The scholarly self under threat: language of vice in British scholarship (1870-1910)

Saarloos, J.J.L. (2021)

Doctoral Thesis

What did it mean to be a good scholar in Great Britain around 1900? If we would ask nineteenth-century British scholars themselves, they would not be able to answer that question without referring to all sorts of vices: selfishness, avarice, ungentlemanliness, and so on. 
I contend that the language of vice was so central to British conceptions of the good scholar for two main reasons. Firstly, vices were considered by all scholars to be the enemy of the scholarly self. Resisting the threat of vices to one’s self was thus crucial to a successful pursuit of knowledge. Secondly, British scholars believed that vices had to be fought in others as well, and therefore discussions about the ideal character of the scholar were often fought out in terms of vice. 
In analysing the language of vice, this dissertation breaks new ground. Where earlier studies on the scholarly self and the persona of the scholar have focused primarily on the role of virtues in the history of scholarship, this dissertation contends that virtues, at least in Britain around 1900, were often envisioned to be a response to the threat that vices posed to the scholarly self.

• Vices
• Virtues
• Scholarly self
• Victorian Britain
• Moral instruction
• Virtue and vice epistemology
• Academic memory culture

• All authors: Saarloos, J.J.L.
• Supervisor: Paul, H.J.; Jones, H.S.
• Committee: Baar, M.K.; Dongen, J.A.E.F. van; Ellis, H.L.; Ruberg, J.G.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Institute for History, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2021-06-24