Teaching and Eros

You might quickly read Bill Deresiewicz's meditation on "Love on Campus" in the new issue of the The American Scholar. (Thanks to Ruchira Paul for the pointer.)  I had vaguely related comments here.

In its own way, the essay touches on one of the ongoing discussions here about PhDs in the legal academy.  Although legal academics have it much better than college professors in so many ways, Anthony Kronman's exhortations notwithstanding, there is little love on campus.  That's, I think, as it should be among adults -- but those of us with PhDs who decide to teach in vocational schools are often giving up what Deresiewicz calls "erotic intensity".  In law school, instrumental rationality finds a way to smother eros in the classroom.