieval Minds: How Modern Histories of Science Transmitted Scholarly Vices
âSjang ten Hagen
12 Student Advice Literature and the Vice of Uninformed Studying: from Hodegetik to Study Vlogs
âAnne Por
13 Conclusion: How and Why Scholarly Vices Persisted over Time
âSjang ten Hagen and Herman Paul
Index
Notes on Contributors
1 Introduction: towards a Long-Term History of Scholarly Vices
âHerman Paul
Part 1 Vice Terms
2 Tracing the Development of curiositas in Early Condemnations of the University
âFrom Academicsâ Useless Curiosity to Education for Productive Action
âRichard Newhauser
3 Notes towards a History of âPrejudice,â Early to Late Modern
âSorana Corneanu
4 Dogmatism: the Persistence of an Umbrella Term
âAlexander Stoeger
5 Scholasticism as a Scholarly Vice Term: from the Middle Ages to the Twenty-First Century
âSjang ten Hagen
Part 2 Figurations of Vice
6 The Persistence of the Pedant
âArnoud Visser
7 The Many Lives of the Charlatan: on the Persistence of an Embodiment of Scholarly Vices
âMarian Füssel
8 From the Novum Organum to the Forensic Crime Lab: the Modern Afterlives of Francis Baconâs Idols of the Mind
âEdurne De Wilde
9 The Mammon Metaphor in American Science: Continuities and Discontinuities, 1890â2010
âPieter Huistra and Herman Paul
Part 3 Media of Circulation
10 Medical Vices and Proverbial Expressions in Eighteenth-Century Medical Dissertations on Moderation, Patience, and Trust
âSari Kivistö
11 Mocking Medieval Minds: How Modern Histories of Science Transmitted Scholarly Vices
âSjang ten Hagen
12 Student Advice Literature and the Vice of Uninformed Studying: from Hodegetik to Study Vlogs
âAnne Por
13 Conclusion: How and Why Scholarly Vices Persisted over Time
âSjang ten Hagen and Herman Paul
Index
Libraries and researchers interested in the history of knowledge, the history of science, the history of humanities, and the history of academic ethics. Keywords: Virtues, vices, scholarly virtues, scholarly vices, epistemic virtues, epistemic vices, history of knowledge, history of science, history of humanities, long-term history, histoire de longue durée.