Curiosity, Conversation, Community

Further thinking about Zena Hitz on the intellectual life

This past week, I dove into the meat of Zena Hitz’s tremendous Lost in Thought. In this post, I want to share what I took from the first half of the book’s first chapter (also the longest in the book). I am reminded of the three questions I (with a heavy assist from Hitz) previously posed:

1. What does it mean to pursue learning for its own sake?

2. How is “hidden learning” achieved and then nurtured?

3. How do we nurture our hidden learning person-to-person?

4. What does such a life offer both the individual and her tribe? How might we find meaning in joint endeavors?

In my reading, the first chapter is the how to guide to the inner life. Hitz focuses on processes of thought that are useful in themselves first, leaving the focus of such processes till a bit later. Pursuing a world lost in thought centers on being lost- or escaping the problems of “the world.” The world, she argues, is “governed by ambition, competition, and idle thrill-seeking. It is a marketplace where everything can be bought and sold. Even the most precious goods are reduced to products or to spectacles. Human beings are primarily vehicles to achieve the ends of others.” (53) This anxious state of affairs she believes to be the “human default.”

In a project rife with praise, I must admit to having some difficulties with this section. While I ultimately agree with her conclusion- the necessity of taking refuge from the world to engage in meaningful learning- Hitz’s characterization of the world I find somewhat facile. She rightly notes that the ability to pursue the life of the mind is dependent on leisure. To me, the opposite of leisure is poverty, and like Noah Smith, I believe poverty to be the default human condition. True, ambition and competition may well arise from poverty, but at least initially, this is a matter of survival before flourishing. Markets, which emerge to facilitate flourishing, are amoral institutions. They are a means, a tool. As Hitz later, and again rightly, asserts that learning can be both a means and (preferably) an end in itself, this confusion is distracting. She wants the Citizen Humanist to be able to escape politics- amen! But we avoid markets and the cooperation and competition they encourage- at our peril. That so many of us are finding virtual spaces to raise our voices and broaden our reach is a testament to this. I imagine that the creators of Substack, Princeton University Press, and Hitz herself aimed to acquire at least money, and likely influence. And that’s great! We couldn’t be here without them.

But I digress… Sorry, sometimes the econ in me just can’t stay quiet. And more importantly, Hitz’s description of the intellectual life in this first chapter is commendable. She outlines its features as follows:

It is a form of the inner life of a person, a place of retreat and reflection.

As such it is withdrawn from the world, where “the world” is understood in its sense…as the locus of competition and struggle for wealth, power, prestige, and status.

It is a source of dignity…

It opens space for communion: it allows for profound connection between human beings. (56)

While Hitz and I may disagree as to what defines “the world,” we agree that the first step in living an intellectual life is finding this space- likely both physically and metaphorically- to retreat and reflect. The inner life requires privacy, solitude, and silence. But even these are only prerequisites:

It is not just that learning, thinking, and reflection require a total focus. There is rather some fundamental conflict, difficult to notice and even more difficult to describe, between the desire to know, learn, and understand and desires for anything else, especially anything involving social and political life. (57)

This is Hitz’s “hidden learning,” and ‘where’ in which it occurs is leisure, “…a form of activity that is worthwhile for its own sake and that could constitute the culmination of a life.” (57) It should relieve the individual from the varied pressures of the outer world- if only part-time. Presumably, we spend another portion of our time out in the world- the market!- preparing for and enabling our leisure. For Hitz, the mind at leisure is also the origin of dignity, a state of being in tension with social and political life. One cannot meet its demands other than by finding in our leisure a refuge from the status competitions of the world. But even still, a dignified inner life requires more than leisure; it also requires preoccupation. But what should the thinking person be preoccupied with? Hitz poses the question this way:

What are the proper objects of attention that make learning and intellectual life what they are? What gives them their special value? (59)

Now we see the steps of an intellectual journey unfolding. First, retreat and reflection, combined with preoccupation, one builds one’s individual dignity. But the work here is not done. It is also intertwined with her concept of communion- a process of sharing with no end- such as power, money, approval, etc.- in mind. What follows are examples of individuals who Hitz regards as role models in creating a worthy inner life (“Images of Inwardness, pp. 59-71). My advice here- do not be troubled by their examples! As I was reading their inspirational stories, I worried I’d never be worthy of such a pursuit. Was I insane to embark on this project? No. In the second half of Chapter 1, I rediscovered my enthusiasm and was prompted to think a good more on purpose, as Hitz ultimately makes clear that a fulfilling inner life is much more than a solitary pursuit. More on that next. But first, I hope you will share with me. If you’re reading Hitz along with me, share your reflections. Alternatively, share your thoughts on one or more of the following:

1. Again, if you’ve made it this far, I assume you’re at least considering embarking on a rich intellectual life. How do you arrange the necessary space for reading and reflecting- both physically and metaphorically? Tell me your secrets!

2. This section has also prompted a lot of reflection for me on preoccupation. As I said above, it even caused me to doubt that my preoccupation would somehow be valid for Hitz. I’ll have more to say on that next, but for now, what are you preoccupied with? Why do you think this is a “proper object of attention?” What gives it its special value?

3. Hitz has a lot to say about the propensity of extreme difficulty in enabling a rich intellectual life. To what extent do you think difficulty or oppression is a necessary condition to achieve the focus required of the intellectual life? To what extent are you shut out of the intellectual life if you are fortunate enough not to endure suffering? Is the presence (and study) of others’ misfortune a necessary condition? Why?