Culture and Anarchy · Theme
Perfection and Self-Development
How Culture and Anarchy develops Perfection and Self-Development.
Culture is defined as the 'study of perfection,' which is an inward, harmonious, and continuous growth of all human powers, not a static possession of outward goods or mechanical achievements.
Where it surfaces
- Sweetness and Light
Arnold defines perfection as an inward, harmonious expansion of all human powers, not as material acquisition or narrow moralism.
- IV: Hebraism and Hellenism
Both Hebraism and Hellenism aim at man's perfection or salvation, though they pursue it by different courses.
- Porro Unum Est Necessarium
Arnold argues that true perfection is the full, harmonious development of all human faculties, not a single 'one thing needful.'
- Chapter III
The chapter emphasizes cultivating delicacy of perception and harmonizing impulses under the idea of a perfected humanity.
- Chapter IV: Hebraism, Hellenism, and the Social Question
Arnold argues that the only absolute good is progress toward perfection, against which all other goods must be measured.