to be honest, i was just trying to explain what a tautology is. however, it's certainly not clear to me that someone who "values the inner life of the mind" is

to be honest, i was just trying to explain what a tautology is. however, it's certainly not clear to me that someone who "values the inner life of the mind" is also the practical-minded kind of person who's going to sit down and organise the equivalent of a university class. in more general terms, this is "why cities matter". see, for example, http://www.tnr.com/book/review/why-cities-matter http://www.tnr.com/book/review/why-cities-matter - "the magic of urban density means that agglomerations of people come together for simple reasons and often achieve amazing things". for that kind of thing to happen you need to collect people together - at a large scale into cities, and at smaller scales into institutions. your average book club in podunk isn't going to be as academically stimulating as a class at yale.