This study aims to examine the cultural transmission and educational crisis of a collapsing civilization in Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s novel Mahur Beste through the characters of İsmail Molla and Sabri Hoca. The study employs qualitative research methods, specifically document analysis, hermeneutic text analysis, and comparative analysis. The analysis investigates two opposing epistemologies and mentalities represented by the characters within the framework of their “opportunities” and “choices”. According to the concrete findings obtained: İsmail Molla represents an “aesthetic-aristocratic” model that transmits culture through organic “osmosis” by utilizing his high social and cultural capital; however, the absolute failure of this method on his own son, Behçet Bey, proves the inadequacy of traditional habitus transmission in the face of new temperaments and modernization crises. On the opposite pole, Sabri Hoca symbolizes an objectivist/modernist “critical-political education” model that diagnoses the bankruptcy of the civilization; yet, his lack of social and material opportunities (capital) condemns his theoretical critique to inaction and a discourse of tragic despair. In conclusion, the novel depicts a methodological and civilizational crisis where the old method of experiential transmission has become dysfunctional, and the new method of critical establishment has not yet matured. The character of Atiye Hanım stands as the symbol of the tragic search for synthesis between these two worlds.