Culture and Anarchy: Reading Matthew Arnold Today

Aware that sociocultural and political transformations require a greater attention to be paid to our societies and fellow citizens, namely to educational assumptions, Matthew Arnold emphasizes in “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time” (1865) the need for critical thinking, an intelectual practice similarly lacking in our days. Therefore, he observes that individual development and the experience of the continent’s ideas could contribute to a time of cultural experiences enhancing the development of critical capacity, as laid out more thoroughly in Culture and Anarchy. If, at the beginning of his own career as an essayist, we recognize an attitude characteristic of an individualist nature, we rapidly come to recognize the transition to a humanist orientation, as well as a growing cosmopolitanism. Although Matthew Arnold is still studied today mainly as a poet and an essayist, his 35-year career as a school inspector cannot be underestimated. In a way, as an apostle of culture, Arnold goes beyond his own time and fully justifies his study in the 21st century.