{"id":154,"date":"2022-09-23T12:48:59","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T16:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/integratio\/?p=154"},"modified":"2022-09-23T12:48:59","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T16:48:59","slug":"integrated-learning-and-newmans-idea-of-a-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/integratio\/2022\/09\/23\/integrated-learning-and-newmans-idea-of-a-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Integrated Learning and Newman\u2019s \u201cIdea of a University\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Anthony L. Haynor<\/strong><\/p>\n

A major takeaway for me from the 2021 Faculty Summer Seminar with Jeremy Wilkins, \u201cFrom Facts to Truth to Wisdom with Thomas Aquinas,\u201d involved the pivotal position of the senses and reason in the understanding of Being in its varied forms.\u00a0 In the past year, I have been reading two texts that bear on what can be called the \u201cmetaphysical project\u201d\u2014sustained and disciplined intellectual effort that achieves (or at least moves toward) a grasp of the totality of Being, that is, the relations among the various forms of Being. The first is Insight<\/em> by Bernard Lonergan, chapters 12-17 especially.1<\/sup> The second is The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics<\/em>2<\/sup> by W. Norris Clarke. Making progress toward an understanding of \u201cproportionate being\u201d (in Lonergan\u2019s terms), that is, finite being, is a primary intellectual destination for human knowers\u2014as individuals and as communities. Getting the metaphysics right sets the stage for ethical reasoning, for virtuous conduct must be in accord with nature as established through metaphysical inquiry. Conversely, getting the metaphysics wrong can make ethical conduct implausible, if not impossible.\u00a0 Comprehending \u201cproportionate\u201d or \u201cfinite\u201d being also triggers inquiry into \u201ctranscendent being\u201d\u2014the being in which it is ultimately grounded. \u00a0\u00a0I have become convinced that taking \u201cbeing\u201d very seriously as well as the philosophy of being\u2014which is metaphysics\u2014goes to the heart of the liberal university\u2019s mission. \u00a0Putting metaphysics first is arguably not in tune with the prevailing zeitgeist<\/em>\u2014with its relativistic worldview, with its emphasis on language games, and with its proclamation of the \u201cend of metaphysics.\u201d3<\/sup> However, giving primacy to a metaphysical project is very much in line with the mission of a Catholic University, and should be embraced, arguably, by all universities.<\/p>\n

In our recent2022 Faculty Summer Seminar with Ken Parker \u201cIdeas of a Catholic University: Then, Now, and Into the Future,\u201d a key question emerged for me: Is the metaphysical project (which encompasses both finite and transcendent being) one that is implied by, or at least, highly consistent with, Newman\u2019s \u201cIdea of a University\u201d? \u00a0I reviewed Sections V, VI, and VIII of The Idea of a University <\/em>to address this issue. What struck me was Newman\u2019s emphasis on cultivating the philosophical mind in order to foster an integrated understanding of being. While he didn\u2019t introduce the term \u201cmetaphysics\u201d a plausible case can be made that this is what he meant.<\/p>\n

In Discourse V, \u201cKnowledge Its Own End,\u201d Newman argues that:<\/p>\n

\u2026all branches of knowledge are connected together, because the subject-matter of knowledge is intimately united in itself, as being the acts and the work of the Creator. Hence it is that the Sciences, into which our knowledge may be said to be cast, have multiplied bearings one on another, and an internal sympathy, and admit, or rather demand, comparison and adjustment. They complete, correct, balance each other. This consideration, if well-founded, must be taken into account, not only as regards the attainment of truth, which is their common end, but as regarded the influence which they exercise upon those whose education consists in the study of them.4<\/sup><\/p>\n

Newman goes on to argue that undue specialization serves \u201cto contract [the learner\u2019s\u201d mind.\u201d5<\/sup> Students need to be exposed to all of the disciplines and along with teachers and scholars, need to regard themselves of part of an intellectual fraternity, as it were, aiming to \u201cadjust together the claims and relations of their respective subjects of investigation.\u201d6<\/sup> In the process, \u201cthey learn to respect, to consult, to aid each other.\u201d7<\/sup>\u00a0 He places considerable emphasis on cultivating \u201ca habit of mind\u201d directed toward the integration of knowledge:<\/p>\n

A habit of mind is formed which lasts through life, of which the attributes are, freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation, and wisdom; or what\u2026I have ventured to call a philosophical habit. Knowledge is capable of being its own end. Such is the constitution of the human mind, that any kind of knowledge, if it be really such, is its own reward. And this is true of all knowledge, it is true also of that special Philosophy, which I have made to consist in a comprehensive view of truth in all its branches, of the relations of science to science, of their mutual bearings, ad their respective values.8<\/sup><\/p>\n

