Collins, P. M., & John, P. (2010). A twentieth-century collision: American intellectual culture and Pope John Paul II’s idea of a university. Lanham, Md: University Press of America.
The first chapter gives a history of “American Philosophy in the 20th Century” (its “narrowing of scope” and separation of faith and reason), which is interesting, but the second chapter “Teaching Philosophy in a Catholic University according to John Paul II” is the most relevant. It is an interesting complement to the majority of authors who see theology as the central and unifying science.
Collins & John note that Pope John Paul saw theology as central to a Catholic university, but suggest that philosophy is also important because of its “natural relationship with theology (and all the other arts and sciences”) p. 29. They relate the teaching of philosophy to seven themes taken from Ex Corde Ecclesiae: the search for truth and meaning, the integration of knowledge in research and teaching, the dialog between faith and reason, academic freedom, the moral dimension of academic life, the academic community, and human nature.
They note that “the search for truth and meaning” requires rigorous thinking and the integration of the disciplines; philosophy is necessary because of “its larger perspective; philosophy studies all things and their interrelationships from the point of view of their ultimate meaning”. The study of philosophy assists students to “employ their cognitive abilities … in attaining awareness of objective truth” and that philosophical reason can specifically be applied to faith (p. 31) – that “faith needs reason” and “reason needs faith” (p. 32). Collins & John insist that philosophy “must be taught in relationship to theology – as well as to all the other academic disciplines” (p. 33).
Questions
- Should one or more philosophy courses be mandatory for all undergraduates?* How might course requirements be revised to accommodate this (especially in the already-crammed science programs).
- Is Pieper’s idea (translated and published in 2015 but originally from 1950) to have elements of philosophy taught in all disciplines preferable (or more likely to succeed)?
*Personal note: the only philosophy course I had as an undergraduate (in a small secular university) was a hefty two-semester “survey” course. In retrospect, I understood little and forgot even more. One thing that stuck in my memory was “I think, therefore I am”, largely because a clever student drew a lively picture of the professor’s long-haired dog and captioned it “I stink, therefore I am”. While Descartes cogito is not a bad thing to remember, it scarcely does justice to a “course in philosophy” – the main problem being that what I learned was not applied or reinforced anywhere else.