According to Newman, it is built into our human nature to seek knowledge for its own sake knowledge that relates the various disciplines of knowledge to each other and by implication the subject matters (the orders of being) to which they attend. This is the essence of \u201cliberal knowledge,\u201d the \u201cliberal arts,\u201d \u201cliberal education.\u201d9<\/sup>\u00a0 He contrasts the \u201cphilosophical\u201d method of education\u2014aimed at general and universal knowledge\u2014to \u201cthe mechanical\u201d method\u2014aimed at the external and the practical.10<\/sup> The philosophical method is quintessentially \u201cintellectual\u201d; it seeks knowledge that \u201cgrasps what it perceives through the senses; something which takes a view of things; which sees more than the senses convey; which reasons upon what is sees, and while it sees; which invests it with an idea.\u201d \u00a0The journey on which the intellect embarks seeks nothing less than \u201cto have mapped out the Universe.\u201d This is the \u201cboast, or at least the ambition, of Philosophy.\u201d11<\/sup><\/p>\n

Newman is clear in identifying the limitations of the philosophical mind while asserting its inherent value. About the knowledge that we gain through the exercise of the philosophical mind, Newman writes:<\/p>\n

Its direct business is not to steal the soul against temptation or to console it in affliction, any more than to set the loom in motion, or to direct the steam carriage; be it ever so much the means or the condition of both material and moral advancement, still, taken by and in itself, it as little mends our hearts as it improves our temporal circumstances. Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman.12<\/sup><\/p>\n

The qualities of the gentleman for Newman \u201care no guarantee for sanctity or even for conscientiousness, they may attach to the man of the world, to the profligate, to the heartless.\u201d14<\/sup> The cultivation of the intellect is but one kind of excellence for Newman: \u201cEvery thing has its own perfection, be it higher or lower in the scale of things; and the perfection of one is not the perfection of another.\u201d15<\/sup>\u00a0 We can safely surmise, I think, that moral excellence (virtue) and spiritual or religious excellence are regarded by Newman as higher \u201cin the scale of things\u201d than intellectual excellence. A key question for me is: In what sense can intellectual excellence serve as a precondition for moral excellence?\u00a0\u00a0 Clearly for Newman intellectual excellence does not guarantee moral excellence, let alone spiritual excellence. \u00a0He also took the position that the striving for intellectual excellence had intrinsic worth. \u00a0It is self-evident to me that the cultivation of the philosophical mind requires \u201ccompletion\u201d and \u201cperfection\u201d in the form of moral and spiritual excellence, and that the university\u2019s mission is to foster all three kinds of human excellence. \u00a0Discourse V concludes with the following thoughts, first on the distinction between the cultivation of the intellect and the cultivation of virtue, and second on the transition from the natural plane to the supernatural plane of existence:<\/p>\n

To open the mind, to correct it, to refine it, to enable it to know, and to digest, master, rule, and use its knowledge, to give it power over its own faculties, application, flexibility, method, critical exactness, sagacity, resource, address, eloquent expression, is an object as intelligible\u2026as the cultivation of virtue, while, at the same time, it is absolutely distinct from it.<\/p>\n

We attain to heaven by using this world well, though it is to pass away; we perfect our nature, not by undoing it, but by adding to it what is more than nature, and directing it towards aims higher than its own.16<\/sup><\/p>\n

In Discourse VI Newman focuses on the constituents of \u201cintellectual perfection\u201d as well as factors that inhibit it. \u00a0Regarding the former, \u201cphilosophical knowledge\u201d requires that the university \u201ceducates the intellect to reason well in all matters, to reach out towards truth, and to grasp it.\u201d17<\/sup>\u00a0 \u00a0Acquiring knowledge (or information) is not sufficient\u2014intellectual excellence requires an \u201cexpansion of mind,\u201d which involves \u201ca comparison of ideas one with another, as they come before the mind, and a systematizing of them.\u201d18<\/sup>\u00a0 Newman here is calling for the university to foster a dialectical attitude on the part of faculty and students alike. The objective is not for those in the university community to \u201cabound in information in detail\u201d19<\/sup> but rather to integrate the various fields of knowledge through active, inter-subjective engagement. I would add that the dialectical attitude should extend to the relationship between metaphysical understanding, on the one hand, and moral imperatives, on the other, as well as that between the natural and supernatural planes of existence. \u00a0Newman emphasizes the intelligibility of the world, that is, its fundamental unity:<\/p>\n

Just as our bodily organs, when mentioned, recall their function in the body, as the word \u2018creation\u2019 suggests the Creator, and \u2018subjects\u2019 a sovereign, so, in the mind of the Philosopher, as we are abstractedly conceiving of him, the elements of the physical and moral world, sciences, arts, pursuits, ranks, offices, events, opinions, individualities, are all viewed as one, with correlative functions, and as gradually by successive combinations converging, one and all, to the true centre. That perfection of the Intellect, which is the result of Education, and its beau ideal<\/em>, to be imparted to individuals in their respective measures, is the clear, calm, accurate vision and comprehension of all things, as far as the finite mind can embrace them, each in its place, and with own characteristics upon it.20<\/sup><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup>Newman concludes that \u201cthe true and adequate end of intellectual training and of a University is not Learning or Acquirement, but rather, is Thought or Reason exercised upon Knowledge, or what may be called Philosophy.\u201d21<\/sup><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup>The relationship between knowledge and religion is taken up in Discourse VIII.\u00a0 Newman states that \u201cthe educated mind may be said to be in a certain sense religious; that is, it has what may be considered a religion of its own, independent of Catholicism, partly co-operating with it, partly thwarting it.\u201d22<\/sup> This suggests a dialectical process at work in the university arena\u2014involving the identification of affinities, and tensions and seeming contradictions that require addressing. At the same time, Newman argues that \u201cRight Reason, that is, Reason rightly exercised, leads the mind to the Catholic Faith, and plants it there, and teaches it in all its religious speculations to act under its guidance.\u201d23<\/sup> A major thrust of Discourse VIII is that \u201cIntellectualism\u201d by itself is insufficient, even dangerous.\u00a0 It has a restricted worldview, rooted in fleeting opinions and trapped in naturalistic dogmatism. For those with a genuine \u201cenlargement of mind\u201d their \u201creligion is one of imagination and sentiment; it is the embodiment of those ideas of the sublime, majestic, and beautiful, without which there can be no large philosophy.\u201d24<\/sup><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup>Let me conclude with a quote from a recent book, Hollowed Out<\/em>, which analyzes the current state of higher education in the United States and calls for a radically new direction that is remarkably consistent with Newman\u2019s \u201cIdea of a University\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u2026the job of the modern teacher is largely therapeutic\u2014make students feel safe, make them feel good about themselves, impart the curriculum without insisting with too much awkward emphasis on how they might benefit from engaging with big thinkers, big ideas, big themes, thinking historically or philosophically rather than about the Almighty Me.25<\/sup><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup><\/p>\n

\u00a0ENDNOTES<\/sup>\u00a0<\/sup><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Lonergan, B. Insight <\/em>(University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 1992).<\/li>\n
  2. Clarke, W. N. The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001).<\/li>\n
  3. Wittgenstein, L. Philosophical Investigations <\/em>(Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010); Martin Heidegger, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.<\/em><\/li>\n
  4. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The<\/em> Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 75.<\/li>\n
  5. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 75.<\/li>\n
  6. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 76.<\/li>\n
  7. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 76.<\/li>\n
  8. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), pp. 76-77.<\/li>\n
  9. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 80.<\/li>\n
  10. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 85.<\/li>\n
  11. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 85.<\/li>\n
  12. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 91.<\/li>\n
  13. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 91.<\/li>\n
  14. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 91.<\/li>\n
  15. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 92.<\/li>\n
  16. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), pp. 92-93.<\/li>\n
  17. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 95.<\/li>\n
  18. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 101.<\/li>\n
  19. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 102.<\/li>\n
  20. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), pp. 103-104, 105.<\/li>\n
  21. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 105.<\/li>\n
  22. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 137.<\/li>\n
  23. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 137.<\/li>\n
  24. Newman, J. H. and Ed. Martin J. Svaglic, The Idea of a University<\/em> (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 160<\/li>\n
  25. Adams, J. Hollowed Out: A Warning About America\u2019s Next Generation <\/em>(Washington DC: Regnery Publishing, 2021), quoted in Trotter, S. \u201cA Great Teacher\u2019s Warning,\u201d Quillette<\/em> (August 1, 2022).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Anthony L. Haynor A major takeaway for me from the 2021 Faculty Summer Seminar with Jeremy Wilkins, \u201cFrom Facts to Truth to Wisdom with Thomas Aquinas,\u201d involved the pivotal position of the senses and reason in the understanding of Being in its varied forms.\u00a0 In the past year, I have been reading two texts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5346,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-summer-2022-volume-i"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/integratio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/integratio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/integratio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/integratio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5346"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/integratio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/integratio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/integratio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/integratio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/integratio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/integratio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}